Home Made Refugium Mud Question

Reefhabit · Oct 30, 2009

I been talking with a few reefers in the Palmdale, Lancaster area and they all swear by the Miracle mud or mud refugium systems. I totally believe that it can harbor anaerobic bacteria therefore helping to eliminate nitrates from the water. I also heard it helps with trace elements in the water but they said they use dirt collected from the San Bernardino Forest!!!
One guy told me I can make my own mud but make sure that I collect it from a pristine unpolluted area.
So I did that and rinsed it and leached it out with old saltwater. Now it is in my refugium.
My question is would you guys worry about using home made Refugium Mud???

gilmour01 · Oct 30, 2009

i'd at least check the water it was cured in for nitrates and phosphates before adding it to my system. i'd be leary, but i guess it could be ok.

Reeferdood · Oct 30, 2009

Yup,
I would worry..Seng Li is rich from this so called mud, just another "snake oil product" IMHO.. Personally, I think refugiums are just a place to grow pods & algae. In order for a fuge to do any good at nutrient export, it needs to be way larger than your main display.. But, on another note... If it is working for you, then use it... The longer I am in this hobby, the more I see different methods of sucessful reefkeeping.. None of which are right nor wrong..

AlexStinson · Oct 30, 2009

I would be very worried. Do you know what kind of clay it is? many clays can be dense in heavy metals, some rapidly absorb pollutants, I hope you did your homework

noobreef408 · Oct 30, 2009

you are nuts. just get a bunch of live rocks instead ? hence "berlin" style. ur going to regret it if u dont do somethign right today in the future.

Reefhabit · Oct 30, 2009

noobreef408 said:
you are nuts. just get a bunch of live rocks instead ? hence "berlin" style. ur going to regret it if u dont do somethign right today in the future.

Thanks for the quick response guys. I removed it eventhough I collected it from a clean source. Yeah not sure if the clay contains heavy metals. Good point!!!
What does adding more live rock do? Doesn't live rock just harbor nitrifying bacteria? How does that help with the anaerobic process? Does live rock help to eliminate nitrates deep within the rock? The only thing I have in my sump is a bunch of razor caleurpa and a skimmer.
Well so far those guys using the home made mud havn't had any problems using the San Bernadino Mountains dirt but then again their tanks were nothing to shout over.