Woodrow's new project

[Woodchuck]

Howdy!

Started a system and thought I would share the journey! I am an older guy, some would say senile, and tend to ramble. If you hate posts like that, skip this.

Two 75-gallon Marineland tanks run in tandem, or series I guess. Plan is for one to be the ‘main’ or show tank, the other the refugium. Refugium is 6” higher than the main. I built an inside corner overflow out of ¼” black acrylic for the lower main. Grooved (¼” groove, 3/8” solid…) and bent for a corner: 4” x 8”. 900 GPH pump in there to pump water up into the refugium. Return is a 2” bulkhead with two strainers all made of 2” PVC. I went with two as I can have one lower than the other (None are glued together so are adjustable) and one will be the emergency backup. I am a belt and suspenders kind of man. There is only one hole drilled. Bulkhead comes out to a T, then to a 90, each one has a strainer. Nothing is going to plug that 2” pipe, but it might plug a strainer.

I can adjust the water level of the refugium this way. Currently 3” from the top. 1” of glass showing below the black rim. The main tank water level is 1 1/2” below the rim. Water filling the glass viewing area. I can tickle it as I develop my flows. If the pump goes off, that 1 1/2” will accept the water that overflows from the higher refugium. If the water level is too low and the pump runs dry, the refugium will hold all the water it pumps up. Hrmm… Didn’t explain that really well. Suffice to say no matter what happens in either tank, there is room for the water to seek its own level: no spillage.

I also have a “filter box” that the water pumps into the refugium. It is made from a 1 gallon acrylic flour container. One with the latch on it. I cut/bent two acrylic straps to hold it to the side and fastened with nylon bolts. Cut a hole in the top for a bulkhead, slot in the bottom for water flow, plastic grate 1” off the bottom to put media (If necessary), and an overflow slit on the top, in case the media gets plugged. No spray bar or anything, the water just dumps in through the bulkhead straight down.

Main is bare bottom with an aquascape of local FS bought dry Aragonite. Bought #80, have about half of it left. I did not want to fill the tank with rocks for the aquascape. Used super glue and a few base rocks (Flat bottom) to build it. It goes a little less than half-way up. This will give me, hopefully, room for corals to grow without popping out of the water like I see on other tanks. It also gives me room and places for any ‘live rock’ or local rocks I gather or buy. Yes, it is illegal to harvest from the local reefs, but I occasionally bring up a piece while fishing or on the anchor.

Refugium has about 2” of substrate: #80 of CaribSea Agra-alive. I originally wanted to use local beach sand. I figured there would be a lot of life in that. But, turns out the local sand is grey and most likely silica. It also had way too much life in it to start a tank. TONS of mole crabs and other life. If I tried to start a tank with that sand, they all would die due to no food. I would have ended up with a low tide mess. At least that was my thinking.

Tanks are on a home-made base: 4x4/2x4. I will post pics when I can. I made a slide-out table on each one. What is the one thing you always need when playing with the tanks? A place to put junk as you are working on them! Tanks are 3 ½” from the back wall. This gives me more than enough room for magnetic flow units, wires and to reach down when I inevitably drop something back there. Like no one ever dropped something behind a tank and went ‘Crap, how am I going to get that!’.

Lights are Aqua Star G5. I did some research (With my limited budget) and they get good reviews. I get that nice ‘Kessel’ shimmer I was after and they should grow anything I put in. Main tank has two, refugium has one currently. I was unsure about lighting for the refugium. I built a ‘barrier’ out of the ¼” mesh acrylic to fit across. Plan was to have a section of Sargassum, with the associated life, on one end of it. Also a few Red Mangroves in there. Mangrove pods are like acorns in a Red Oak forest here so might as well try a few. So, not sure what light I will need. Thinking just a 6000k or 6500k ‘cool white’ LED fixture. Sargassum and mangroves need a ton of PAR/Lumens. The sun is brutal here.

So one G5 for part of the tank, to grow macro algae, and something else high intensity for Sargassum and Mangroves. I have lots of time to decide.

I guess that is more than enough for a first post! I will write a second one with what I have so far in the cycling. Remember… I am a bit unconventional but very observant and meticulous.

 

[Woodchuck]

What is a thread without pictures! I can take more of specific areas or go into more details if folks like, just ask. I am sorry for the picture quality. I am just using the phone and the LED’s light spectrum seems to be far from good for pictures.

First is both tanks, empty, on the stands. I was working on the left one (Refugium tank), starting to install the flow system. Everything was fitting per my plans, how is that even possible!

Second is the refugium system setup. On the left is the input box, right is the 2” overflow. Both strainers are adjustable so I can set the water depth as I adjust the overall flow between tanks.

Next is the water cycling plumbing completed. The 90 at the end of the 2” return is adjustable. Looks like I had it pointing down, I have it about 45 degrees now.

