Survey - Refugium Owners Please Post Reply

[tdwyatt]

response to survey posted posted by Jimbo

Display tank in Den

1. How many gallons is your tank

180 Gal US

2. How many gallons is your refugium?

30 gal US

3. What is the flow rate to your refugium GPH*

approx 1800 to 2000gph to the sumps, then around 400gph to the refugium

4. How many watts of light are over your refugium, type (fl-flouresent, in-incandesent, MH - Metal halide)

130watts (LOA 65 watt pc lights x2)

5. Is 1/10 of your tank covered with diatom,cyno or hair algea(y,n)

do I have a bloom? no, I have not had a bloom of any sort in about 2 years, although I may occasionally see a small (1 to 2 cm diameter) patch of cyano. Is it there? without question

6. For the most part is your refugium free of diatom and hair algea, compared to your main tank(y,n)

see 5, same answer

7. Do you have a deep sand bed in your main tank (y,n)

yes, 12 to 15 cm Aragamax and Southdown mixed, seeded originally with source sand from 15 different established systems.

8. Do you have a deep sand bed in your refugium (y,n)

yes, 12 cm evenly distributed with some LR rubble mixed in.

9. Bio load (low,med,high) gestimate

5 fishes, around 18 inches/180 gal plus sump and refugium, around 240gal total vol.


Tank 2 (Prop system)

1. How many gallons is your tank

120 Gal US

2. How many gallons is your refugium?

40 gal US

3. What is the flow rate to your refugium GPH*

approx 1100 to the sump, then around 400gph to the refugium

4. How many watts of light are over your refugium, type (fl-flouresent, in-incandesent, MH - Metal halide)

80watts (NO grow lite fluorescent bulbs)

5. Is 1/10 of your tank covered with diatom,cyno or hair algea(y,n)

no blooms, occasionally see a small (1 to 2 cm diameter) patch of cyano and I scrape the glass in the front panel of this system

6. For the most part is your refugium free of diatom and hair algea, compared to your main tank(y,n)

see 5, same answer

7. Do you have a deep sand bed in your main tank (y,n)

yes, 12 to 15 cm Aragamax and Southdown mixed, seeded originally with source sand the display and 3 other established systems.

8. Do you have a deep sand bed in your refugium (y,n)

yes, 12 cm evenly distributed with as much live rock as the lower 6 inches of the tank will hold (resting on verticle pvc drilled pipe so the lr rests on the pipe, not the sand bed.

9. Bio load (low,med,high) gestimate

Foxface rabbit fish and 1 mandarin dragonnette 6 inches of fish per total vol 150 gal



The other systems do not have refugia, sumps only. Some special considerations that may affect your survey: These systems are both skimmerless, and use macroalgal harvesting as their export mechanism for carbon, nitrogen and phosphate. They are all target fed 3 to 5 times a week (heavy feeding, around 10 oz/ 2 days of meaty fish products and dried sheet nori soaked in selcon to the display tank, formula 2 cubes to the foxface and some live brine shrimp to the mandarin in tank 2. They both have experimental kalk reactors using an automated top off system to maintain salinity at a rock steady 35 ppt and SG of 1.026 SG, with Ca at 480 to 510 and Alk at a steady 12 dKH. Occasionally I will see the alk drop slowly over a 4 week period, but this is corrected with B-ionic dosing over 3 to 5 days (I dose both parts and continue Kalkreactor action until alk is back up). Nitrates undectable, but I hardly ever check them anymore. All testing is performed with Salifert kits. 10% water changes every 2 weeks with IO: all water into systems is from Spectrapure 100gpd RO/DI unit. No trace elements or other supplementation outside Kalk and B-ionic and feedings. Temps maintained at 82.5 to 83 F. I run a reverse photoperiod for the refugia of 12 hours, occasionally will run the sump lighting as well (NO fluorescents). Heavy presence of coralline algae, heavy export of nitrogen and carbon from display of the prop system (removing cuttings, props, xenia, etc). Both systems have large quantities of Indonesean LR (FIJI, Marshall IS, Vanatu) and utilize MH and VHO lighting at 12 hr photoperiods. Although fish bioload is fairly low, I have heavy populations of corals and octocorals. I change carbon every 2 to 3 weeks and run it 24/7. If I see problems with the corals, I will start skimming for short periods, however, this rarely occurs

I hope this helps your analysis, lemmeno if you need more via personal communication.

[Jimbo]

Thanks to all that have replyed. Most of the tanks that have responded are fairly young. Hey old timers tell us your secrets I'll be working on more statistics this weekend, I'll post them in a new thread.

Have a great weekend!!

[JamesB]

1. How many gallons is your tank

135

2. How many gallons is your refugium

In a 55 gal sump, 50% water level, partioned approximately 60/40 sump/refugium. But, there are critters throughout the sump.

3. What is the flow rate to your refugium GPH*

Just normal sump throughput of about 700 gph

4. How many watts of light are over your refugium, type (fl-flouresent, in-incandesent, MH - Metal halide)


28 fl

5. Is 1/10 of your tank covered with diatom,cyno or hair algea(y,n)

Not visibly

6. For the most part is your refugium free of diatom and hair algea, compared to your main tank(y,n)

y

7. Do you have a deep sand bed in your main tank (y,n)

Y

8. Do you have a deep sand bed in your refugium (y,n)

Y

9. Bio load (low,med,high) gestimate

high

10. Months your tanks has been runnin

This tank in this configuration - 19 months

Later, James

[MROK12]

1. 65
2 29
3 950
4 18 pc
5 cyano
6 main is free
7 y
8 y
9 low
10 9

[Gary Majchrzak]

1. 220 gallons
2. 20 gallon sump/refugium
3. aprox.800 GPH
4. 50watt in
5. no 'problem' algae readily apparent- but they ARE in there!
6. The sump is free of diatom and 'hair',but if you search hard you CAN find some!I grow Chaetomorpha and Caulerpa down there.I think some Halimeda is in that salad as well!
7. DSB in mains
8. DSB also in refugium
9. HIGH BIOLOAD
10. System up for 9 years this Nov.{2002}
See what it looks like on my website!

[karsco]

Jimbo just to add to a previous thread my tank has been set up for about 1 year and 3 months now. Thanks!

[Reefsand]

Hello

[Reefsand]

Sorry i hit the tab key.
1 75
2 15
3 75
4 36 fl
5 no
6 yes
7 yes 5"
8 yes 4.5"
9 Med
10 40

[fredly]

I'll add to the fun:

1. How many gallons is your tank
110

2. How many gallons is your refugium
12

3. What is the flow rate to your refugium GPH*
80

4. How many watts of light are over your refugium, type (fl-flouresent, in-incandesent, MH - Metal halide)
LOA 65 w flourex

5. Is 1/10 of your tank covered with diatom,cyno or hair algea(y,n)
No more diatom or cyano, but I had a hair attack recently. It is what prompted me to seek additional nutrient export. Seems to be under control now.

6. For the most part is your refugium free of diatom and hair algea, compared to your main tank(y,n)
no - there is a fair amoint of hair in the refugium. Amazing how fast racemosa grows; it seems to be choking out the hair.

7. Do you have a deep sand bed in your main tank (y,n)
yes

8. Do you have a deep sand bed in your refugium (y,n)
no - just 1" of aragonite and some rubble rocks

9. Bio load (low,med,high) gestimate
low
10. Months your tanks has been running
Tank - 19 months; refugium - only 2 months.

It's ahrd to say whether the 'fuge has had any effect, but my tank has changed since it was installed. I've seen an explosion of pods and I have clean white sand for the first time.

Fred