HOB Refugium for NANO Anyone using them?
 

I don't have room for a sump, but i want the benefits of one. I went out and got an Aquaclear 110 yesterday, which is the largest that will fit on the back of my 40g Fluval Nano cube. I put about 5 lbs of live sand in it, plus about 1.5 lbs of established live rock rubble. I took all the filtration media out, just left the basket in there to create a wall between the powerhead chamber and the old media chamber which is where the rock and sand now are. I am picking up the Coralife 9" PC light (9w actinic + 9w 10k) to go over the top of the fuge area next week and will put it on a timer, 12hrs on, 12hrs off. I set it up last night and peeked in after lights out and it was crawling with life, good news for my soon to be coming home mandarin!

Questions for those that have one or have seen one in use.

Should i slow the flow down even more than i have now (the 110 has an adjustment that lets you cut flow by 2/3, but that is still 167 gph flow)? If so, what works best to do this?

Is there other beneficial stuff i should put in with the rock and sand? I have heard of some guys using chaeto (sp) but don't know what it is or why you would put it in there

Any other tips or tricks?

because you are using your fuge for pod growth, I would reccomend a little bit of chaeto. Also, flow rate should be fine

I hope the sand is somehow seperated as it will kill the pump in no time if it gets in there....

I have the same things setup with no light yet, but I just have rubble in mine....

I've been contemplating putting one on my tank (even though I have a fuge below my tank). It would be a nice way to introduce an extra food source to the tank that doesn't get chopped up and I'm always looking for something extra I can do to my tank that's relatively low cost. :mrgreen:

You might want to check out this link. His mod is pretty slick.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=1

that mod is slick, i am going to do that over the next two nights. i have head that stuff chaeto mentioned numerous times but no one i have spoken to can tell me what it is or where to get it from.

Chaeto is beneficial Algae that alot of people use in the sumps or fuges to help controll nitrates etc. It also makes a great breeding ground for pods Check the LFS in your area or post in the area forum that you're looking for some and I'm sure you'll be able to find lots

thanks!

It has been awhile, but I used to keep a large refugium for my 75 gal. I used it as a DSB, a place to grow macros and for pods to reproduce. If you are using it to grow Chaeto or other macro algae for nutrient export then you can run a high trun over rate. I seem to recall that Anthony Calfo recommended no less than 10 or 20 times turnover an hour for the refugium and bright light. If you are wanting mostly pods then Dr. Ron had recommended a much lower flow- around 5 X or less.

I used to keep a fairly low turnover rate to grow pods- the macro was just a bonus and a place for the pods to grow. As I recall I only had two PC lights from the home depot screwed into a clip on socket for light. Having said all of this I doubt that you will get enough pods to keep a mandarin out of a fairly small refugium. As I recall, mandarins need LOTS of pods in order to be happy and not starve. One possibility that you may want to look into is keeping a separate place to raise pods. You would not have it plumbed directly into the main tank, but a mandarin is not the only thing that would be competing for the pods and culturing them would likely be your best bet. (IMHO)

Well, i got it modified now, loaded it with chaeto, couple pounds of live sand and about 1 1/2 lbs of LR, loaded the middle chamber with chaeto. The water flows over the first divider, under the second (mainly, some spills over the surface) I left the lid off until i can get my dedicated lights on. I will post some pics once i get the lights on it. I had to load the intake tube with foam to slow the flow down some, so now i have MORE maintenance each week, although the chaeto theoretically should consume the phosphate and nitrates that it produces. Obviously cleaning them though will allow the chaeto do do its intended job with the tank. I am going to take some baseline water quality measurements now to compare to see if it does anything but grow macro and pods (which is all i want for mandarin food).

One thing to note...the Saltwater Coralife won't grow macro nearly as well as the FW version. They are the same with different bulbs. I tried to grow stuff in my fuge with the 10k & Actinic but they barely grew...switched the bulbs for 6700k and things took off a lot more.