Advice on my Cycle & Refugium Set up!

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 08:26 AM

Hello all, after years of researching this hobby and finally buying a house so I can set up a worth while tank, I have done so.
I have a 125g reef tank with a 40g sump underneath
I've enclosed pictures
The DT is drilled, and a pipe feeds the water down to my sump / refugium
I have a filter sock catching the water from the DT, and my fuge is in that same chamber. I have egg crate and lexan seperating that chamber where my chaeto and L.R. are, then beside it in chamber 2 is my skimmer (I bought it second hand, it's an aquamedic with a secondary pump). Beside that in the same chamber is my return pump. No problems with microbubbles, the skimmer has some sort of box coming out of it and then tubes going back into the water which seem to do a damn good job of destroying any bubbles)

First question, my chaeto isn't growing. Ever since I got it from a friend, it has seemed to shrink and isn't staying in a tight ball (peices are floating away from my refugium nursury and landing on the sponge for my return pump)
I have a light on it for 12 hours at night, and my nitrates are 40 ppm (just finishing my initial cycle)

Any advice on to why this is?

Also the skimmer isn't really pumping a lot of gunk up and over into the cup
I've tried tweaking it, and initially I got about 6 good ounces of green liquid at the beginning of my cycle. Now, nothing. Is this because my water is clean? The nitrates don't support this theory

I have 150 lbs of L.R. (half of it was live, half dead when I started cycle)
And 150 lbs of live sand (same thing, half was live, half dead)

Cycle seems to be finished now, here are parameters

April 15, 2016
PO43 Phosphates 1.0000 ppm
NO2 Nitrites 0.0000 ppm
NO3 Nitrates 40.0000 ppm
Ca2 Calcium 420.0000 ppm
KH Carbonate Hardness 125.3000 ppm
pH Potential Hydrogen 8.0000 pH

Any idea why my phosphates are still so high?
I only use the finest RO/DI, 0ppm
I'm going to do a 25% water change today

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Regards

jstack · 04/15/2016, 01:45 PM

tank looks good but I really don't know what people are expecting adding a 5 even 10g fuge on 50+ tank. your just wasting space,time,money and you may just have a nitrate/nutrient problem down the road

jstack · 04/15/2016, 01:51 PM

not trying to be rude but you would be better off with a DIY ATS and adding pond matrix to that little fuge and pulling the chaeto

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 02:36 PM

I don't think you are being rude at all - I am new and looking for advice and you are giving it to me so I am grateful
So you think I should have a way bigger fuge?
What's an ATS? Auto Top off?
And what would the pond matrix be for? I have about 30 lbs of live rock in the refugium...

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 02:39 PM

I've got lots of room under my cabinet still... I could easily add a seperate fuge .... might be a good idea...
My ro/di system is down a level in the basement, I have it all hooked up in my shower down there. I'm thinking of putting a large plastic garbage can in the shower that can be my RO/DI reservoir, I'll rig up an auto top off pump in it and then have a hose running up through my drop ceiling and drop the hose down into the sump
This way I can easily pump water up for water changes as well

What do you think?

jstack · 04/15/2016, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangaicardinal

I don't think you are being rude at all - I am new and looking for advice and you are giving it to me so I am grateful
So you think I should have a way bigger fuge?
What's an ATS? Auto Top off?
And what would the pond matrix be for? I have about 30 lbs of live rock in the refugium...

ats is an algea turf scrubber very cheap and effective way to export nutirent. pond matrix will help you control the nitrates. and lastly that skimmer is undersized

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 03:05 PM

Wow i've never seen an ATS before. That looks awesome and easy to build
Any advice on a skimmer jstack?

