launch
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I currently have a 125g with 100lbs of live rock and 100lbs of live sand. I bought the tank used and the people were running bioballs in a wet/dry (and protein skimmer). I set up the tank with the fish it came with (2 damsels and a clown). now it's been a few weeks and i've done a few water changes and i can't seem to get the nitrates down (they stay around 40) oh, and i just had an outbreak of green algae.
i've talked to a few people and they suggest adding a refugium to get the nitrates down. I've done tons of research on them some i'm gonna try and avoid the usual "what is a refugium" questions.
I've decided that i should definatly add one, i'm just trying to decide which way to go.
1) should i just add a small pump and pump the water from my sump into a 10 or so gallon refugium (just basically Chaetomorpha Algae and a light) and then have that drain back into the sump and leave the bioballs and existing setup.
2) ditch my current setup (and the bioballs) and use just the Chaetomorpha Algae for a filter and get something like this: http://i23.ebayimg.com/04/i/001/19/4e/bd6e_1.JPG
I'm going to stay fowlr for a little while but i do plan on adding some beginner corals in the future.
also, a random question. what time period should you have the lights on in the tank? does too much light affect algae growth or is it mostly nitrates?
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jonathan
i've talked to a few people and they suggest adding a refugium to get the nitrates down. I've done tons of research on them some i'm gonna try and avoid the usual "what is a refugium" questions.
I've decided that i should definatly add one, i'm just trying to decide which way to go.
1) should i just add a small pump and pump the water from my sump into a 10 or so gallon refugium (just basically Chaetomorpha Algae and a light) and then have that drain back into the sump and leave the bioballs and existing setup.
2) ditch my current setup (and the bioballs) and use just the Chaetomorpha Algae for a filter and get something like this: http://i23.ebayimg.com/04/i/001/19/4e/bd6e_1.JPG
I'm going to stay fowlr for a little while but i do plan on adding some beginner corals in the future.
also, a random question. what time period should you have the lights on in the tank? does too much light affect algae growth or is it mostly nitrates?
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jonathan