45 Gallon Shallow Reef Build

[CBonito]

Alright so, the fish showed up.

First of all Fedex can KMA! They were 2 hours late.

The fish were all cold. My midas blenny looked like a deer in the headlights and my flame hawk was pale as hell and lethargic.
The chromis arrived fine.

They all look great now, but it was pretty much on the edge of where the fish would probably shock and die. I'll get better pictures later when the dust settles.

Flame Hawk...

Midas Blenny. He looks like crap in this pic, but he's a really nice orange yellow color now.

And my my chromis who the wrasse seems pretty fond of.

 

[CBonito]

Ok, so whoever made frozen food cubes, I don't like you. They are annoying to have to cut up to feed my fish because 1 or even a half for my tank is too much.

I won't be buying this anymore. I'll get the big frozen slabs of it so I can break off a small piece instead of dealing with all this bull. LOL

My ORP for whatever reason was dismally low. It's over 200 now. Might have had something to do with my cycle. I dont know. Everything is still great though.

About to feed and take head count.

 

[CBonito]

Vid of everyone this morning. Except maybe my Flame Hawk who is being a shady fool in the right rock pile somewhere.

So everyone that arrived yesterday made it through the night.

So what kind of beneficial critters do people with wrasses and flame hawks use?

 

[CBonito]

And don't laugh at how loud it is! I have an open standpipe. I was a dumas and ordered the wrong maggy muffler last time. I have another coming today. Then I can turn up my return pump every time I want to blow off the rocks haha.

 

[CBonito]

Got that maggy muffler on my drain. Now instead of gurgling and sucking noises, I get whistling through the air hole. LOL That was a winner. hahaha I guess I'll get used to it. It is a lot quieter than how it was.

 

[Patx]

Noisy nice ! :)
Do you know the type of caulerpa you have ?

 

[CBonito]

Noisy nice ! :)
Do you know the type of caulerpa you have ?

I'm thinking it's Caulerpa Prolifera that I have on my rocks.
I just spent some time with tweezers removing a lot of it, but I'll never get it all. It grows really fast.

I am getting my mud refugium online right now and I am going to use the Red Gracillaria to out-compete it.

 

[Patx]

Look at brachypus (maybe)
Caulerpa are hard to out-compete...
Extreme low nutrient for a long time (no3) may work... (or vibrant :( )

 

[CBonito]

Alright, so this is the part I was supposed to do when I started the tank, but was more intent on getting drunk after all the other stuff I did, so it never got done. And it's a good thing, because it gave me some time to think about how to approach it.

This is going to be my dedicated refugium. It is going behind the display tank and will be fed by a manifold I have behind the tank off the main pump and will be gravity fed back into my return compartment.

Why am I doing it that way? Well, if I send my tank drain through it, the flow will be way too mucho...gringo.
With the tap off my manifold, I can control the flow of water with a ball valve to get the flow I need and increase my return pump speed so the flow to the tank isn't altered by that.

Most of what the refugium dumps into the return compartment will go to the tank, and yeah a small amount will return to the refugium, so that's fine.

It looks like a piece of crap, but I just have to wipe it down. It's really like new. It's basically calcium film now that was all eaten away with some citric. In this will be 5 lbs of miracle mud, some red gracillaria and I will be seeding it with a scoop of another mud refugium, pods, phyto etc until it's populated.

When I am behind the tank, It will be facing me as shown. So water will enter the right side with a 1/2" pipe dropped into the nifty bracket on top for support, and will exit at the front left chamber through a 1" bulkhead drilled right through the side of the refugium at the proper water level where it will drop into my return compartment over the back of my sump.

Anti-siphon precautions will be taken on the feed line for when I kill my pump. Everything will work great.

And sump capacity is no problem. Doing it this way ensures I'll never have any floods.

This will likely be the most important part of my system. It will produce food, export nutrients and supposedly provide proper trace elements....the third part I can't prove. All I know is that my most successful tank ran on this method and it was awesome.

I picked up that little reef breeder refugium light for like 40something bucks brand new.

Stay tuned! I think I'm gonna brave this job tonight. LOL I really want to have this up and running as soon as possible.

 

[CBonito]

Look at brachypus (maybe)
Caulerpa are hard to out-compete...
Extreme low nutrient for a long time (no3) may work... (or vibrant :( )

It will eventually starve out. Until then, I'll just keep pulling it.
The last time I did one of these mud refugiums, it completely transformed my tank.
I had clams (from the seafood market), sponges, tube worms, and all kinds of other stuff in there and the water quality became amazing. The corals were all extremely happy as well and I rarely ever fed my fish.

