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Weetie's 4 Gallons of Simplicity


Weetabix7

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I wanted to post something interesting that I suspect can be attributed to the mud in the Refugium.

A few months back I got this Macroalgae from Organism:

915newmacro4.jpg

 

The above pic is his pic that he took just after he got it from the Wholesaler he works at.

They had had it under Metal Halide lighting, so he surmised that it needed high lighting to retain it's intense coloration.

A few different members got this Macro from him, and all have noticed that it has a tendency to brown out during shipment.

Some of us have gotten it to color back up somewhat, but to my knowledge, no one has gotten it to color completely back up to the intense electric blue in the first pic above.

In my 30g Display tank I have it fairly high up in the rockwork under 126w of T5HO.

Here is a topdown shot of how it looked there:

IMG_5221.jpg

 

I had a small piece of this Macro attach itself to a frag that was moved into this Pico.

Since adding the Mud into the Refugium, I have noticed that the blue coloration on this Macro has gotten more intense than I have seen it since I've had it in my systems.

The lighting over this tank is a mere 18w of PC, so it would seem that intense lighting isn't necessarily the key to intense coloration in this Macroalgae.

Here's a couple of pics I just took to show the coloration now:

IMG_5528.jpg

 

IMG_5524.jpg

 

For whatever reason, the blue on this Macro looks much more intense when looking down from the top.

I don't know how apparent the color difference will be from the pics, but it's very noticeable in real life.

The purple-blue color looks as intense now when seen from the side as it used to look only when viewed top-down under the T5HO in my 30g.

I can see the color of it from across the room now.

 

Some of the benefits of running a Mud Bottom Refugium according to the Ecosystem Method are supposed to be increased Microfauna, no need for Dosing or Skimming unless you have a large amount of SPS, an increase in cryptic life and filter-feeders, etc.

It appears I am seeing another benefit, and I very much look forward to seeing how this setup works over a longer period of time.

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More info on my Mud based Refugium--

"Miracle Mud" is the brand of mud sold by Ecosytem, Leng Sy's company that developed the Ecosystem Method.

However, it is only sold in fairly large amounts and is expensive, so it wasn't practical for me to use it in this application.

Instead I chose to use the Booster Pack size of Fiji Mud: http://premiumaquatics.com/store/merchant....ry_Code=Special

You are supposed to have a mud bed with a depth of 1", which is almost exactly what I got when adding the whole container to my Refugium.

When first added it is pretty messy and gets the water quite cloudy.

Here's how it looked just after I put it in:

IMG_5420.jpg

 

I allowed it to settle with no flow for about an hour and then turned the flow back on with a filter pad in my media basket to clear up mud particles that were suspended in the water.

It cleared up surprisingly quickly.

Here's how my Fuge looks today with some Cactus Caulerpa from ReefCleaners planted in it:

IMG_5532.jpg

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I've used miracle mud in a previous fuge that I had set up... man is that stuff cloudy!

 

I think mud is a really nice substrate though, you should get really good growth in that fuge.

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While it's certainly promising, keep in mind that this is a short-term effect and long-term effectiveness of this still remains to be seen.

In some old posts from ppl trying this back when it was popular, there were a couple of ppl who had problems with a layer of red slime developing over the mud in the early days.

They were told that this was something that happened as the Fuge was getting established and that it would go away (New Fuge Syndrome?), and they were also told to keep flow fairly high through the Refugium.

I have one or two things I will probably try to increase flow through the Fuge, will certainly keep this thread updated on how the Mud Fuge works.

 

I've used miracle mud in a previous fuge that I had set up... man is that stuff cloudy!

 

I think mud is a really nice substrate though, you should get really good growth in that fuge.

 

The Fiji Mud I'm using clouded the water quite a bit when first added, but cleared up much more quickly than I expected.

Did you notice anything different in your tank while you were using the mud?

Were filter feeders or microfauna more prolific?

Edited by Weetabix7
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I can attest to the red slime "new fuge syndrome" ... It naturally disappeared after about 2-3 weeks for me. One nice thing about mud is, despite the initial cloudiness, it packs down rather well. This means, eventually it will be able to handle the extra flow. I was quite impressed by this as I had a MP10 in a shallow tank (8") at ~70% power and I wouldn't get any dust storms since the mud seemed to settle and pack itself pretty tight after a few months.