Following one is the refugium ‘starter culture’. Yeah, yeah, live sand was added. I feel a starting tank needs a bit more activity/input. The ‘live sand’ will only create the bacteria, you need something for the bacteria to feed on to multiply. Fish for the ammonia production, food for the fish to ‘pollute’ the water for the bacteria to feed on. A few macro algae from local waters to bring in different bacteria and to help with feeding bacteria/copepods. And scavengers to eat poop and stir the substrate up. The 3 containers in the front contain beach surf sand. I put in a new/fresh one each day.

The ’rocks’ on the right and left are dry rock I added to give the occupants a place to hide. Super glue a few scraps together to make a cave type habitat for them. You can see the black grate under the light. I added a few pieces of random macro algae from the inlet. Behind the cups are two pieces of ‘rock’ I gathered from above the low tide level. Legal is anything from low tide level to dunes. You cannot go into the water to grab rocks.

The green on them is some random macro algae and I did bring up a clump of Caulerpa with a minnow trap. I broke it into 4 pieces and planted it with the grey muck the roots were in. You gotta believe there is some activity in that! The Caulerpa might be an issue in the future, or sooner than later. It took it a few days but now is sprouting new growth and the new sprouts grew ½” in a day.

Am I worried about bristle worms and other unwanted hitch hikers? Yes. But as with any ‘live rock’ you get, like from Gulf Live Rock, it is going to have unknown species attached. BTW I did look into them for live sand, I am just across Florida from them, 2 ½ hour drive. A bit out of my price range, but might make the drive for some rock once I am cycled.

And lastly, the tanks as they currently sit. The refugium is on the left, main tank on the right. The main has nothing except the aquascape. All the action is in the left one. Since there is no filtration between them, just the strainers, all copepods/bacteria in the refugium will flow through the main, and back. It should, in theory, seed/populate the rocks.

 

[Woodchuck]

Ya know what I forgot? The most important thing I bet you are all wondering! What do I have for inhabitants??

4 fish: 3” Tomtate Grunt. 3” Yellow Tail Snapper. 3” Dusky Damselfish (Or could be a juvenile Coco damsel) And today I released a 5” white Grunt and replaced with a 5” Clown Wrasse. I wanted a 2” or less Seargent Major, but could only catch larger ones. If I get one tomorrow, I will release the snapper and Tomtate and replace with two or three smaller Seargent Major. I also looked for small Porkfish Grunts. Again, only caught 4” and larger. I know where the juveniles were last year, but this year they are not there. I will find them though!!!

Other inhabitants: 2 Hermit crabs. Medium I would call them. 6 local snails. All had small oysters on them, so thought they would be a good addition. One ½” green crab and one 1/4”, I think Rock crab. Both I put in, they dug into the sand I have not seen them since. I put them in when I had the Grunt, so it might have dug them up and eaten them. Also fed the tank some small Mole Crabs, ¼” or so. I put maybe 30 or so in, a few at a time, but I bet some escaped the feeding frenzy and are living or died in the substrate.

Questions you might ask: Do I expect a messy cycle? Not sure. I would think so but I am able to adjust the population of the refugium. Add/subtract fish/plants, to make adjustments.

So far, all water testing I have done shows nothing as far as ammonia, nitrates or nitrites. I take that back, the Ammonia this morning had a very slight pink tinge. I was expecting more of a spike, perhaps later this week it will. It has only been a week of high bio load.

Other concerns? On sure, lots of them!!! I filled the tank on 9/11/2025. Next day added live sand. On the 13th water cleared up and I spent the next few days adding rocks, fish and macro. I am just beginning to get algae in the main tank. So, been roughly a week for it to start. I have had the lights on expecting it.

I KNOW I have overloaded the bio capacity of the tanks. The fish alone are too much. But they are easy to bring back to the inlet and set free. They live in an environment where the Indian River/Lagoon meets the ocean. The canals that feed the river carry all the nasties from Central Florida farms down here. We are talking brown, nasty water that changes with each tide. Anything that can live by any inlet in South Florida is a mighty hardy species. Yes, we can have good days where the water is crystal clear and you can see 30 feet. Others, like after big rains, you can see maybe a foot.

What I wanted to do is get the cycle off to a booming start. Yeah, maybe it will ‘Yoyo’ levels up and down more? Bacteria thrives, dies, pollutes more so more needs to thrive then die and rebloom… Yes, this could very well be a poor attempt. But… I need to give it a try.

With about 135 gallons of water in the system, it should give me a good buffer. Not like it is 20 gallons and I am doomed. I can always go out in the boat and bring back 50 gallons of gulf stream water, that or use a mix to do a water change. I have lots of time and lots of local resources to try and make this work.

Ok, let the hate or questions begin!