Refugium in Fluval Evo 13.5?

[Lugmos12]

29 minutes ago, Minmay said:

I bought 2 mangroves and attached it to tank with rubber bands. Its growing. Its slow but it has grew since i bought it. 

 

do you have pics?

[Minmay]

3 hours ago, Lugmos12 said:

 

do you have pics?

The top pic was taken in July. Bottom pic is from today. As you can see the difference in length of the roots. The leaves are sprouting  now. 

[Lugmos12]

4 hours ago, Minmay said:

The top pic was taken in July. Bottom pic is from today. As you can see the difference in length of the roots. The leaves are sprouting  now. 

your tank doesn't have a hood?

[Minmay]

11 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said:

your tank doesn't have a hood?

It came with a hood but I have a store in san diego that sells plexiglass etc. I scored on some Plexiglass scrap and use that. 

[kasso187]

I have an intank media basket in chamber 2.  I'm using the stock evo leds to light that area from 12am to 12pm.  I first had chaeto, but they died under the stock lighting.  I have been running caulerpa now and they are doing great.  All nuisance algae is disappearing from the display and 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates now.  Just beware, the refugium area will get disgusting with all types of algae growing there (instead of display) and the 3x3" space is extremely difficult to reach in and clean.

[Minmay]

3 hours ago, kasso187 said:

I have an intank media basket in chamber 2.  I'm using the stock evo leds to light that area from 12am to 12pm.  I first had chaeto, but they died under the stock lighting.  I have been running caulerpa now and they are doing great.  All nuisance algae is disappearing from the display and 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates now.  Just beware, the refugium area will get disgusting with all types of algae growing there (instead of display) and the 3x3" space is extremely difficult to reach in and clean.

Yeah, i was like screw the refugium...the space is too small and I heard that you have to have alot of chaeto to even make it useful. So I went with mangroves and it works great for me and less of a mess too

[Fluval4you]

Hello all, 

beginner here as well. This is what I ended up doing after some research on refuge. 

[Fluval4you]

A couple more pics. 

[Mazzy21]

As someone else pointed out, the flow back there is pretty slow. I was actually pondering making the entire back a fuge and using a hang on for mechanical filtration. The only issue there is that you either have to get rid of your hood (which I really don't want to do) or cut your hood (which I am hesitant to do), but otherwise I feel like if you did mangroves in chamber one and just popped out that slot where the skimmer neck is supposed to go for them to poke through, and then did cheato/culerpa in the second chamber, both with some mud or just substrate in the bottom (and I planned on using bumble bee snails to eat detritus back there) you'd have a nice little fuge going on that would be a good size and diversity for the tank. I need to figure out how to incorporate regular filtration into this set up though before I go through with it. I do think it would offer a huge benefit of not having those back chambers get disgusting as they always do in AIOs and become nitrate factories themselves.

[StephDaReefer]

On 8/19/2017 at 9:48 AM, TheBig053 said:

Interested to see how others are doing as well. I just installed the "hardware" for a chaeto refugium on chamber 2 and will be picking up chaeto from the LFS this afternoon. 

 

Heres my set-up for those that are interested. 

 

How did you get the light to stick?

[TheBig053]

8 minutes ago, StephDaReefer said:

How did you get the light to stick?

Velcro tape. I recently reimplemented the mini fuge and it seems to be working well. I am having to harvest the chaeto once every two weeks, so it's growing and its helping to keep my nitrates in check. 

[Nano_Turner]

I have not put in chaeto yet but I will. It will go in chamber 2 along with a 2 inch sand bed and a little bit of rubble rock also in chamber 2. I was also thinking of putting some mangroves in the dt because I have no hood. However, the location of my tank does not get much sunlight at all so can I still grow mangroves if I get a special light for it? Also, does calurpa remove as much nutrients as chaeto does? Any advice is much appreciated. 

 

Turner

[Clown79]

On 4/20/2017 at 7:01 PM, SaltyBuddha said:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00X84LMHK/ref=psdcmw_2975458011_t1_B00X84LNS8

 

I'm using this one. I have it suction cupped to the outside looking in but you could put it inside. Its 5500k to 6500k, but low wattage. I'm hoping with it so close to the chaeto, the low 2.5 watts won't matter. The chaeto has great color so far.

Any updates on this light? 

I was considering using it but outside the tank like you.

[SaltyBuddha]

22 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Any updates on this light? 

I was considering using it but outside the tank like you.

I'm not sure if it was the light or the fact that my tank was immature, but I was growing more algae than chaeto. Eventually chaeto starved. Fast forward a few months and I'm running the JBJ fuge light. No algae and chaeto is growing.

 

To be honest, I think if I ran this little light again it would work well. The JBJ light bleaches the chaeto and I have to regularly turn it around. My tank has progressed a lot since then so the little light might work well.

[Clown79]

7 hours ago, SaltyBuddha said:

I'm not sure if it was the light or the fact that my tank was immature, but I was growing more algae than chaeto. Eventually chaeto starved. Fast forward a few months and I'm running the JBJ fuge light. No algae and chaeto is growing.

 

To be honest, I think if I ran this little light again it would work well. The JBJ light bleaches the chaeto and I have to regularly turn it around. My tank has progressed a lot since then so the little light might work well.

Thank you for the info. I appreciate it.

You aren't the first person who has had chaeto bleach/burn under that light. 

I've read a few ppl had the same experience.

[Subsea]

On an immature nutrient poor tank, chaeto will starve and disintegrate, no matter what light.  

 

As a rule both caulerpa and ulva, will outgrow chaeto.  However, each has its own pros & cons.  For your media basket, I think chaeto is your best option.

[LinkEB3]

On 5/3/2018 at 3:03 AM, SaltyBuddha said:

I'm not sure if it was the light or the fact that my tank was immature, but I was growing more algae than chaeto. Eventually chaeto starved. Fast forward a few months and I'm running the JBJ fuge light. No algae and chaeto is growing.

 

To be honest, I think if I ran this little light again it would work well. The JBJ light bleaches the chaeto and I have to regularly turn it around. My tank has progressed a lot since then so the little light might work well.

Have you had any luck with this light? I own it, first attempt the chaeto got everywhere, and starved, just bought some more, looking to put into chamber 2 with some kind of guard to keep it out of DT.

[DM-63]

light timing for my Refumium ?