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I can attest to the red slime "new fuge syndrome" ... It naturally disappeared after about 2-3 weeks for me. One nice thing about mud is, despite the initial cloudiness, it packs down rather well. This means, eventually it will be able to handle the extra flow. I was quite impressed by this as I had a MP10 in a shallow tank (8") at ~70% power and I wouldn't get any dust storms since the mud seemed to settle and pack itself pretty tight after a few months.

 

Interesting.

Any other comments on your experiences with how using Mud affected your tank?

See my questions above, if you missed them before. ^^ :)

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I only had my "mud fuge" setup for about 6 months as a stand-alone tank -- I guess people call those tanks display fuges. So in regards to microfauna, I can't say much because in a short 6 month time span the little critters weren't as prolific as they would be when compared to 1-2+ years. Snails (astrea) and hermits had not time traversing the mud. Regardless, pods exploded as expected and scurried around all over the place.

 

One notable drawback that I realized when using the mud in a standalone fuge style tank was that the water was always tinged with a light hint of brown... similar to that of using driftwood in a FW tank. Even after 6 months, and constant weekly water changes, the tint of the water did get better, but was always "slightly tinted".

 

Another thing that bothered me with using mud is the dust it creates if you are moving stuff around in the tank. Everything is fine and dandy if you don't move anything around, but the moment it gets moved, fine particles get shifted and lightly dust everything in the tank. This sucks because macros get obscured and you have to come back after the dust has settled to gently dust them off (pipette/baster).

 

These things probably shouldn't affect you too much because your fuge is detached from your main tank. Also, as you probably will know... different brands will probably have different effects. My experience was only with Miracle Mud so I can't say much for the Fiji Mud brand.

 

I wish I kept the tank running, but time constraints had me take it down. In any case, hopefully this will help a bit. Let us know how it works out.

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c_k_kuehne

Tank is looking awesome and I really like the idea of a strange critter tank.

 

See joining in on the contest is turning out to be a good thing B) That is why I never removed your name from the list in the beginning ;)

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Tank is looking awesome and I really like the idea of a strange critter tank.

 

See joining in on the contest is turning out to be a good thing B) That is why I never removed your name from the list in the beginning ;)

 

:lol:

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very nice tank! does the macro algae become a ##### to remove when it starts growing over everything? thats the only thing keeping me back from getting some cool stuff. if its anything like GSP i dont want it

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very nice tank! does the macro algae become a ##### to remove when it starts growing over everything? thats the only thing keeping me back from getting some cool stuff. if its anything like GSP i dont want it

 

Well this tank hasn't been up terribly long and thus the Macro hasn't been in there long either.

However, almost all of the Macros have been moved over from another tank where they did reside for a while, and I really have not found it to be a problem dealing with their growth rates.

When they start growing more I just break some off and sell them, the ones I have have gotten snapped up fairly quickly.

But to answer your question, it's pretty manageable and the vast majority of the Macros I have have not been invasive and def been a positive component of my tank/s.

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I've been seeing some pretty incredible growth on the Cactus Caulerpa in the Refugium.

Startlingly good, in fact.

I suspect it's because it's drawing nutrients from the Mud that it's rooted in.

In direct contrast, the Cactus Caulerpa in the Display didn't do well at all.

Parts of it were turning yellowish white, so I removed the bad portions and moved it to the Fuge.

The only thing I can think of that might have been bothering it is a small frag of Kenya Tree that was touching it.

I've never heard of Macros being stung or irritated by corals before, but it's the only thing I can think of to explain the drastic different between the response of the Fuge Caulerpa and the Display Caulerpa considering they're in the exact same system water.

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animalmaster6

Hmm that's interesting about the Caulerpa. I've never heard of something like that.

 

That Blue Scrolling Algae is awesome.

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Militant Jurist

I wonder if it was less of a sting, and more of a close-proximity chemical warfare? For example, my coral seems to do really well at pushing back bubble algae when the algae is the in path of growth. That could explain the differences.

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I wonder if it was less of a sting, and more of a close-proximity chemical warfare? For example, my coral seems to do really well at pushing back bubble algae when the algae is the in path of growth. That could explain the differences.

 

Huh, that's interesting.

I had just never seen Macro be irritated or affected by coral before.

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