Huge Fuge

[Jack]

I want to use partitions to convert my old 29 gallon tall oceanic into a refugium for a 7 gallon AGA minibow nano. However I do not know the optimum flow path that is taken by water circulating through a good refugium. Can anyone here describe it or does anyone have a schematic, sketch, or link to one that I could see?

 

Thanks,

Jack

[reefan]

Umm this is just a thought but, why not just make the 29 the main tank and the 7 a fuge?? I am sure you have thought of this but I was curious to the reason?

JJ

[Jack]

Hello,

 

The purpose of the fuge would be to harbor a very large population of zooplankton to, hopefully support a larger population of corals in the display mini and perhaps even a couple of dwarf seahorses. Perhaps a mandarin?

[tinyreef]

i agree with reefan, especially since you're talking about horses (even if they're dwarves). the 29g is much better suited and more impressive looking with the rockscape than a 7g imo.

 

i understand the minaturizing aspect of this end of the hobby tho. soooo, yeah, you could use the partitions like you suggested on the 29g to evenly diffuse the flow thru the fuge. get some good rock and decent level of sand (1"~2") to give the microfauna a habitat to latch onto.

 

however, due to the 7g's size you really want to watch your return rate. maybe target a tee return of 70~100 gph per outlet, which would by definition give you a 140~200 gph flow thru on your fuge (i.e. 4x~6x flow). i wouldn't go any higher than that on the refugium.

[Jack]

Well most of the people at the dwarf seahorse site feel that 7 gallons is too large as the dwarves can't seem to find their food very well.

[tinyreef]

these are dwarves that came from the ocean, right?

 

[Jack]

I don't actually know. It seems to be common knowledge among the dwarf seahorse hobbiests. In fact many of them recommend 2 or 5 gallon tanks

[tinyreef]

i'm just joshing with you.

 

www.seahorse.org is a good source.

 

i'm not a rancher (i just hang out there for the babes :woot: ) but i would say it's easier for the hobbyist to target feed dwarves in a nano than a larger tank rather than the extra volume of water is somehow bad for the dwarves.

 

it might be if the system can't naturally sustain them and they don't know to go the a certain feeding area but with a larger system you can keep it 'filled' with zooplankton. those dwarf ranchers definitely have more exp on the issue tho so i guess they know the 'tricks'. i won't (and wouldn't presume to) argue against them.

 

btw a mandarin can outcompete the horses. in fact, it may eat the fry or even the horses if they're small enough and the mandarin is big enough.

[reefan]

They also recomend no LR for a dwarf sea horse tank. You also must be prepared to decap and hatch brine shrimp for feeding. If I were in your position I would probably get a few pipe fish and maybe a red-orange sea horse for the larger tank. This allows much more freedom in what you can keep and or feed in the tank. I do understand that you dont want to waist a bow-front tank for a fuge but you can get a average 5 gallon tank for like 5$ If you wanted to keep a mandarin you would need a hell of copepod population. Keep us updated.

JJ

[slylie]

I say go for it. This site is all about downsizing the main tank. Hook up the 29 gal, you will have all the safety, waterflow, DSB, LR, Macroalgae, Plankton Benifits in a tiny 7 gal, with a total size of 36 gallons. Make sure the refugium is hidden and your 7 gal will be on display. I beleive water flow from a refugium to main should be 4 times the total gallons, so I've been told.