Question about refugium

[dbeaty78]

I have my skimmer running in my first chamber and have added 10 lbs of cora life dry reef rock that has a lot of honeycombe holes in the rock to my middle chamber and it also has 20 lbs of live sand. Should I spread the rock out or stack it up? Also since I have incorporated the refugium should I take the fluval fx5 canister filter off since I only have live sand and dry rock in my refugium. I still have to add a lot of rock to my main tank but will have to take it slow because of cost. It is going to just be a fowlr tankfor a while.

 

[NanaReefer]

Safe to say you can remove the canister filter. If you keep the rock piled up it will surely catch excess detritus, unless your using a filter sock.

 

[dbeaty78]

I am using a filter sock. So does that mean i should spread it our more so it will get more bacteria built up in it quicker. I thought about lining it all up where my water runs into my refugium would I be wrong in doing that?

 

[Dtech07]

I would remove the sand!
Q: WHY???
Because you'll find a lot of waste will accumulate because its design is for a slower water flow for more contact for bateria, my macro algae and two fish and a few other things that had to be moved there create a lot of sediment waste which i clean out monthly. I would hate it if i had sand in my refugium. But some do but most reefers i know over time (not all) will remove it because it becomes the cause of N03/P04 levels being high. IMHO