Refugium or GFO?

[Water Dog]

What do you have in terms of coral in your tank? Judging by your photos, I see mostly rock. Is your tank fairly new?

 

[hart24601]

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.


Fwiw in my pico I just toss a small bag of gfo in every so often. Ime 0 phosphates are alright it's the nitrates I don't want to bottom out. I don't even measure phosphates, when I see some more algae I just replace the bag of gfo. Easy enough for me. My fav shot of my pico below. Of course if do large w/c too which helps.

 

[Daniel92481]

I’m going on 4 months now, so yes still new. I have more than a few corals and I have more coming on Friday from the WWC live sale that I’m still twitching from lol.

Here is what I currently have...
- acan frag
- bubble coral
- purple snakeskin green heart torch
- Aussie gold torch
- palm tree polyps
- 5 or 6 zoa frags
- Mycedium
- paly frag
- hammer frag
- fruity pebbles monti
- Maximus clam (small)
- and an emerald crab that’s a bit huge

And like I said, more coming Friday. LPS and A couple SPS.

 

[Daniel92481]

I forgot to list my purple tip elegance too

 

[hart24601]

Wow! Impressive stocking.

 

[Water Dog]

Then go by how healthy your coral are. A little nuisance algae is to be expected for a young tank. Don't fret about some nuisance algae at this stage and let your tank mature. Don’t make the mistake of being obsessive about chasing numbers. Feed your fish a healthy varied diet and in turn, let the fish poo feed your corals.

 

[d2mini]

My opinion is go with what's natural.
Macros will grow if the excess nutrients are there. They won't if they're not.
GFO on the other hand will strip stuff out of the water regardless. You need to be careful. Personally, I now only use it in extreme circumstances.

 

[Daniel92481]

Yea, I don’t have any fish. The only two I would consider are the Davinci clowns that I’ve been looking at. I do actually hand feed the emerald crab with pellets which is pretty awesome. I’m more into the corals. All of the corals are doing great and I’m trying not to chase numbers here. I realize that all systems are different in many ways, including livestock, parameters, water volume, etc. I just don’t want anything to happen to my couple of SPS frags. I’ve been researching and hear that they prefer lower Phosphates. Then of course, I do more research and hear the complete opposite so who really knows lol. Like you said, base it off of the health of the corals. The algae is minimum and it really can’t be seen when the display lights are on. Here is another pic of the tank from the front, not the best quality but it gives a better glimpse.

 

[Daniel92481]

My opinion is go with what's natural.
Macros will grow if the excess nutrients are there. They won't if they're not.
GFO on the other hand will strip stuff out of the water regardless. You need to be careful. Personally, I now only use it in extreme circumstances.

That’s why I decided to go with the refugium. I wanted the more natural approach, plus I’ve read that in general a small refugium shouldn’t strip the tank of nutrients, just use the excess. If my nitrates or phosphates get too low, which is another debatable question of how low, I’ll just turn off the fuge light until levels rise.

 

[hart24601]

The only thing I would suggest is just to be flexible. With no fish you are not going to have many nutrient issues anyway - so don't feel bad if the macro all dies out eventually, it can happen with low nutrient systems and even high nutrient systems if another element like iron gets exhausted. It might work amazing for you, but don't get upset if it doesn't work for the particular system. Some folks get a method in their head and have trouble deviating, but 6 months down the road it might be that gfo is a better option for whatever reason. It's ok, you don't have to make the macro work, just try something else. Not saying I don't like refugiums, just to roll with what ends up working best!

 

[RobertP]

If you have the room use both! I really like how I have lots of pods growing in my fuge along withe the chaeto. But I also have a GFO reactor that I turn on when I feel like I need it. I couldnt tell you how much phosphates the fuge uses but there are charts to tell you how much GFO will drop your phosphates. I want a BIG refugium because I get a kick out of the creepy crawly things growing in it!

 

[lion king]

Have you taken a phosphate test with the hanna yet, I'd be interested to see. The .25 you listed earlier is quite high, especially with your nitrates that low. Are you feeding your corals, some coral foods and additives add more phosphates than others. If you are running your nitrates around 10, I'd try and pull my phosphates down to no higher than .05; at that your macro could easily start to "help" manage it.

I tried running a fishless system and the amphipods took over and even started munching my corals. So I had to break down and added a pink streaked wrasse to be on pest patrol.

 

[Daniel92481]

I tested my Phosphates yesterday with the Hanna ULR and they read .037. The API kit was saying 0.25. I’m testing the refugium to see if I can cut down my weekly water changes to biweekly. I just set up the fuge yesterday.

 

[Daniel92481]

Just an update here, the new refugium seems to be getting it done. Nitrates 5, Phosphates 0.028. Last night, I fed the corals for the first time in about a month with reef roids. My Phosphates are now 0.040. The fuge is running from 4-9 AM and I pulled a tad bit of Chaeto out to give it some more grow room. Not that it’s grown any that I can tell, but I am enjoying trying to dial it in.