12x10 refugium do any good on a 95g tank?

[jamal-188]

My refugium is only 12x10 on my 95g tank. I have a good sized clump of chaeto in there now. Will it do any good if I add 6-8" of sand to help reduce nitrates? Unfortunatley there really isn't much room underneath the tank for anything else...

[sir_dudeguy]

i wouldnt add 6-8 inches of sand...thats what the chaeto is for. The live sand would be for pods..put about 3 inches or so in there and then put some rock rubble (just really small pieces but a bunch of it...so that its pretty much covering the whole bottom and stack it up a little bit)

[jamal-188]

The problem is, I'm more interested in nitrate removal... My chaeto isn't cutting it. I do have a new bulb comming(from Melev's thread) Hopefully that will help a good bit!

[Airman]

I would say that the sand would help if you have some worms to help move it. Eight inches might be a little excessive. 12"x10"x6" is a good size biological filter. Don't cut back on the macro algae. How is your return pump configured?

[jamal-188]

Water drains into the sump on the far left, goes through the skimmer then through my baffles into the middle section where the return pump is. Next to the returm pump is a small ph that pumps water to the far right chamber where the fuge section is. The water then gravity feeds back into the middle section. I know I need more flow in the fuge because detirtus gets trapped in the Chaeto.

I'm hoping a small DSB would help with nitrates. I've read the huge thread of Calfo's about a 5g DSB bucket but just don't have room.

[JeffersonReef]

I too would skip the DSB. Just go with 4" or so in the fuge for pods, worms, etc... the chaeto is what should pull out trates, etc. Once you add the light from Marc's thread, the chaeto should begin to grow. Also, contrary to what a lot of people think, chaeto likes alot of flow! It should tumble. When I first added my 30g fuge to my 125g, I had very low flow through the fuge. Then, was adviced to add more flow. I have chaeto, caulerpa (grape and feather) and tang heaven growing well in my fuge.

HTH

[JeffersonReef]

PS - macroalgae alone wont get rid of all nitrates. You need to keep up with water changes... period. nitrates are stored in the water column.

Other living helpers with nitrates include clams and xenia! Try throwing some xenia in ur fuge! That works as well, and makes it look nicer! :)

[zemuron114]

every little bit helps. I have a 8 gallon fuge on my 180 gallon, and my nitrates are at <5 i also have this for fish:

2 small blue hippo tangs (1.5-2.5")
4 flame wrasse (1 male 3 females)
2 lineatus
2 rhomboids
1 balteatus fairy
tiger blenny
algae blenny
neon goby
barnacle blenny
3 mccosker flasher wrasse
1 helfrich
1 bluespot goby
1 green chomis


i started with 1 ball of cheato about the size of a baseball and a few strings of caulerpra (sp) and now my 8 gallons is a brick of green weeds!!

this tank is also only 5 months old. I used all established water/rock/sand from my 2 other tanks i combined. I would like to upgrade fuges though to a 30g but have no room :(