Refugium Worries

[strout]

I am trying to head off any problems I might end up with here before they arise, I have several concerns. Water movement in the tank, I have been given conflicting advice locally on the water movement in the tank. One says I want very little movement in the tank, the other says I want a pretty good bit. Soooo, I looked at some You Tube videos of Refugium tanks and saw both methods in differant tanks. Some tanks had very little movement in the tank, meaning I could see water movement on the top of the tank and very little down in the tank around the live rock and the Chaeto ball, this is how my tank is operating. The other end of water movement I saw was that the tank had alot of water movement in the tank with the Chaeto ball tumbling round and round in the tank. My other concern is with my lighting schedule for the tank. I have been told to run the lights up to about 16 hours a day, and another reefer told me that if I run the lights for that amount of time I am going to have an algae break out in the tank that I won't be able to control. The man at the LFS isn't much help, I have set this refugium up against his wishes, he thinks they are more trouble than they are worth. Everything I have read says a refugium will help to a certin extent in keeping Nitrate levels down and that is my goal here. What should I be looking to do here with this tank, before I throw my hands up and take this tank apart.

 

[TRe]

lighting schedule most popular would be having the lights in the fuge on when ever the display lights are off so you dont get a ph swing... flow in the fuge is usually slower but you dont want the water to be still either. you gotta find somewhere inbetween
btw you cant do anything but help your tank by adding a fuge!

 

[TRe]

have you read up on vodka dosing at all? i kno people who swear by it

 

[strout]

I havn't tried the Vodka thing yet. I think I need to do as you said and add some kind of pump in the refudgium to get alittle more water movement in the tank. I don't want much, just a small pump of some kind. This is something I was thinking about, we will see what you think. I have a HOB filter that I could use with out the filter. That would move some water around. I will do as you said with the lights, refugium lights at nite.

 

[strout]

I put the HOB filter on the refugium with out the filter and it seems to be working fine. Just the right amount of water movement. This is the HOB filter that came with the 10g tank when I bought it for a QT Tank.

 

[TRe]

itll be fine!

 

[strout]

The HOB is just a quick fix, I will work on something better. If I had to do this again, which I will, I think the drain hole back into the sump needs to be twice as big. If it were I don't think I would need anything for water movement in the refugium, at least for a 10g refugium.