LR Rubble for Refugium?

[Mickey]

Jason:

I have a bunch of questions so I thought I'd try using the board rather than calling. Hope you don't mind.

1. I am trying to turn my W/D filter into a refugium. It holds about 5-7 gallons of water (display tank is 65 gallons). I wanted to put some l live rock in the bottom with sand on top of it in containers as one of the dividers is about 1/5 - 2 inches off the bottom and the water has to flow under this divider to get to the pump to get back to the tank. The area is about 15" x 8" and I was thinking about order the live rock rubble. Is the rubble too small? Would I be better asking for small pieces of nicer live rock?

2. Can you give me some guidance for how much to order? I was thinking of 15lbs. + or - but I have a hard time visualizing how much rock that really is.

3. I was going to put oolitic sand in containers on top of the rock and seed it with a detrivore kit. Would I be better getting some of your live sand or Rock Pool Bottom Crude? Again any guidance on how much?

4. I was also thinking about the Jalli13 light fixture to light the refugium reverse of the display tank. Is this enough light if it is only 13 watts? My filter is not clear acrylic, but a dark smoked acrylic. Will that make a difference if it is lighted from above?

5. Last one. When do you expect to get Nassarius snails and skunk cleaner shrimp in again?

thanks for your help.

Mickey

[jasonfrey]

Hi Mickey,

<<1. I am trying to turn my W/D filter into a refugium. It holds about 5-7 gallons of water (display tank is 65 gallons). I wanted to put some l live rock in the bottom with sand on top of it in containers as one of the dividers is about 1/5 - 2 inches off the bottom and the water has to flow under this divider to get to the pump to get back to the tank. The area is about 15" x 8" and I was thinking about order the live rock rubble. Is the rubble too small? Would I be better asking for small pieces of nicer live rock?

You might be better off ordering smaller pieces of rock, that way they stack up in the sump, the rubble is usually pretty small, intended more for coral fragging etc, but it would work.


<<2. Can you give me some guidance for how much to order? I was thinking of 15lbs. + or - but I have a hard time visualizing how much rock that really is.

15 pounds would probably fill up a 12x12x12 box, so that would be a pretty good amount of it.


<<3. I was going to put oolitic sand in containers on top of the rock and seed it with a detrivore kit. Would I be better getting some of your live sand or Rock Pool Bottom Crude? Again any guidance on how much?

The drysand will work fine, it will become live sand after a while. Judging how much is tough, probably 10 pounds.

<<4. I was also thinking about the Jalli13 light fixture to light the refugium reverse of the display tank. Is this enough light if it is only 13 watts? My filter is not clear acrylic, but a dark smoked acrylic. Will that make a difference if it is lighted from above?

The Jalli13 is plenty for a small refugium, the dark acrylic would probably filter almost all the light though, so might look at someway to remove the top, or maybe make some holes for light to get through.

<<5. Last one. When do you expect to get Nassarius snails and skunk cleaner shrimp in again?

Hoping next week, but depends on the shipping companies. Most of the livestock is shipped via airlines and they have banned all cargo shipments since Tuesdays attack, so we'll have to be looking at alternative methods to get livestock, so no one knows what willl happen right now.

jason

[Mickey]

Thanks for your help.

I will have to wait until shipping, etc. returns to normal in order to order anyway, so I'll just hope that you have the snails and shrimp by the time I call.

Clarification:
The W/D is made of dark smoked acrylic, but it has a cardboard type top that I will have to remove anyway. I was thinking about making a plexiglass top and then mounting the light to the bottom of the show tank (top of the stand) as I was afraid of fire hazard if I placed it directly on the plexiglass. From what you posted, it sounds like this would be fine and the fact that the sides of the refugium were dark wouldn't matter. Right?

[jasonfrey]

Hi,

Yes, it wouldn't hurt to have the sides the dark arylic, unless you just want clear for viewing the critters inside. If you can get the top clear that will be all that is needed for lighting everything inside.
jason