How to change sump into refugium?

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artur

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
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369
Location
Naperville Il
Hi everybody. I need your help. This is my 90 gal. tank and sump. Everything is looking great and I'm happy. But there is one think witch botheres me. 3 months ago i bought mandarin goby. I decided to buy this guy after a lot of reading. Some people say to live them in the wild. My tank is 3 years old, 100 pounds of live rock. But his getting skinny so I think my tank does not have a lot copepods to support him. I think the only solution to save him is to do refugium. I'm in this hobby for a while <6 years> but if it come to refugium I m really blind. Looking in my sump can you guys see that with some changes I could do refugium in this sump? I can get rid of phosfate reactor < do not use it at all> can do some changes. Please help me, I really want to save this guy. Thank you
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why change to a fuge,just have a section with live rock in and breed them there,or a section with live sand and macro algae.thats what i do for my birdnose wrasse
 
Maybe i sad it wrong. Yes that is whwt i want. But lookong at the picture can you tell me how and where to do this?
 
I`m not seeing the pics. They do sell pods for you to add to your tank. Most LFS have them.
 
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Maybe this works. Yes , i bought 4 or 5 times but it looks like they are gone so fast. My flame angel eats probbably most of them so it is not enaugh for him.
 
I'm so sorry for all the problems. Hope this works!!!!!! I'm construction worker, computers drives me crazy. If i could do this with hammer and saw i would be happy. Ley me know if this works and you can see pictures.
 

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No problem. Nice looking tank. Very impressive. You would think with all LR that you would not have a pod problem. Have you tried frozen mysis or vitamin fortified brine.
 
Before i put him in DT i kept him for a week in QT tried to make him eat something else. I tried mysis, brine shrimps with garlic, selcon, zoe. Tried Rod' s Food and nothing. So after a week a put him in DT so he does not die in QT< there is no pods there for sure>. What about my sump, can i do something there to grow pods?
 
If you had them in the sump they would have to go through the pump to get back up. I would still try to buy them and just put a bunch in there.
 
OK. I just always read that is good for reef tank to have a refugium. But i think you don't have one and your tank looks great. I saw all your pictures. It is awsome tank. My dream is to upgrade 90 t0 125. I love long tank with more panoramic view. 90 gal is only 4 feet and really high.
 
you could use a plastic container with a hole in the lid,blacken this to cut out any light,then place the breeding pods inside the container,place the container within your LR.the pods should breed nicely in there and then gradually enter your dt through the hole to get to the light.
 
I think you will have a hard time fitting a refugium in that sump. I personally am a strong advocate for them but i think it will be difficult for you in that set up. You can try pod piles and containers as others have suggested but it would be my guess that if all that rock is still not enough then you have several fish in addition to your mandarin that are chewing through your pod population and it is unlikely a pod pile or container will be enough to suppliment.

Mandarins can be trained on to prepaired foods. It is a bit of a difficult process but i think well worth it considering how wonderful of a fish they are and then you never have to worry about them going hungry again. Some of the "reformed" mandarins have been know to be quite big eaters actually. Here is a link to a thread on how it is done.

Marine Ornamental Fish & Invert Breeders Association • View topic - Weaning mandarins to frozen and pellets
 
Some people use HOB filters to make small refugiums. I don't know if it'd be enough room to breed pods, but it's a thought.
 
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