question on trying a jbj refug

[reefer415]

hello all,

 

i removed all the bio balls and ceramic rings out of my jbj nano cube filter. only the sponge remains. (there was tons of stuff floating around)

 

know my question is, if i wanted to turn the back into a fugium, i would :

 

1. get live rock?

2. do i need sand back there?

3. get some kind of algae?

4.what kind of lighting would i need? if any? 24/7 lighting?

 

my plans were to just get some live rock and place it back there and not have any lighting

 

any thouhts?

 

thanks

[DitchPlains]

Hi there!

Well, firstly if your going to make a refugium (refuge for plants or fish, etc...) your definately going toneed a 24/7 light. The reason being is many plants go sexual when the lights are off, (which means the spread from your refuge into your tank which is no good) like Caluerpa etc... But, I think what your asking is to just put some Live Rock rubble back there to replace the filter media, which is what I have done as well but with some modification. To add Live Rock rubble back there, the rock will get sufficent light from the exsisting lights when they are on, no need for a second light back there. A true Refuge needs heavy sediment, like mud or DSB (deep sand bed 4 inches) so you can grow copods and other things as well as help your filtration process. You also need macro algae like Caulerpa, red hair algae, etc... back there. Personally, its really not worth it back there because you have to remove the parttitons to do a true refuge, so your best bet is it do what I did. Remove the bio-balls, and their filter media, and perhaps leave one sponge at the end of the filtration process to catch large debris. I placed in the first chamber live rock rubble, in the second activated carbon, and in the third SeaChem's Purigen, the last part I placed a spong in front to catch large particles. This has worked very well for me, check out my pics...Good Luck I hope this helped.

[reefer415]

thanks,

 

seems like everyone is doing that

[gustavo1999]

Ditch,

Thanks for the idea. I think I will try that in my Nanocube.

I want to make sure I understand your setup correctly.

 

 

Suggested Modified Filtration Setup for Nanocube Reef Tank.

 

The Nanocube has four chambers within the built in sump.

You refer to them in ascending order from the intake chamber to the opposite end.

 

1.) Add live rock rubble in the chamber #1.

2.) Add a bag of activated carbon in the chamber #2.

3.) Add a 500ml filter bag of SeaChem Purigen chamber #3 beneath a single stock nanocube sponge.

[DitchPlains]

I also added a final pieces of spong material in the pump chamber where the water outputs to get any last particles before reentering the tank....Take care

[ebin]

isent keeping the sponge in there act as a nitro trap?

[DitchPlains]

I'm not sure I would suppose it could be, but for me I haven't had any problems with it. The sponge for me acts as a particle filter to keep water clarity high. I do howevere replace my sponge and rinse it out with fresh sea water every two weeks or so just to be safe. I have zero noticable algae growth, maybe an occasional diatom patch, but thats nothing compared to hair or slime algae. My tank is sparkling so far. I don't think there is any such thing as a maintanence free nano tank, perhaps a Pico nano with no fish could be maintanence free but with every tank you need to do a little cleaning (vaccumming up detris, mag-float cleaning, water changes, etc...) I think my setup works fine for me, I will be posting pics of my Acropora (Bali Slimer) soon. Ok take care guys.:angel: :nerd:

[nano_mtl]

Hello all,

I plan on removing bio balls and ceramic rings on my cube and following Ditch's plan. Since I don't have rubble LR to put in the back, I plan on asking my LFS, we're buddies now ;-)

How much do I need? How should I introduce them? My cube has been up for a month and a half. Tks in advance.

 

Water parameters OK - no algae problem

 

2 clowns

1 cleaner shrimp

1 snail

2 hermits

 

corals:

mushrooms

button polyps

bubble

torch

candy cane

[DitchPlains]

I have recently removed my LR rubble from the back and replaced in with some macro algae. The LR rubble just ended up collecting detirus, not really a worthwile venture if you ask me, but some will disagree. Anyways, I have Purigem. Actiavted Carbon and 1 sponge along with one chamber filled with red n green marco algae. Ok good luck.

[nalbar]

why not just remove the whole thing and make your tank bigger?? its just a piece of plastic. its the first thing i did. that back area is worthless.

 

 

nalbar

[DitchPlains]

Your an ^*&*((^^..wtf...man, who would do that it kills the whole point of the tank......LOL Dude, just joking...lol That's an awesome idea! Wish I thought of it, did you Dremmel it out, or did it pop out, cause its very flimsy anyways. I think it adds about 1.5 gall more right? did you measure the total volume with it? Ok sounds cool, throw some pics in....take care...thanx for the post.