Pod Factory : Nitrate Reducer

[orcafood]

Is a 30 gallon refugium on a 90 gallon display with a 10 gallon sump too much?

I was going to add some sand to the refugium. How much and what kind should I add?

Also, I will be growing cheato. What kind of lighting should I use??
I heard that certain flood lights work?

If I am trying to maximize pod production, should I add any Live Rock Rubble? If so how much.

Is it ok to have my refugium output going to my return pump? Will it chop up the pods?
I am trying to get more pods into the main tank for corals and a mandarin dragonette :)

[NYIntensity]

Use live sand, and go ahead, make it deep, 4-6" at least. For chaeto, you can easily use a shop lamp, so long as it's the proper light spectrum. As far as the LR rubble, it depends on your flow, if you have fairly slow flow (optimal for refugium anyways) than you don't really need it, but it won't hurt. How much LR is in your display tank?

[orcafood]

I have about 90 lbs or so in my display.

[NYIntensity]

You should have enough of a pod population, have you ever looked in your tank at night with a red lens flashlight?

[orcafood]

Yea, I have done that before and I never see anything apart from my Coral Banded Shrimp and Serpent Star Fish. Am I not looking in the right places or something?

[NYIntensity]

My guess is that something in your tank has completely depleted the population then...and a refugium will definitely help here.

[orcafood]

Yes, that was the plan. How can I make sure there are enough in the refugium to start reproducing? Do they come in the cheato?

EDIT
Is red lens necessary for the flashlight?

[NYIntensity]

Yes; a plain white light will scare them away, similar to worms. The spectrum of light and their sensitivity to it scares them into hiding. You may get lucky enough to get a few in your chaeto; however, I'd invest a couple bucks into ordering some to stock the refuge after adding the algae.

[orcafood]

I have been reading a lot about reverse light cycling the refugium to eliminate swings. Is this beneficial?

[NYIntensity]

I have the lights on my refugium 24/7; I think it adds stability. If you were to grow calupera (sp?) algae, a light cycle can actually be detrimental, causing the algae to go sexual and spread to the DT; chaeto doesn't have that problem.

[o0jmadr0x0o]

i have a 50g fuge on a 75 display and i love it. i went BB so i could suck up the deitrus becasue the caeto will catch the deitrus.
it took my nitrates witch i was struggling with for so long down to 0 finally. also i can see pods EVERYWHERE. there are so many that i can see them all over the place with lights on, and at night its madness in there. i have the drain of my fuge going into the return chamber of the sump because the only other chamber has the skimmer and didn't want the pods to get sucked in the skimmer, this seems to work good because my mandarin in a chunckster.
my flow is real slow 200-300gph it maybe even a little to slow but the pods seem to love it.
for lighting i used a cheap 2x96w pc with two 10k bulbs and growth is great.

when i first started
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/o0jmadr0x0o/DSCN0131.jpg

month or so later
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/o0jmadr0x0o/100_2157.jpg

[NYIntensity]

J.C. man! That's a lot of chaeto! Take a few handfuls out, give it to the LFS, spread the wealth.

[Acillaton]

You dont have to use a live sand. If you have a LS or LR in your tank, sand you add to the fuge will be alive soon. Rather save some greens. 4" of sand is a plenty. I don't recommend to go more than 4". Your retur pump will not chop up your pods. We were talking about that a month ago. For light Im using 2 n:vision 6500K, 16W lamps. Its like a 65W bulb. You can buy it in the home depot.

[orcafood]

OK, Thanks for the information!

[orcafood]

Where can I buy pods?

[jefnalyssa]

tagging along

[ACBlinky]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11468310#post11468310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by orcafood
Is a 30 gallon refugium on a 90 gallon display with a 10 gallon sump too much? Nope! I have a 90g with a 30g sump/fuge, it's just about perfect IMO. Most of the tank is filled with chaeto - having a ~24" x 12" x 12" area full of macro keeps N and P at bay even though I feed very heavily. I use a 2x40W PC fixture (bulbs are 6500K and 10000K) on a 12h reverse light cycle, and the chaeto grows like mad - I'm about two weeks late in harvesting it and it's growing itself right out of the water!

Chaeto is brilliant for removing N and P (I can't measure either in my tank) and makes a fantastic pod habitat. IMO sand isn't necessary if you just want it for NO3 reduction, but if you want to increase the diversity of pods and worms by introducing live sand, go for it.

[drillsar]

Pods will come, dont buy them, Dont buy any fish that eat pods until you get your tank established and alot of rock at least a yr (mandarins, etc)

Chaeto, Pods love, I have lots of pods, I see them crawling all over the place.

[Fishpoor]

send me a private message and I will tell you where I get mine! (pods)