Eshopps R-300 Sump Refugium

Jack22 · Jul 24, 2018

Been running a 120 gallon tank with an R-300 advanced series sump for about 6 months. The issue I’m having is with the refugium chamber.
Because the water flows in from the side it doesn’t flow across the Refugium chamber so the macro doesn’t tumble. I have a good sized chunk of calurpa, some sea lettuce, and a small piece of gracilaria in there. It all just floats up to the top and sits there, then I get a blanket of cyano that grows on the top. The light I’m using is an LED, not sure the brand, think it’s for a nono tank. I added a small power head but it just circulates the water underneath the floating mass of algea. I’ve tried turning it over every few days, but I’m worried that will kick the chunks of cyano out into the tank and create a bigger problem.

Wondering if there is anyone out there with a similar issue? Or is this something I should just not worry about?

I was thinking of switching to the Cheato max LED and mounting it on the side instead of above the fuge. Not sure if that will help or not.

Thanks for the help.

Crabs McJones · Jul 24, 2018

Jack22 said:
Been running a 120 gallon tank with an R-300 advanced series sump for about 6 months. The issue I’m having is with the refugium chamber.
Because the water flows in from the side it doesn’t flow across the Refugium chamber so the macro doesn’t tumble. I have a good sized chunk of calurpa, some sea lettuce, and a small piece of gracilaria in there. It all just floats up to the top and sits there, then I get a blanket of cyano that grows on the top. The light I’m using is an LED, not sure the brand, think it’s for a nono tank. I added a small power head but it just circulates the water underneath the floating mass of algea. I’ve tried turning it over every few days, but I’m worried that will kick the chunks of cyano out into the tank and create a bigger problem.

Wondering if there is anyone out there with a similar issue? Or is this something I should just not worry about?

I was thinking of switching to the Cheato max LED and mounting it on the side instead of above the fuge. Not sure if that will help or not.

Thanks for the help.

You could either A. Add a powerhead in the chamber to make it tumble, or B manually flip it every couple of days. I do B in my refugium. Do you have alot of algae and stuff growing on the walls of your fuge to? or just on the macroalgae?

jessezm · Jul 24, 2018

Same sump, same problem, here. I manually prune and flip. I have some other nuisance algae in there as well. Not in love with this design. I actually have my chiller output, calcium reactor output, and an airstone in there as well. I'm just dealing with it at the moment cause I got bigger fish to fry...

TessGlo · Jul 24, 2018

I have this sump and I was concerned about the same thing. I have only chaeto so my situation may not be the same as yours but I couldn't get it to tumble unless the power-head was just right and then growth etc. would make it stop working. I dislike anything that puts my hands in the tank for continual adjustment so I just went ahead and ran it without the power-head. The plus is this did enable me to add miracle mud to the fuge. Maybe you could use it to secure/ plant your algae selection and stop it from floating. I use one of the Tunze full spectrum light bars, which fits perfectly, and I mean perfectly because it holds the light in place wherever you put it without the mounting magnet. I have the light shining from the back of the fuge forward and its done great (in the photo below its at the top), I harvest every 2 weeks to make sure that it does not get too dense and block light. I will say that because strong flow is lacking it gathers detritus, which you have to siphon out. The Tunze light is not cheap but it comes with a 2 yr warranty which they really back up. For some reason mine started flickering and under the warranty I had a new light in my hands in 3 days, I was impressed.

Jack22 · Jul 24, 2018

Totally agree on the sump design, I’m not very happy with it. I got a good price on it which is why I bought it.

I also have the problem of if collecting detritus, but no other nuisance algea on the walls. Just a think blanket of cyano on top.

Don’t really have a lot of time to add more daily maintenance so manually turning every couple days isn’t going to work. I think I’ll try adjusting the power head and mounting the light on the side so it shines in from under the floating macro.