fuentes925 Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Hi, I bought a established 10g Nano, it currently contains a branched Frogspawn coral, Green star polyp, 4 dwarf hermits, and a clown fish with LR and LS with 64 watts of lite. I would like to add a refugium and also more rock and sand to the main tank. How is the safest way to do so with out causing any problems. Thanks for any help Fuentes925 Link to comment
Vincerama Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 I sort of tried the same thing, using another 10g as a sump/fuge. But I failer miserably! Well, actually, I did get the system working, but the sound of the water drainage via the overflow box was horrendous! I need to add larger drain lines... anyway... Build (or better yet BUY) a HOB overflow box, sometimes called a prefilter box. It hangs a box on the inside and outside of your tank, conencted by a siphon tube, you can then magically get water flowing out of your tank down to a sump/fuge and then simply pump the water back up to the main tank. Use sufficiently large drainage tubes!!!! This is important! I used 1/2 inch drains, and it slurps and gurgles like crazy, even iwth vinyl output drainlines and a "Durso standpipe" !! I gave up for now, simply due to the noise, and because I'm in the midst of the "Mother Of All Algae Blooms" (MOAAB in military terms), but I will be making a larger yet durso standpipe with a full one inch drain to plumb into my overflow box. You can also buy HOB (hang off back) refugiums. Do a web search on CPR products or LifeReef products. wrt: Adding more LR and LS, make sure you cure the live rock! The sand could probably just be added, but if you are adding "oolitic" or very fine live sand, you might cause your tank to cloud unless you add it VERY carefully! The LR has to be cured in a seperate tank/bucket because it WILL cycle, even if it's a small cycle and you don't want to do that to your main tank! V Link to comment
kimura Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Well, adding a fuge to your established tank won't hurt unless of course you use new uncured rock. As Vincerama has mentioned a HOB is much easier to maintain vs. a below tank setup. I too have gone thru the trials of using a below the tank fuge, and it's not easy. Too many factors to consider. I went ahead and built my own HOB for my tank. Which by the way wasn't hard at all. Also if you do decided to get more LR do allow it to cycle. Another alternative is to using a tank or bucket is to put the LR in the HOB not attached/running to the tank and let it cure in there. Only if space is an issue. And make sure you have a PH running inside or have an air stone in place for ciruculation. Link to comment
fuentes925 Posted July 24, 2003 Author Share Posted July 24, 2003 Sounds good, I think I am also going to go with a HOB. So I must cycle any new rock I add to my system, and any new sand can be added straight in with no cycle time? Link to comment
tau626 Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 try this: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=207666 Link to comment
fuentes925 Posted July 24, 2003 Author Share Posted July 24, 2003 Do I cycle any new LR like you would a new SW tank? Link to comment
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