Refugium idea

[GARRIGA]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
Just posted on another thread that too much nitrification is not good. Plants & coral prefer ammonia uptake and fish can handle 2ppm of ammonia.

In my research the ceramic media is wasted money. Unless you maintain it by keeping it’s surface clean, it will experience biofouling.

Getting the most out of ceramic media requires ample per-filtering although from speaking with Dr Hovac they will eventually foul with biofilm therefore I no longer see them as valid filtration as far as their internal structure is concern and only in that they weight less than gravel and surface area being most important and why perhaps going back to sponges from coarse to fine or using a sand filter best were one wanting to maximize biological filtration.

I grasp what Randy is saying as to biological impeding coral's access to nutrients but not all start with or have a full grown tank and may need to rely on other means to keep fish waste reduced or eliminated plus my contention has always been that corals and plants in the display have first access to that produced by fish and final polish once that waste gets pulled from the display likely not an issue. Fish will continue to poop and urinate providing display inhabitants with a target rich environment of waste.

 

[GARRIGA]

I don't really understand a reverse UG still. Does it go in the main display?

In the refugium as I understand Subsea and how I'm implementing it. Although Paul has been running his display with reverse flow UG 50 plus years supplemented with occasional DE filtering.

 

[Subsea]

I don't really understand a reverse UG still. Does it go in the main display?

It can go anywhere. I use it in the display with 2” of aragonite substrate. The surface area available for bacteria colonization is quite large. By flowing up thru the substrate, you prevent detritus from getting sucked sucked down into the substrate and plugging it up. These bacteria will consume large amounts of oxygen as will your fish.

PS: Another advantage of aragonite substrate is passive alkalinity bufferring and trace mineral addiction.

 

[Subsea]

It can go anywhere. I use it in the display with 2” of aragonite substrate. The surface area available for bacteria colonization is quite large. By flowing up thru the substrate, you prevent detritus from getting sucked in substrate and plugging it up. These bacteria will consume large amounts of oxygen as will your fish.

PS: Another advantage of aragonite substrate is passive alkalinity bufferring and trace mineral addiction.

While I can’t prove how much it helps, the plenum void under ug filter is another cryptic refugium. Not sure if that helps a large FOWLR display.