chimera

of course i work - just have plenty of time between contract jobs at the moment it's been quiet lately! it only took 5 minutes to draw that anyway!!!

cool, cheers layton.

exactly what i have read too, around 95% death rate in alot of cases. so either way, water returned from sump OR refugium will mean dead pods. its the pump thats going to kill them. hence reason for fuge above tank and gravity fed as a preference. btw, i was saying above that i think the fuge after is preferential, but if it comes to it and design does not allow for it, (IMO) not crucial. to explain my point, picture it this way: assume fuge is before sump, how does water get from the fuge to the sump? via the overflow right - it's the only way - so thats how the pods get there too. so now picture your main tank, how does water (typically) get out? again, the overflow. of course you're hoping your main tank is full of pods too feed the fish - but a % of those pods will go down the overflow and direct into the skimmer (if the sumps first) - so essentially you're always losing pods. reason i said preferential having sump/skimmer first though, is there is (hopefully) a larger growth of pods in the fuge (time factor - allowing them to grow). this of course means if you play the percentage game, a greater number of pods should get back to the main tank alive.

in the sump. idea of refugium (for me) is for nutrient export

finally found it again, I've been looking for this specific link for ages, Albert J Thiel's "THE MARINE FISH AND INVERT REEF AQUARIUM" reference guide: http://www.netpets.com/fish/reference/thielbook/thieltoc.html almost everything you wanted to know about everything that tastes and looks like salt part of the netpets fish library: http://www.netpets.com/fish/fishref.html

either or, IMO I dont think it matters too much. i see plenty of people using fuge before (contrary to the fact that pods make it to the main tank if used after) and plenty of people using it after. it would make more sense to have it after though, especially if you're designing it from scratch now.

water flow not an issue as I have powerheads in there at the moment anyway. The fuge is 4 foot with overflow to the sump and back up to the main tank. Heres a quick sketch of what I was thinking, pretty simple really, not much too it. Was trying to figure out a better way to do the baffles though. The idea is the baffles are to separate the sand and LR from the caleurpa. I know macroalgae gives pods some protection and shelter but I dont think I'd bother with having a fish in the refugium. caleurpa on the left, DSB and LR on the right.

i could not do this either as i have no room to do it (easily) however my main reasoning for not even considering it was because the main tank would have enough sand/rock to sustain my mandarin (and the rest of the fish). my primary intention of the fuge was to breakdown nutrients. i suppose there is no reason why i can't manually swap substrate between fuge and main tank every few months though!

im considering designing my refugium more into sections, baffles in between each. first section would contain caleurpa and second a DSB and LR. any other ideas?

It's a catch-22 situation really...

this is still dependant upon what algae Duke has. If it's cyanobacteria, probably the easiest way to describe how it's caused is 'when nutrients meet light in an aquarium'. Typically the biggest cause is phosphates, and as cracker has suggested, it will often appear during the early establishment phases (around 5 or 6 months) If you keep it under control by having a good maintenance plan (including water changes), have good optimised skimming, good water flow and good lighting the cyano will not be visible (I say 'not be visible' rather than 'disappear' as all tanks have cyano, its just the ongoing maintenance and filtration that dictates whether it will reappear and spread again) It is evil stuff because it spreads so quickly, covering your sand, rocks etc and covering/killing good algae's like coralline. If you can get through this phase and have good coralline growth, then it simply gets out-numbered. It will reappear if you slack off with your maintenance though. Hence why I believe RODI or a good source of phosphate-free water is so crucial (and the main reason Im buying a TDS meter from marine depot!) Regarding bubble algae, here's a quote from saltaquarium.about.com (IMO, get rid of it)

you haven't clarified the type of algae? bubbles - but are they green bubbles as in valonia? or red bubbles on top of a red slime as in cyano?

all i'm saying is you get what you pay for

sell it and buy eheim

algae like that only grows when it outcompetes good algae (like the coralline's) phosphates maybe too high? (get a low range test kit) check again. only time will fix, just keep removing the best you can. you could increase LR (if you dont have enough)

cute!

is the algae red and slimey under the bubbles? if so it's cyano. the bubbles are it's waste product. check water quality/flow, lighting, optimise skimming, increase biological filtration, etc, etc. http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/reefref/cyanobacteria2.html if green and round, it's bubble algae or valonia. don't pop the spores or they will spread. manually remove carefully. http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/algaecontrol/a/aa011501.htm

design some more... and then some more. make everything bigger than you require and restrict it now if necessary. remember once the tank is full - or more in your case aquascaped, you wont want to have to empty to change anything.

IMO a return over the top is best. if you dont like the position of the return, you can move it. you can also add on a device like a sea-swirl later on if you ever wanted. if it's drilled, you've got to get it right first time.

hydroflow. yeah they are pretty cool. work well on low/medium flow closed loop system - i reckon they would be PERFECT on a nano. brian - i put one aside for you as requested ages ago. let me know when you want it, if not let me know and ira can buy it instead if he's interested.

Yeah I do this too, but would rather do it some other way.

so you include the water in the main tank (ie: take a "vertical" column of water above the bulkhead in the bottom of the tank) to the top of the tank and count this as downward pressure into the pipe, then this would make sense. im thinking too much in regards to head height rather than pressure, which are two different things as head is measured to the top of the water line of the main tank - regardless of where it's being pumped back into the tank. still mildly confused :-? is pressure rated this way too?

well that's where you are lucky. my sand turns brownish over time with algae growth. i would your white sand down to very well directed water flow and good lighting. also the extra life you have also helps turns it over too. i actually noticed once my closed loop went in, the sand stays whiter for a much longer period of time. also reduced growth with new bulbs (go figure) still, i'm convinced water movement helps considerably - once a couple of powerheads go in, i'll see if this helps. however i would still like something that will sift the sand around and help maintain the white appearance.

hence why i used 2 tubes of silicon on my tank and 5 rolls of teflon tape :lol:

that's what i actually thought - and it's been bugging me all day. even drew a picture to clarify it in my own head! its only no back pressure if there is no air in the system - hence like a closed loop. a 3/4" sea swirl would be ideal for you brian :lol: perhaps overkill on a nano but would still produce wicked water movement.