32 g bio cube. 2 questions. need advice

[jev99]

hi,
tank is one year old. First question is about my refugium. I currently have Cheato in it. And I'm starting to wonder if I should put a few snails in the refugium. I'm sure the glass is super slimy and the plastic basket also has some algae on it.
I have some copepods in there.
I'm assuming Estrea or trochus since the nascarious and cereth like the sand?
also should I put some sort of "home" in there for the copepods or the beneficial bacteria?

1.025 sg
1.9 nitrate
1300 mg
420 ca
8.2 oh
8 alk
phosphates under .1

chemi pure elite or blue (depending on my mood)
seachem purigen
phosguard if ever above .1

royal gramma, clown, cardinal, court jester and yellow banded possum wrasse.

7 Estrea, 6 troches, Four nascarious, four cereth , a bunch of stromaTella , 5 scarlet hermits, 4 blue leg hermit, one emerald crab, and a few bristle worms and one Mexican turbo and a bunch of coral

thank you

 

[KellyCorals]

I decided to put 2 estrea snails in my refugium and I can say I don’t regret that choice. They keep it nice and clean in there and seem to thrive even better in there than my main tank. As far as a home for the copepods, they will mostly live in the cheato but for beneficial bacteria I like the eshopps bio media.

So yes that’s a yes on put some snails in there
Lol. And the BIO LUX does make kinda a nice home for copepods.

 

[jev99]

I decided to put 2 estrea snails in my refugium and I can say I don’t regret that choice. They keep it nice and clean in there and seem to thrive even better in there than my main tank. As far as a home for the copepods, they will mostly live in the cheato but for beneficial bacteria I like the eshopps bio media.

So yes that’s a yes on put some snails in there
Lol. And the BIO LUX does make kinda a nice home for copepods.

thank you so much. very helpful

 

[jev99]

I decided to put 2 estrea snails in my refugium and I can say I don’t regret that choice. They keep it nice and clean in there and seem to thrive even better in there than my main tank. As far as a home for the copepods, they will mostly live in the cheato but for beneficial bacteria I like the eshopps bio media.

So yes that’s a yes on put some snails in there
Lol. And the BIO LUX does make kinda a nice home for copepods.

seems a bit big. can I break it in half safely for the fuge?

 

[jev99]

this ok also?

 

[Brady4000]

When you say refug, are you talking about the intank setup in the back of the Biocube? Or did you set up a sump?

(I am going to answer like your using the AIO back of the Biocube, because that’s my guess)

I don’t recommend tossing bio media in the back of the cube. It makes a mess, I had matrix balls in a media bag in chamber 1. It just got clogged up with food that could not make it to the filter floss. Lucky I caught the problem before it became an issue. 32g isn’t a lot, doesn’t take much rock work / sand to keep up. Are you having issues with the filtration?

As for snails in the back, I don’t see it hurting anything, unless your just blasting it with light 24/7, if your cheato can live back there, I am guessing snails will. They might end up getting squished in such a small space if you don’t keep the cheato trimmed.

The pods will be find living in the chaeto, they will also make their way to the DT and live there too.

Edit: I also use chemi pure in my cube, works great.

 

[jev99]

When you say refug, are you talking about the intank setup in the back of the Biocube? Or did you set up a sump?

(I am going to answer like your using the AIO back of the Biocube, because that’s my guess)

I don’t recommend tossing bio media in the back of the cube. It makes a mess, I had matrix balls in a media bag in chamber 1. It just got clogged up with food that could not make it to the filter floss. Lucky I caught the problem before it became an issue. 32g isn’t a lot, doesn’t take much rock work / sand to keep up. Are you having issues with the filtration?

As for snails in the back, I don’t see it hurting anything, unless your just blasting it with light 24/7, if your cheato can live back there, I am guessing snails will. They might end up getting squished in such a small space if you don’t keep the cheato trimmed.

The pods will be find living in the chaeto, they will also make their way to the DT and live there too.

Edit: I also use chemi pure in my cube, works great

When you say refug, are you talking about the intank setup in the back of the Biocube? Or did you set up a sump?

(I am going to answer like your using the AIO back of the Biocube, because that’s my guess)

I don’t recommend tossing bio media in the back of the cube. It makes a mess, I had matrix balls in a media bag in chamber 1. It just got clogged up with food that could not make it to the filter floss. Lucky I caught the problem before it became an issue. 32g isn’t a lot, doesn’t take much rock work / sand to keep up. Are you having issues with the filtration?

As for snails in the back, I don’t see it hurting anything, unless your just blasting it with light 24/7, if your cheato can live back there, I am guessing snails will. They might end up getting squished in such a small space if you don’t keep the cheato trimmed.

The pods will be find living in the chaeto, they will also make their way to the DT and live there too.

Edit: I also use chemi pure in my cube, works great.

intank setup

 

[jev99]

When you say refug, are you talking about the intank setup in the back of the Biocube? Or did you set up a sump?

(I am going to answer like your using the AIO back of the Biocube, because that’s my guess)

I don’t recommend tossing bio media in the back of the cube. It makes a mess, I had matrix balls in a media bag in chamber 1. It just got clogged up with food that could not make it to the filter floss. Lucky I caught the problem before it became an issue. 32g isn’t a lot, doesn’t take much rock work / sand to keep up. Are you having issues with the filtration?

As for snails in the back, I don’t see it hurting anything, unless your just blasting it with light 24/7, if your cheato can live back there, I am guessing snails will. They might end up getting squished in such a small space if you don’t keep the cheato trimmed.

The pods will be find living in the chaeto, they will also make their way to the DT and live there too.

Edit: I also use chemi pure in my cube, works great.

also, no filtration issues. I don't keep the refugium light on all day. But I do keep it on for 16 hours a day

 

[KellyCorals]

this ok also?

That should work fine!

 

[Brady4000]

also, no filtration issues. I don't keep the refugium light on all day. But I do keep it on for 16 hours a day

intank setup

Ok, then the only spot you have is in chamber 1 to add bio media, if your dead set on it. If you add it to chamber 2, you’ll have less chaeto room. Also I don’t know if you’ll block the small filter that separates 2 and 3. I wouldn’t add it, but to each their own, since you don’t have any issues right now anyways.

snails should live back their, just see them getting stuck, if you let the chaeto get out of control.

 

[karamreef117]

Marine pure is good for bacteria! I am investing in that and I will let you know how it goes.

 

[jev99]

Ok, then the only spot you have is in chamber 1 to add bio media, if your dead set on it. If you add it to chamber 2, you’ll have less chaeto room. Also I don’t know if you’ll block the small filter that separates 2 and 3. I wouldn’t add it, but to each their own, since you don’t have any issues right now anyways.

snails should live back their, just see them getting stuck, if you let the chaeto get out of control.

Okay I'm not gonna put any bio media back there at since I don't really need it but I will throw a couple of snails in each chamber