[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Thanks for the detailed description as I am in the same boat tying to figure out what to do with my refugium. I had the same issue with phosphate being higher than nitrate, when I first started using the pellets both elements started to decrease but once nitrate reach undetectable levels the phosphate stopped decreasing. I was stuck with that bit of phosphate that I couldn't get rid off no matter what I tried, then finally I started running Rowaphos. Vorla, All of sudden phosphate dropped to zero, well I guess not exactly zero but good enough that my Hanna phosphate test kit reads zero. Now because I am running pellets, Rowaphos and carbon, I am planning to get rid of my refugium with semi dsb( only around 4 inches of sand) with LR and run a oversized vertex 300 cone skimmer. I just don't think the refug is needed anymore. The only down side to all this is pellets takes away oxygen, absorbs other metal elements and it address the ph swing during night time plus after I started running pellets I noticed my orp dropped from 450 to 375. Its hard to decide what to do, i guess refugium is good if you use a little bit of pellets and are able to grow chaetos and harvest it frequently. One question, I always thought it takes a bit of work to dose vodka maybe you should try rowaphos, it just seem to be a lot less work.

rowaphos is less work, but expensive for what it is. Vodka dosing isn't that bad, and eventually I will automate. The bacteria produced from the vodka also gives you the benefit of the bacteria, just like the Pellets, but I think in a grander scale.