Carbon + refugium in modded HOB filter

[boboyo]

Hi all, I've been looking into growing some pods for my mandarin (I do have enough in my tank and I bought some live ones just in case but I want a steady supply so Kim the mandarin can have infinite food).

I have no sump so when I was setting up I bought an aquaclear hob filter (sponge + carbon + biomax) I was advised to not use the biomax so I never used it and some people also told me to ditch the sponge too which I still keep but rinse out in saltwater twice a week) I have a hob skimmer too.

I spent way more money on this hobby than I imagined so my main option is to have a diy copepod production in a big jar and fill it in the tank every now and then but then I was reading on the benefits of refugiums (I do have high trates from my turbo cycle and still do water changes twice a week to make it go down but like even 20% wcs wont do too much (its 4 20% wc to drop trates by half assuming 0 new trates are produced).

At this point its either buying a refugium or buying a yellow tang which I've always wanted or both but thats a slippery slope to bankruptcy lol. I'm very handy so I was looking into modding my hob 70gallon aquaclear filter which doesnt look hard to do at all. Has anyone on here ever done this? Back when I had diatoms, they would grow on my carbon pouch inside my filter even with the hob filter cover on (the cover is grey and kinda see through) so if i end up making it a fuge, I dont think i need extra light, especially with the filter cover off.

My main question is : if I remove the filter sponge and only keep the carbon at the bottom of the filter, will it be ok to have the top layer serve as a mini refugium? If it's safe I could figure out the rest on my own (please comment on here if youve ever turned your aquaclear hob into a refugium in case I have some quick questions in the future).

Thank you all - this is by far the greatest place for questions

 

[xxkenny90xx]

When you say refugium what do you mean exactly? Are you putting chaeto in there?

Having a separate copapod culture or 2 is a great idea. And it's easy! Have you looked into a diy Paul b brine shrimp feeder? I find that it is the best way to supplement a mandarins diet

 

[boboyo]

When you say refugium what do you mean exactly? Are you putting chaeto in there?

Having a separate copapod culture or 2 is a great idea. And it's easy! Have you looked into a diy Paul b brine shrimp feeder? I find that it is the best way to supplement a mandarins diet

Yes I meant putting chaeto. Paul B’s thing is pretty cool too but I’ll end up doing that once I upgrade. I have a lot of projects going on at once

 

[boboyo]

For anyone reading this, ignore the original post, it’s irrelevant now.

what I did : turned my hob filter into a fuge (put som chaeto in there)

is it normal that it’s turning my water cloudy????

originally I had the sponge and carbon. I took it all out and cleaned everything then made a little mesh wall to keep the chaeto in. Running carbon at the bottom and the chaeto on the top of the hob filter. Water got pretty cloudy as soon as I did that. Could it be the chaeto that blurred up the water? I ended up adding the sponge at bottom to see if that would clear it up. If no ones ever had cloudy water after adding chaeto it’s either the mesh thingy that’s bad or I’m maybe having a bacterial bloom? Skimmer is on, skimming brownish water. I assume it’s diatoms since I have a diatom bloom going on...

 

[xxkenny90xx]

It's probably best to make a new thread about this but let's see a picture of the cloudy water. What kind of mesh did you use? Where did you get the chaeto?