 

[JoJosReef]

It will eventually starve out. Until then, I'll just keep pulling it.
The last time I did one of these mud refugiums, it completely transformed my tank.
I had clams (from the seafood market), sponges, tube worms, and all kinds of other stuff in there and the water quality became amazing. The corals were all extremely happy as well and I rarely ever fed my fish.

I can't wait to see how this work/turns out. Will be considering once the big boy upgrade comes along!

 

[CBonito]

I can't wait to see how this work/turns out. Will be considering once the big boy upgrade comes along!

This refugium is plenty for this tank size. More than it needs to be, so the results should be pretty good.
The way I look at this is that I have it here and I'd be a fool to not use it. Especially since I've had good success with it before. I was using this as a normal sump on a nano I had years ago and forgot I still had it!

Just installed a 1" bulkhead in the side of it where it will drain to the sump. There is thick poly filament stuff shoved in the compartment before it so nothing sizeable could ever block the drain. It's basically ready to place and plumb.

There we go...drain bulkhead in the left side that will drain to the sump, and we got 5 lbs of mud. Yeah boy! LOL

 

[CBonito]

I am seeing a couple small patches of hair algae on the tips of a couple rocks.

I absolutely must get my refugium in and running today though, so I can go down the street tomorrow and pick up some bags of algae and a few pieces of rubble to get things started in there. I got a red refugium light that will run opposite of what my tank does...maybe even some overlap we'll see.

I am going to order a bazillion pods too. That should be enough. lol

My salinity probe has been a real PITA. I've had to shake it off once a day, but I havent touched it in like 2 days, so maybe whatever that is about is calming down. Everything is running fine as far as the Apex is concerned. Tank is very quiet now as well. Only sound is water which is actually pleasant.

Fish are all still fine.

I am glad I did not buy any corals yet. I've been tempted, but I'm going to let it wait while the system works through whatever is ahead. When I see people put corals in a new tank and then get a hair outbreak, it makes me sad. lol Part of doing this right is having the discipline. MMMPH!!! :grinning-squinting-face:

 

[CBonito]

Ok, so I slapped myself in the mirror a few times, and got motivated enough to get my refugium plumbed into my system. I was avoiding it because it was kind of a PITA getting the pipes measured and cut in that awkward space. But it's in, it's nice and neat, solid and I just have to make up some more water. It's behind the tank and out of the way. It takes water off that manifold on the right and puts water in below the water line for no splash, and on the left it drains into that bulkhead, the pipe goes around back of the refugium slopes down slightly to the sump and dumps water directly into the baffle between the skimmer and pump compartments in my sump to kill splash and bubbles. It can easily be disconnected or moved for maintenance since I used unions.

I like this setup because in the right compartment I have an extra place where I could put a fish that's being a moron or bio media or a reactor or whatever...and then I have the actual refugium compartment. I have 3 balls of red gracilaria because I like it, but I am going to throw stuff off my live rock in there too, some rock rubble and I am going to stock it with pods for starters. I will throw some clams in there as well because they are awesome for this. And I want a mangrove just because. I dont know if it will help anything, but if it grows it's doing something. And the light is a reef breeders refugium light. Seems plenty for what I'm doing here.

I like this arrangement because I can still walk behind the tank and get to anything I need and see what's happening in there. It's kind of unconventional, but it makes great use of the space.
Getting to the inside of the control cabinet on the other side is as easy as turning it and walking in behind it from the other direction. It's amazing how well this all fit together.

Tomorrow I will make some water to fill the fuge and open the valve on the manifold. Then it's running.
Just want to let the pipe glue dry and the fumes to dissipate before I move any water. Gotta wipe the refugium panes down a bit too. It's just a film of dissolved calcium.

After a while, all kinds of stuff will populate this mud in the refugium and without any predators, there will be a huge source of food for the fish, and a very noticeable improvement in water quality. I could probably flush pods into the tank just by opening the valve more for a minute, then closing it back down. There's only so much a skimmer can do. Last time it took a few months because I never stocked anything, but it should be quick this time around since I am. I think this will be one of the key items that makes this tank do well. All you have to do is feed live phyto and things really take off. I'm already doing it now in the display too.

Anyway, other than the automated testing and dosing mess I intend to get into in the future, the system is pretty much done. Everything is in place and works. Life is swell. lol

Just a few months ago, this was a pile of boxes and receipts. We're almost there!

Now I just have to sit back for a little bit and I'll be able to try some corals.
Pretty excited!

