fuge in sump questions

[wubaguba]

Hello. I have a about a 7 month old reef tank: 75gal AG aquarium w/ AG stand, berlin skimmer, Pro Clear wet/dry sump (rated to 125gal), 80 lbs LR, 4x65 PC lights, fish & inverts only so far. I have read a lot about refugiums and would like to set one up. My question is:

Can I remove the bio balls from my undercabinet wet/dry sump and turn it into a fuge? If so, could someone tell me how...what lights, plants, etc. to buy? The area where the bio balls used to be is about 8x8 inches, and about 10 inches deep. Under that is a grate and under the grate is another 4 inches of depth with nothing but a sponge to block the flow to the other side of the sump.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

-Bill

 

[Gtot]

look at the pix i posted..we have the same thing! "HELP" topic

how does the skimmer works for you? im gonna try to do the same thing and put a live rock down there...hopefully thats doable.

 

[ChrisRD]

Sure, taking out the bioballs and using that spot for growing macros would work fine. You can use any light source that will grow plants. I've used a cheap PC worklight from WalMart (do a search for Lights of America) - that worked fine for a couple of years. Any fluorescent or halide lighting that would normally grow photosynthetic plants will work fine.

As for species of macros to grow, Chaetamorpha sp. and Graciliaria sp. seemed to be favored today over Caulerpa sp. which can emit stuff that's bad for your corals and occasionally melt down (aka going sexual).

 

[Anonymous]

If you still only have rock and fish you can probably just yank the bio balls and be ok but if I were you I would probably remove 1/2, wait a couple weeks, another 1/2 and 2 more weeks, then yank the rest.

I don't know if you can do it by how your sump is described here, but if you can put a layer of sand down in the bottom that'll be the start of your fuge.. - From there some rock and macro algea(s) would complete a "contemporary" or "popular" fuge. A couple macros I've heard a lot of good about are gracillaria and chaetomorphia..

HTH,
Norm

Edit: Sorry, delayed post there.. - Watching shark week on Discovery.. :wink:

 

[wubaguba]

Thanks guys. Very helpful, as usual.