Maintaining a Refugium

[R33FERnatic]

Should I clean/siphon bottom of my refugium?

 

[joseserrano]

If you want, but I wouldn’t do it too often

 

[R33FERnatic]

Is it better to clean the bottom once in a while or don’t touch it?

 

[joseserrano]

What’s your goal with doing so

 

[laverda]

I would say a lot depends of you refugium. Typicly I would say no, but your sump may very well need cleaning, if you getting a lot of detrus building up. It just depends on the design of everything.

 

[R33FERnatic]

My goal is to have food for the anthias and reduce phosphate and nitrates. I have an Eshopps Channel Desgin sump. It has a dedicated refugium chamber.
I have mix reviews. I never cleaned it in the past. But recently saw some people say the clean them.

 

[joseserrano]

It will not provide food for anthias. It’s more for pods, which are for dragons, pipe fish, ... regarding actual nutrient export, it also will not do much unless the space in the sump is a good ratio to display. You are better off reducing food, more water changes, or mechanical filtration.

 

[five.five-six]

Should I clean/siphon bottom of my refugium?

Yes!!!!

Then package it and sell it as “miracle mud”

 

[Neon_reefer]

substrates will develop gases so it is a good idea to put a few pieces of live rock over the sand, and get a pistol shrimp that will dig around daily, and stir up your sand bed.. That is what i did to my 20 gallon stand alone refugium that is attached to my 100G display.

I have tons of pods and chaeto growing in there.

 

[Reeferkcp]

I guess if u struggle with nutrients u should clean it out? My fuge works too well so I’m hoping to get detritus to break down to provide phos and nitrate to feed my corals

it all depends on what ur trying to achieve

 

[R33FERnatic]

Thank you everyone for replying and sharing their knowledge on this. Much appreciated. My fuge was looking pretty dirty when I made this post. I wasn’t sure if I should siphon it or not because I got mix opinion on it.
I ended up doing a one time siphon since. My fuge looks a lot better now.
I tested for phos and nitrate yesterday and both are at zero.

 

[Jimbo327]

I was just going to say if you have high nitrate and phosphate, then siphon it out will reduce those levels. But if you are low on those, then I would not siphon it because the detritus breaks down into nitrates/phosphates. Some people prefer to run their tanks a little dirty because of their corals preference.

 

[R33FERnatic]

That’s a very good point.

 

[ddelmonaco]

I was just going to say if you have high nitrate and phosphate, then siphon it out will reduce those levels. But if you are low on those, then I would not siphon it because the detritus breaks down into nitrates/phosphates. Some people prefer to run their tanks a little dirty because of their corals preference.

In my LPS tanks I usually tend to leave it alone and let it collect, I do have some clean up crew in there but depends on how your sump is configured. With my prior sps only systems I treated the sump the same as the display as far as keeping it free of detritus and other foreigns

 

[R33FERnatic]

Aaah ok. I currently don’t have any cleaning crew in the sump. I think that’s a good idea. I will ad some asap. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

[Quotes]

In my LPS tanks I usually tend to leave it alone and let it collect, I do have some clean up crew in there but depends on how your sump is configured. With my prior sps only systems I treated the sump the same as the display as far as keeping it free of detritus and other foreigns

What type of clean up crew do you usually keep in your sump?

 

[ddelmonaco]

I keep some hermits and few snails in there. From time to time I will throw in some peppermint shrimp and on occasion a filefish to control any aptasia pop ups. The way I have my fuge is a separated area between filter rollers and skimmer area which is screened at either end so they can’t escape into any other areas or get sucked into skimmer pump or return. I also have a 7’ sump so that may not be practical for most others application. I had a previously smaller sump that had a fuge post the return area that would recycle back into the return pickup area that had small enough slits that critters wouldn’t pass through as well. Can also diy a screen/weir type blockade out of scrap acrylic