I need a little help

[Reefing Madness]

Phosphates caused ALK to drop?? New one there, never heard that one before, being as they don't have anything to do with one another. CA and ALK affect each other, and ALK affects PH, but not phospates. It just grows garbage in the tank.
You need socks in the Sump, if you don't plan on vacuuming out the sump once every couple of weeks, do to detrius building up on the bottom. The socks keep it right there, and all you have to do is rinse them out once a week. All depends on how you want to clean it up.

 

[Connie]

I could have worded my statement better. Let me re-phrase. Alk will decline from lack of water changes. Lack of water changes will cause phosphates and nitrates to rise. Even though I was doing bi-weekly water changes, I could not reach my sump to clean it because of the lay out and small size of it. It was a wet/dry sump that I had removed the bio balls and added a refugium. I upgraded from a 90g to a 180g, but did not get a larger sump (big mistake). The larger skimmer took up one whole side of the smaller sump. The sludge just kept increasing, which caused my phosphates to spike. I was reading The Book of Coral Propagation this afternoon and it states the ALK drops can be caused by the lack of water changes....so as stated earlier, a chain reaction of sorts. I ditched the small sump and bought a much larger one. I have socks in my sump, as well as a gfo/ca reactor and skimmer.

Phosphates caused ALK to drop?? New one there, never heard that one before, being as they don't have anything to do with one another. CA and ALK affect each other, and ALK affects PH, but not phospates. It just grows garbage in the tank.
You need socks in the Sump, if you don't plan on vacuuming out the sump once every couple of weeks, do to detrius building up on the bottom. The socks keep it right there, and all you have to do is rinse them out once a week. All depends on how you want to clean it up.

 

[Reefing Madness]

YEa, the ALK drops because the tank is using it, thus no water changes with no new salt = low everything. Thats why we Dose.

 

[fragmatic]

fragmatic, what lighting do you use on ur refuges? I cant seem to get my cheato to grow. I'd say that i need a larger refuge to see the kinda of results you are seeing.. I'm using one of those coralife LED units. Not seeing any growth with it.

I can't keep cheato either. I grow what ever algae wants to grow in my refugiums. Red & brown mostly in the under tank fuge and brown in the display fuge. But, I don't have an algae problem in the main display.

 

[fragmatic]

I could have worded my statement better. Let me re-phrase. Alk will decline from lack of water changes. Lack of water changes will cause phosphates and nitrates to rise. Even though I was doing bi-weekly water changes, I could not reach my sump to clean it because of the lay out and small size of it. It was a wet/dry sump that I had removed the bio balls and added a refugium. I upgraded from a 90g to a 180g, but did not get a larger sump (big mistake). The larger skimmer took up one whole side of the smaller sump. The sludge just kept increasing, which caused my phosphates to spike. I was reading The Book of Coral Propagation this afternoon and it states the ALK drops can be caused by the lack of water changes....so as stated earlier, a chain reaction of sorts. I ditched the small sump and bought a much larger one. I have socks in my sump, as well as a gfo/ca reactor and skimmer.

I do not get KH, PO4, or NO3 problems with long terms between water changes. I dose Ca, KH, and trace elements. I also dose iodine. And Connie, no by your first wording I thought you were running a canister or something. Also, I think the larger your sump and refugiums the better. More water means more stability. And with more sumps and refugiums you have opportunities to carry more diversities of life forms.. a very good thing. After all a refugium is by definition a separate place to protect species from others. It is a refuge.

If you can work out a way to isolate your sump from you other tanks with ball valves as I have, then you can do your water change by draining and vacuuming out your sump. I have been doing this about once every 6 months. Though I am now doing an experimentation to see if I can learn how to eventually do without water changes.... with a water change system always ready for emergencies.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I can't keep cheato either. I grow what ever algae wants to grow in my refugiums. Red & brown mostly in the under tank fuge and brown in the display fuge. But, I don't have an algae problem in the main display.

http://live-plants.com/