BioCube 29 rear...refugium...Help!

[PIDI]

I'm not really sure what I'm asking for but I do know that I want to have a refugium in the back of my tank, since I have led lights available to do so.

 

Can someone post a picture or sketch of a working system, so that I can copy exactly how you have it done, I know not all tanks are the same, I just need a solid baseline, to include what kind of media basket, what to put in the shelves, algae, etc...

[alanwest09872]

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67588&d=1233550082a quick google came up with this

[louy99]

a refugium that small really does nothing, better off just keeping a skimmer back there and keeping up with water changes....i can tell you from experience

[smiz]

I ran with a fuge in my entire second chamber for about a year and a half. I think in a tank that small it can be beneficial to have a place for your pod population to reproduce safely. I think a major part of a fuge more so then nutrient export is pod reproduction. A tank that small does not need a skimmer and I would recommend doing some rock rubble with cheato solely to provide some diversity with your pod population.

 

That being said when I switched to all SPS I got rid of the fuge and went skimmer, media rack, uv sterilizer, and reactor. Honestly I liked the simple fuge better then all of that. Water changes are going to be your best friend.

[louy99]

i disagree on the rock rubble back there, it will trap junk back there and create higher nitrates. if you must have chaeto back there just have that alone, rock rubble wont give it much room to grow.

[BluCrab]

I think a small fuge does work on a 29 Gallon bio Cube.

 

I gutted my center chamber on the bio cube 29 two years ago and haven't had any issues. I run a piece of filter floss at the top of the divider between chamber one and two (just laid over the divider, that water then pours in to chamber two where I have a few small pieces of live rock and chaeto( have to trim that stuff back once a month) ,just make sure to remove the false floor at the bottom of chamber two to give you room for the rock.

Then I have a Fluval PC Light on a timer opposite my display lighting.

. Then it goes through the sponge to chamber three where I have a bag of Chemi Pure Elite on top of the sponge ,MJ 1200 then shoots in back up in to the display..

 

I think the key for me was constant 10% water changes. I actually do about a 5 Gallon water change.

 

I'll try to locate some pictures to show you.

[smiz]

i disagree on the rock rubble back there, it will trap junk back there and create higher nitrates. if you must have chaeto back there just have that alone, rock rubble wont give it much room to grow.

junk is going to collect in that chamber regardless. Using filter floss will prevent this but i see rock rumble adding more living space for pod population.

[StevieT]

Just say no to live rock in any rear chamber.

[redevil13]

I have steve's media rack with floss/purigen/chemi-pure and the fuge bracket aswell in chamber 2. I did mod the fuge holder and put the old false floor in it to stop the cheato from being pulled out by the undertow from the rack and flushed into chamber 3, which let me get rid of that horrible sponge. A year on and I have a great pod population in the fuge and DT, I do use a aqualife 115 in chamber 1 with a heater. I have some SPS and softies, the water is cleaner (low nutrients) then the softies like but the SPS has exploded. Haven't had to trim much at all, and ultimately the fuge is just a piece of a puzzle and it seems I have been lucky and found a great balance between everything. I would not just count on the fuge alone. I would agree will the NO live rock back there too.