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 03:20 PM

Do you think a proper sized ATS could replace that undersized skimmer?

jstack · 04/15/2016, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangaicardinal

Do you think a proper sized ATS could replace that undersized skimmer?

no for a tank that size a skimmer would be requirement or the amount of manual husbandry would not be worth it at least for me.
personally if you have the room for 60g fuge by itself I would go with that as it's tried and true. but failing that I would opt for the ats/pondmatrix route.
I am still new to this hobby so I cannot answer the rodi question. I just have 18 years of fw planted tank/ and around 15 years of illegal greenthumbing I now have a city contract so I'm golden now.

bangaicardinal · 04/15/2016, 04:58 PM

Nice
A good friend of mine has the same job

Thanks I'm going to build a ATS tomorrow
I am gonna order an external skimmer (reef octopus ro-rps 3000 ...built for a 200g)
Is that a good skimmer? external means it can sit beside the sump and doesn't take up room inside the sump like my current skimmer, correct? That would give me a lot more room in there; I could also raise my water level to get closer to the 60g (probably 40-50g at that point). That is an eshopps sump I got used, it doesn't have any of the dividers or anything anymore, just a shell really.

Also: I'm still confused about the matrix media..... What does it do that my live rock doesn't? Do I just put it in the fuge with the live rock?

Thanks

jstack · 04/15/2016, 05:06 PM

like I said I'm still new to the hobby when it comes to euiptment but when it comes to growing an adequate filtration I can teach even an old sea dog a thing or two. as far as the skimmer it sounds good oversized is always the best way to go. an yea outside the sumpfor skimmer. basicly if they could make pond matrix pretty you could put it in ur dt as sub for rock works the same but better man-made more compact

04/15/2016, 01:51 PM	#3
jstack Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: abq,nm Posts: 290	not trying to be rude but you would be better off with a DIY ATS and adding pond matrix to that little fuge and pulling the chaeto Last edited by jstack; 04/15/2016 at 02:16 PM.

04/15/2016, 01:45 PM	#2
jstack Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: abq,nm Posts: 290	tank looks good but I really don't know what people are expecting adding a 5 even 10g fuge on 50+ tank. your just wasting space,time,money and you may just have a nitrate/nutrient problem down the road

04/15/2016, 02:36 PM	#4
bangaicardinal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	I don't think you are being rude at all - I am new and looking for advice and you are giving it to me so I am grateful So you think I should have a way bigger fuge? What's an ATS? Auto Top off? And what would the pond matrix be for? I have about 30 lbs of live rock in the refugium...

04/15/2016, 02:39 PM	#5
bangaicardinal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	I've got lots of room under my cabinet still... I could easily add a seperate fuge .... might be a good idea... My ro/di system is down a level in the basement, I have it all hooked up in my shower down there. I'm thinking of putting a large plastic garbage can in the shower that can be my RO/DI reservoir, I'll rig up an auto top off pump in it and then have a hose running up through my drop ceiling and drop the hose down into the sump This way I can easily pump water up for water changes as well What do you think?

04/15/2016, 03:05 PM	#7
bangaicardinal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	Wow i've never seen an ATS before. That looks awesome and easy to build Any advice on a skimmer jstack?

04/15/2016, 03:20 PM	#8
bangaicardinal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	Do you think a proper sized ATS could replace that undersized skimmer?

04/15/2016, 04:58 PM	#10
bangaicardinal Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 21	Nice A good friend of mine has the same job Thanks I'm going to build a ATS tomorrow I am gonna order an external skimmer (reef octopus ro-rps 3000 ...built for a 200g) Is that a good skimmer? external means it can sit beside the sump and doesn't take up room inside the sump like my current skimmer, correct? That would give me a lot more room in there; I could also raise my water level to get closer to the 60g (probably 40-50g at that point). That is an eshopps sump I got used, it doesn't have any of the dividers or anything anymore, just a shell really. Also: I'm still confused about the matrix media..... What does it do that my live rock doesn't? Do I just put it in the fuge with the live rock? Thanks

04/15/2016, 05:06 PM	#11
jstack Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: abq,nm Posts: 290	like I said I'm still new to the hobby when it comes to euiptment but when it comes to growing an adequate filtration I can teach even an old sea dog a thing or two. as far as the skimmer it sounds good oversized is always the best way to go. an yea outside the sumpfor skimmer. basicly if they could make pond matrix pretty you could put it in ur dt as sub for rock works the same but better man-made more compact