my new 90 gallon saltwater

[exitiom]

About a month ago my wonderful girlfriend bought me a complete 90 gallon setup that we found on the Internet for 200. It came with a stand, sump with bio balls, skimmer and collection container, live rock and some power heads, and a hood that pretty much fell apart when we got it home.

I replaced the bio balls with small pieces of rock but I have since seen conflicting info on the Internet. Should I remove it and turn it in to a refugeium?

I filled it up and threw two raw shrimp in 3 weeks ago. All the rock is covered in reddish/brown stuff. Will this go away or should I brush the rock off?​

 

[exitiom]

 

[exitiom]

this is what it looks like now

 

[exitiom]

 

[skinz78]

Looks like you have some diatoms going on in there and they should clear up soon. I would remove the rubble rock and go with the fuge, the rock will become a detritus trap and a nitrate factory in time.

 

[exitiom]

How do I convert it to a fuge? I know that a fuge holds macro algae, but how do I get it to start growing and where do I find it?

 

[skinz78]

Well, just clean out the rock, you can put some live sand in there or miracle mud. Personally I just have a ball of Chaeto in mine with nothing else. You can get macro algae from fellow reefers, LFS or even order some online. I am sure there are many of our sponsors who could help you out with ordering some, just shoot them a pm.

 

[exitiom]

I Found a good tread about algae scrubbers and I think that I can build one about 8 inches long where the overflow drains into the sump. Could I also have cheato in the chamber and a deep sand bed?

 

[skinz78]

I am not sure, I've never had an algae scrubber. You should post that question in the scrubber thread?

 

[exitiom]

Ok thanks.