Jump to content

Refugiums


revolutionhope

Recommended Posts

I am seeking ideas etc for how to setup a sump with refugium and would like to ask if anyone can share pictures and/or dagrams (if you sketched any) of their setup and any insights they may have!

Love n peace

Will

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks@jayc yep I love his setup and I've been following the thread :-)

Jarad has been a big help advising me for how to plumb my future setup.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I drew this up for @revolutionhope today. It is just a rough guide but will help anyone setting up a sump with refugium with the basic principals of what is needed for a 3 section setup. Drawing is not to scale.
DSBs ( deep sand beds ) get a bit of negative attention and are more commonly used in marine setups however adding one to your shrimp / freshwater setup is a great way to deal with nitrates, DSBs can only become dangerous when disturbed ( Pro tip, don't disturb DSBs XD )

 

Untitled-3.jpg

Edited by Jarad G Davey
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jarad G Davey said:

DSBs can only become dangerous when disturbed ( Pro tip, don't disturb DSBs

There are pro tips,  and there is Jayc's Pro tip - "you don't have to use sand in the refugium. You can use inert gravel or plant substrates. It is going to be used to grow plans afterall."

The plant substrates will add to the overall pH of the system,  so be careful. Use inert gravel if you don't want pH to drop to low. But plant substrates don't have the negatives of deep and beds which can trap nasty gases.

When the buffering has been expired in old substrate, a refugium is a nice and easy way of adding new buffering substrate without disturding the main tank layout. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

1 minute ago, jayc said:

There are pro tips,  and there is Jayc's Pro tip - "you don't have to use sand in the refugium. You can use inert gravel or plant substrates. It is going to be used to grow plans afterall."

The plant substrates will add to the overall pH of the system,  so be careful. Use inert gravel if you don't want pH to drop to low. But plant substrates don't have the negatives of deep and beds which can trap nasty gases.

When the buffering has been expired in old substrate, a refugium is a nice and easy way of adding new buffering substrate without disturding the main tank layout. 

I completely agree with you, and yeah there are other denitrification methods. I'm a hardcore sand man , as a result of habit you could say :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Jarad G Davey said:

hardcore

Lol all good. 

 

Just had a thought,  that last section of the refugium, it doesn't need to be empty. Use that space for Marinepure blocks or similarly high surface area bio media.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, jayc said:

Lol all good. 

 

Just had a thought,  that last section of the refugium, it doesn't need to be empty. Use that space for Marinepure blocks or similarly high surface area bio media.

I have my mesh nets of mineral balls and alder cones in there, as well as a decent sponge filter :)

20160912_191339.jpg

Edited by Jarad G Davey
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, jayc said:

Chuck in some ceramic rings at the very least.

Keeping it minimal, the existing filtration ; both mechanical and biological is more than adequate :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...