would this work?

beeguiles

beeguiles

they call me fish geek ;p
Okay so I came across this post and I liked the idea very much. https://www.livingreefs.com/diy-filter-refugium-t32736.html

Now if I did this in my tank. I have a 29 gallon am I still going to have to run a separate filter? I have a Rio nano skimmer that I can put carbon and filtration sponge and whatnot in there. It has a extra spot to put a filter pad that it game with. I am running that with a aquaclear 55 right now but I was thinking of turning the aquaclear 55 into a mini fuge if my skimmer would work as a filter also. Plus I have about 32 lbs. Of live rock and a couple inches of live sand. I have been reading a whole bunch of refugiums and they seem to be very beneficial but I don't have room for an extra tank and kinda don't have the money to put one all together. But I was thinkin..hey I have an aquaclear? Could I convert it and still be okay with filtration? Or should I buy another aquaclear and run that with the skimmer and the aquaclear I already have. Let me know if you think this would work for me? Thanks!
 
Your tank is small enough where you could get away with not using a filter at all. But, if you use the skimmer you don't need to worry about using filter pads or anything if you want to convert your aquaclear into a fuge.
 
Yea I wanna put somthing in there to reduce nitrates. What would I put in there for that. Macro algae or cheato? Can I buy this stuff at my lfs? Sorry for dumb questions. Refugiums are a new world to me lol there is so much that I still have to learn.
 
Chaeto is the most commonly used macro algae for refugs. Not all LFS carry it but, Biff does! Just send her a PM if/when your ready.
 
By squiggly bulb you mean the ones that are coil like? I use them in my house anyways. Energy savers :) and bl1 I will check my store if not ill have to pm biff.
 
Lol okay. So do you guys think that converting the aquaclear to a fuge is going to improve my water conditions. I mean they arent bad now but there is always room to improve. Do you think it would help in keeping cyano away. I am winning a fight with that right now actually.
 
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I did this exact same conversion with mine and am happy with it...a couple of things I have noticed...
I used live rock rubble for the bottom third of minifuge...with the light on it 24/7 (you can cut that back I think stuff will still grow if you shut it down for a while) I'm getting tons of growth of hair algea in that rubble area...
You need to keep your ball of cheato cut back to a small size to allow it to grow...when mine gets too big it seems to grow slow, but when i cut it down the new growth seems to accelerate...
Make sure you glue the original side piece high enough across the return mouth to act as a gate blocking cheato from returning into tank...I'm thinking about glueing a piece of screen or something across it as I have fuge hair algea returning to tank through the square holes in "gate"...I think I have had my flow too high and maybe turning return flow down low will solve problem...I am waiting to see stuff come alive in fuge, I am told you get beneficial life in fuge after a while...mines been running 3 weeks but the high flow may have flushed any developing life forms away into tank...I have a 55 gallon tank with a H.O.B. protien skimmer and just this minifuge...I feel naked without a filter but I trust the advice I have gotten here...Good Luck!
 
Poker thanks for the advice! I'm gonna feel weird with no filter also but it sounds like making it a fuge would be better. :)
 
I had terrible luck with my set up so far. My cheato totally died. It shriveled up to nothing and then the flow from filter dumped it all in my tank every time I touched it which was gross.

I tried using the squiggle CFL bulb also and it didnt work for me. I would recommend getting a grow bulb from petco that is designed to help plants grow.
 
Nutrient export is always a good thing. Chaeto is a fairly safe Macro to run for this, and it does a pretty good job of sucking nitrates and phosphates out of the water. You can use the CFL squiggly bulbs, make sure they are the 'daylight' or 'sunlight' bulbs that have the specturm needed

I wouldnt be too worried about not having a filter running with a refugium and a protien skimmer. If it makes you feel any better, I have a 15 gallon refugium and a protien skimmer on my 180 with no other filtration other than live rock in the display tank

You can also seed the refugium with copepods, which could then serve as a food source for your fish when they move from your refugium to your main tank
 
Well that stinks amber. Maybe you just got a bad batch of cheato? Northstar you answered my question I forgot to ask about the copepods. If I do seed it with them will they continue to grow or reproduce in the fuge? Would i have enough to sustain a green mandarin? That would be awesome
 
Yes, you can seed your tank with the bottled pods. But you are still going to have to wait several months for the ones you seeded to grow the population to sustainable population. But im also sure that you already have pods in your tank, you just need to give them the same amount of time to grow and reproduce.
 

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