For those that have added refugiums to combat nitrates/PO4:

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neilster1

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 28, 2005
Messages
145
Location
Atlanta, GA
This is a general question and I am really only looking for general answers..

How long after you added your `fuge did you begin to see a decline in nitrates/phosphates?

For sake of comparison I have a 55g and sump, total volume is 65g. I just added a 18" cpr aquafuge with about 2.5" of aragonite sand in the bottom, two small chunks of LR and a fistful of grape caulerpa lit 24/7 by a 18watt 6500k pc desk lamp. I've had the `fuge up since Friday and I just haven't seen a drop in nitrates.. still around 19ppm. The caulerpa seems to be growing now just in the past day.

am I just being impatient?
 
Probably won't see anything in that short period of time I'm guessing. Also that fuge is only about 3g of water - about 4.6% of your total water volume. What are your 'trate reading anyway?

Don't wet/drys need to be mantained somehow to keep 'trates down? Bio ball issues or seomthing. I never had one, but just thought I might have heard that somewhere.
 
nitrates have always been below 20.. usually between 15 and 20. I change out the felt pad I use in the drip tray each week so I expect some fluctuation there. I've removed all sponges.. removing my "polishing block" made the biggest difference.. near 0 for a few days. I "washed" my bioballs with saltwater once and it didn't seem to make much of a difference.. little to no detritus in there.

I will say that I need a better skimmer setup - that will be rectified in a couple of weeks with a aquac urchin. My coralife super skimmer (65) seems way underpowered for that much water volume.
 
Might go with a Berlin or something more beefy. I've always had a low opinion of the AquaC skimmers.
 
I have a coralife super skimmer now, not a aquac... it does work, it just doesn't seem big enough for my application.
 
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