Refuim wet/dry for FW???

[StIcKy~RiCe]

Im just wondering and curious if anyone ever use refuim sump on freshwater?

if so...

how do you it up? please provide some information and pictures if possible.

thanks.

 

[Tommydeal]

I've heard of some people having great success with this although I think you need a lot of plants and a lot of light. I think you should try it. I would use a few different plants and see wich ones thrive. Some fast growing plants like Anacharis and some emerging plants like Mangroves... And stick a big rubbermaid tub into your plumbing with all the plants in there.

 

[Chago09]

refugium in FW and SW are not the same. I have reef tanks and a reef tank has many way of disposing of nitrates. Deep sand beds help, live rock is the biggest one and a refugium can finish the job and make the nitrates zero. Although keep in mind in a reef tank most fish are like 3" and very small bioloads. If you compared that to CA/SA cichlids it id day and night. If you wanted to create a refugium for FW cichlids you would need a huge amount of plants to even make a dent. Like when I mean huge I mean like a kiddy pool full of a high nitrate absorbing plant. Even that would not make nitrates zero.

In a reef tank you feed tiny amounts just to keep nitrates down. In Cichlid hobby you through in tons of food to watch your fish devour it and grow massive. Refugium couldn't have a chance.

 

[StIcKy~RiCe]

is it neccassery to have plants in there? what is other option beside plants?

 

[sploke]

If you are going to do a veggie filter in a sump, its very possible. I use a 40 breeder for a sump with my wet dry in it, which only takes up about half the space in the sump. If I slid all the pumps down to the opposite end, I could put in an eggcrate baffle to keep plants out of the pumps and hang a few growlights over it, and I'd be in business.

As far as plants go, there are a lot of options - most stem plants grow fast enough to be used. Another good option is plants that will grow emersed, because then then can take atmospheric CO2 rather than being limited to the carbon available in the water column. At that point, the limiting resource for the plants will most likely be nitrogen, which they will suck out of the water. Duckweed would work although it would be pretty messy. Water hyacinth is another option, but they need pretty high light.

Here's a good article on veggie filters:

http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/articles/6187.htm

 

[sploke]

is it neccassery to have plants in there? what is other option beside plants?

If you don't want plants, what are you looking to accomplish with a refugium setup? The only reason I've seen them used on FW is for nitrate export.

 

[Tommydeal]

You're trying to get the Nitrates down right? There are several threads on Nitrate filters but they can poison your fish if not tweaked correctly every now and then.

 

[selki]

You're trying to get the Nitrates down right? There are several threads on Nitrate filters but they can poison your fish if not tweaked correctly every now and then.

glad we got scientists up on this

 

[Kogo]

This thread may help...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153346

 

[Ianab]

is it neccassery to have plants in there? what is other option beside plants?

If you dont have some sort of plants or algae in there it's not a refugium, it's just a sump filter, containing whatever media you put in. It may be wet/dry or not, depending on how it's set up.

Refugiums work by growing plants, the plants take up nitrogen from the water as they grow, and you remove the excess plants from the system. That effectivley removes nitrogen from the system.

In a marine tank this is usefull, as large water changes aren't as practical. In a freshwater situation you can remove nitrate easily by just changing the water. So maybe a continous drip water change system would be more use.

Like was said above, you also need a LOT of plants to remove a usefull amount from a heavily stocked tank.

Ian