 

[CBonito]

Got my refugium running. Time flies when you're doing annoying stuff. LOL
Anyway, it's running slowly right now and i have 3 balls of gracilaria in there. I am ordering pods, a mangrove (because it looks like something) and more phyoplankton to get this thing moving. I'm excited to see how it helps my system this time around. It made my 90 gallon tank rock. I did see a big pod in there. Must have came in the algae. Hope that's all that came in. lol

I wonder what kind of flow I need through this thing? I'm feeding it with a half inch line off my return manifold and I have a varios 6 pump so there's plenty of snort...I know people like their algae to tumble. I think I'm going to crank it up a bit tomorrow and get my return compartment level re-squared

Oh, and you know what? It's pretty quiet. I can barely hear it over my normal circulation noise.
It's not annoying at all. My ph is higher too, so that doesn't suck. We'll see if the stability tightens up a bit now with this running reverse daylight.

The mud clouded the water a bit so that's gotta clear up too...

 

[CBonito]

The added water volume seems to have my 300 watt heater on the edge of not being enough.
I need to see if my LFS has a 200 watt or so titanium element for me. But it might just be because it gets a little colder on my third floor where this tank is and it's snowing outside.

I already see pods in my refugium so that's kinda nice. Going to order a jar of galaxy pods, a mangrove, and some phyto from algae barn. I used to use DTs phytoplankton the last time I had a tank, but this stuff is good. DTs would sometimes be half dead from sitting at a store forever which would get me PO'd every time.

Anyway...

 

[CBonito]

Since I am diverting some tank return flow to my refugium, my return flow tanked and the benefits of having an overkill DC pump shine. I made up a small amount of salt water for my return compartment so the level/salinity isn't messed with, and then I turned up my varios 6 pump to 2. LOL We're rolling...I'm getting about 300gph in the tank through RFGs which is nice and 180 through the refugium. There is a slow sort of tumble of what appears to be tank debris and live organisms scooting around already. Exactly what I am shooting for. The water surface throughout the whole refugium is surface skimmed clean which is cool because the more light I can get down to the algae the better. There are also pods in the Gracillaria which is great! I am feeding phytoplankton to the refugium first and whatever else can make it to the tank. In the beginning it's best to do it this way so whatever creatures are in there start to multiply.

I have to admit, I love the pink glow of the grow light behind the tank.
But that's all you see. Pretty cool. Or not...you decide. I love that it's hidden, but still easily accessible.
I can actually sit back there on a bucket with my face glued to it. I'm funny like that. I like to watch what's happening to get indications of whether I'm smart or an idiot.
When I kill the pumps, the sump handles all the drainage just fine. No way anything can overflow on me.

Oh, and I got a 500 watt finnex titanium heater element because my 300 watt is barely hanging on.
I'm rocking a massive 80 gallons now. Half of my system is sump and refugium. This will help me with better stability. I have always rocked a large sump in proportion to the tank. It's always a good idea.

Anyway, gotta order some pods, a Mangrove, some more phytoplankton and something else I am forgetting now.

So, there's my awesome tank of rocks, sleeping fish, and a refugium. haha!
Gotta stay the course and be patient.

 

[dangit]

I like the refug light glow... Im thinking about adding some leds to the back of my tank to add a similar glow.. I’ve seem it done before and I like the contrast of blue lights with some leds behind it!

The huge sump makes me want a larger one too lol… trying to clean pumps, rollers, skimmer in a small sump is a pain lol… next time I guess

Can’t wait to see the corals you add but yea gotta have patience. my tank is about 3 months old and I still only have only coral. It’s hard to control myself lol but soon more will come

 

[CBonito]

I like the refug light glow... Im thinking about adding some leds to the back of my tank to add a similar glow.. I’ve seem it done before and I like the contrast of blue lights with some leds behind it!

The huge sump makes me want a larger one too lol… trying to clean pumps, rollers, skimmer in a small sump is a pain lol… next time I guess

Can’t wait to see the corals you add but yea gotta have patience. my tank is about 3 months old and I still only have only coral. It’s hard to control myself lol but soon more will come

Yeah, it's real hard for me to refrain. I see coral I want every day on here and I just have to sit back and shut up. hahaha

I'm amazed how quickly this refugium is populating itself. I have pods all over in there now.

 

[dangit]

Yeah, it's real hard for me to refrain. I see coral I want every day on here and I just have to sit back and shut up. hahaha

I'm amazed how quickly this refugium is populating itself. I have pods all over in there now.

What kind of macro algae are you using?What light do you have on it? How long do you run it for? Do you know your nitrate or phosphate levels?

The reason I ask is I had a hard time getting my refugium going and eventually took out the chaeto as it was constantly dying. I wasn’t 100% sure why but I thought it was due to having a new aquarium and there not being enough nutrients to sustain.