Hair algae

A portion of my sump is also partitioned into a fuge. I love it for the benefits mentioned previously.

 

Water from the display tank is siphoned from a prefilter box into the 6" skimmer compartment of the sump. The skimmer skims the water and then it flows into a second chamber that collects detritus and disperses bubbles.

This 4" second chamber is big enough to hold carbon filter bags and or a powerhead to agitate the water when the sytem is off line for maintenance.

The water then flows into the third chamber for the refugium. The refugium is a 12" x 12" footprint and has the LR , LS, and macro algae.

The water flows through a 2" baffle and into the 6" return pump chamber. The bare bottom of this chamber is also a good place that collects detritus. The Mag 7 return pump pums the water back up into the display tank.

My 29 gallon tank is 30" long.

 

I'm wondering now if I could do the same thing. I have a 20gal. tank split to make make two compartments. The 2nd compartment is where the protein skimmer, a media basket, and the return pump is. I could turn that into a Refugium. It already has small shrimp & snails living in it. All I'd need is a piece of live rock and a small light. Could I get by with a "plant light"?

 

I suppose so, can't think of any reason that wouldn't work as long as there is not too much turbulence assuming the refugium side is where the feed from the display tank is.

I just have an 18 watt normal output flourescent light over my refugium.

 

I'm a little tired at the moment.  However, I want to hit on a couple of areas here.  

Go to your garage and look at a bag of grass fertilizer.  It's gonna have an NPK rating.....Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.  

Lets just pretend you accidentally overfertilized your lawn.  You are sick of mowing your lawn so you buy a goat to keep your lawn trimmed.  However that goat is rebellious and no matter how many times you say, "baaaaaad" (with vibrato to sound like a goat), it goes to the bathroom on your lawn.

What's gonna happen?  The goats tissues are gonna absorb a small portion of the nitrogen (nitrates) and phosphorus (phospates) but most of them are gonna come out of the back end of the goat.  (The potassium is there too but let's not make this any harder than it needs to be).  Whatever the goats body doesn't absorb is gonna soak back into your lawn at the next good rain.

The fertilizer is still in your tank whether you like it or not.  Now it's in the form of goat pellets (detritus).

I have 5 gazillion meetings in the next couple of days.  I hope to have time to check in tommorrow night but I might not.  I will be here by the weekend either way.

Here's the discussion points.

Did I overfertilize my tank?
If I did, what did I do to overfertlize?
What do I do to fix it?

Spell check edit 1-15-04

 

Hi Craig,

I discussed this with Matt. I realized that I had not changed my membrane on the ro/di in 3 years. Since then the tank has been clearing up. I also did a 20% water change to speed thing along. The Bubble algae is slowing down also. I appreciate the feedback, the more info I can get the better.

~Jack

 

No problem Jack. Keep posting so you can qualify for the Clams Direct Raffle. Check the General Discussion Forum and the sticky thread!

 

what else did u add to your order? some feather dusters would be nice there one of the easiest inverts and one of the coolest looking

 

to be honest I wouldn't know where to put a feather duster. I mean do you lay them /it on the substrate? or stick them in a hole in the liverock? What I did do was buy a light for my soon to be Refugium. I added a small amount of substrate. I already have some "critters" ie: small snails& shrimp{at least I think they're shrimp}living in the sump. I have an 18K 15W light. I guess all I need now is some macro algae.

 

I am winning this same battle right now. I think that the best solution is the water. Make sure you are using good water. Use appropriate numbers of mixed snails and don't over feed your fish. I moved my 120 from the office back to home and decided to try out my well water....VERY BAD IDEA! Just keep up with the water changes and when you siphon, use the suction to clean up what will let go. Be patient, don't add chemicals if at all possible, there is no quick fix for nature.