Refugium Idea...

[turbonutzz]

Have had my tank for about 6 months now and was just wondering what you guys think of putting a refugium behind the Nuvo 38G tanks. The tanks are really nice and I love it, but there is really no room for anything. I was looking at it the other day and it seems like this would be a perfect spot, but never had one on my last tank so not sure. I would add a small light back here and some sand and rock along with a ball of cheato. Do you guys think this will work and actually be effective? Or is it too deep? thanks any advise or other ideas are appreciated.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8198/8223014300_04eeb52ccb.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8223014300/)
Tank (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8223014300/) by turbonutzz (http://www.flickr.com/people/84250632@N07/), on Flickr
By the way this is a stock photo, don't have a heater back there.

[hanas]

Try it and see. It's not much room, maybe just toss a small chunk of cheato in there and add a light. The sand might be a pain if you ever want to get it out. If you're tank parameters are good and everything looks healty, why even add one.

I just removed mine from my SPS tank and honestly my corals look healthier than ever.

[Percula9]

Does the tank have a protein skimmer?

[turbonutzz]

Yeah I do have a protein skimmer in place of those sponges on the left. I always thought refugiums helped with coral growth etc. I guess the main reason is that I bought a manderine gobi, unknowing that they ONLY EAT copepods. So I was trying to get a little farm going. Would I be ok with just the rock and cheato back there?
Thanks for the replies so far.

[Percula9]

A mandarin in a tank that small probably will not survive unless you can provide enough copepods, or get it to take prepared foods. Just chaeto and a light would be fine. The chaeto will absorb nutrients like phosphates and nitrates. This will help control nuisance algae growth.

[turbonutzz]

Hmm..Do you think the rock, cheato will be enough to sustain suitable copepod level?

[chrisfont23]

I did this with my 29g... I actually made a HOB filter out of a Aquaclear 70 and it worked well

[turbonutzz]

Chris were you able to grow the cheato and some pods in the aquaclear?

[chrisfont23]

Chris were you able to grow the cheato and some pods in the aquaclear?
Yes - very well too. I used a simple LED clip on light. The trick is getting good flow too. I had a maxijet 900 feeding it and it made a difference IMO

[turbonutzz]

Just ordered a azoo mignon filter it was on sale on amazon. Will try out that method. Thanks. Here a pick of the tank thus far.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8348/8224534547_689a48b10b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8224534547/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8224534547/) by turbonutzz (http://www.flickr.com/people/84250632@N07/), on Flickr

[rkesling]

Tank looks great. You should have looked around for a used AC70 and did the mod. What you bought may work but there is not much room in that little filter. The Aqua Clear is set up perfect to convert to a fuge. There is a great mod thread on the nano site too, maybe here too but never looked. A bigger fuge = more chaeto = more food for your fish.

[JCKoenig]

tank looks awesome! I have a green mandarin in my 24. He is doing very well, becoming a nice plump fish. I bought him from a LFS and watched him eat frozen food before I bought him. I have added tons of pods to the tank too, which all the fish love!

[turbonutzz]

Yeah Im hoping I can get mine to eat at least some frozen food before I get the pods up and running. Back to the AC 70 I would have loved that size but here lies the problem with these "all in one" tanks, theres just no friggin room, what I would give to have like a 20 gal sump under it, but it does make plumbing much easier. Any way heres a pic of the space i got back there, I barely have 4" in width to accomodate a refugium, plus not pictured is a phos ban 150 that started to leak so i took it off but need to get it back on too.
Oh that leads me to another question. With a refugium do I still need to run the phosban reactor, I previously loaded it with ferric oxide. Thanks again for the feedback!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8198/8234647389_1d9a695369.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8234647389/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8234647389/) by turbonutzz (http://www.flickr.com/people/84250632@N07/), on Flickr

[reefmatenate]

tank looks great. If you want to have some cool equipment.. why not add a sump? you can custom build a small overflow box and add the size of sump you would like. it would clean up some of your clutter. and give you room to add about anything youd like! do some research on here. I built my overflows and they work great.

[turbonutzz]

Yeah Ill research some more about getting sumps into tiny spaces. I've thought about it alot, but the space is very limited inside the cabinet. I already used one side for the top off water. Not to mention I have a slight fear of overflow boxes. My first salt tank was retrofitted from an old 55g w CRP overflow box. That thing over flowed at least 3 times due to loss of suction on the overflow box from power outages..etc. I think I might just need a larger set up overall...New tank?? haha man I hate this hobby..never satisfied!
If you have any ideas as to easily fitting a sump into this set up I'd love to hear it.
Here it is:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8059/8235866632_1ff5490c2b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8235866632/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84250632@N07/8235866632/) by turbonutzz (http://www.flickr.com/people/84250632@N07/), on Flickr