Setting up 40gal Refugium attached to 135 DT

[jsiker]

Hello all!

I am in the process of getting a 40g tank cycled. I want to attach it to my DT as a refugium.

The overall plan is to grow copepods, provide natural filtration, and have a separate space for some fish I wouldn't put in with the DT that will have my corals.

I have had it setup about a week so it is early in the cycle. I am NOT putting any fish in it yet as it is way too early, but I was wondering when I could start putting in the plants. I've tried doing some searching/googling, but that information seems to be rather sparse.

I'm not in any real rush to put ANYTHING in the tank, but wanted to find out if I really have to wait for the tank to go through a full cycling before I can put any plants in it.

Any thoughts/input/questions are welcome.

Tanks in advance!!!!

 

[jsker]

bump

 

[jsiker]

bump....

Any advise from anyone that has setup a secondary tank to be a plant/refugium/copepod tank?

Maybe it's just a slow weekend.

 

[Shep]

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] will have some thoughts. I personally would not out any in just to be safe.

 

[Sabellafella]

Hello all!

I am in the process of getting a 40g tank cycled. I want to attach it to my DT as a refugium.

The overall plan is to grow copepods, provide natural filtration, and have a separate space for some fish I wouldn't put in with the DT that will have my corals.

I have had it setup about a week so it is early in the cycle. I am NOT putting any fish in it yet as it is way too early, but I was wondering when I could start putting in the plants. I've tried doing some searching/googling, but that information seems to be rather sparse.

I'm not in any real rush to put ANYTHING in the tank, but wanted to find out if I really have to wait for the tank to go through a full cycling before I can put any plants in it.

Any thoughts/input/questions are welcome.

Tanks in advance!!!!

If you have rock sand ect in it already, sure, toss your plants right in. Keep in mind, plants need ammonia,potassium,iron, phosphate, nitrate ect to feed. So with no fish, your going to have to start tossing somthing like flake or pellet food in every so often.

 

[Humblefish]

I personally would use some miracle mud and plant some macro in that. Great for propagating pods & nutrient control. How are you going to plumb this 40 into your DT?

 

[Arron209]

IME chaeto is excellent for housing pods.

 

[jsiker]

Unfortunately I'm going to have to use a pump to return the water to the DT instead of letting it free flow as I can't place the smaller tank anywhere along the wall that will let it be taller than the DT. I know this will kill off a good number of the pods being returned from what I've read, but at this point I just don't have a choice in that.

I've already go over 2 inches of live sand in the tank with a few pieces of dry rock and the cycle has already started. Ammonia has started to spike and I have a little bit of nitrite started as well. I used about 10-15 gallons of my DT water to seed the 40 when I was doing a 10% water change last week. The DT is in last stage of it's cycle as my diatoms are disappearing and I am getting all sorts of colorful green and yellow algae growing now. I haven't hooked up the overflow out from the DT to the 40 nor put the pump in the 40 and plumbed that yet either. I'm still waiting for the overflow to come in.

Unfortunately I'm using a DT that wasn't drilled for a sump so i'm doing everything HOB. (i know it's a risk but I'm aware).

I think that about covers the plans for now.

Do I need to use miracle mud at all for growing plants in the 40?

 

[Shep]

Unfortunately I'm going to have to use a pump to return the water to the DT instead of letting it free flow as I can't place the smaller tank anywhere along the wall that will let it be taller than the DT. I know this will kill off a good number of the pods being returned from what I've read, but at this point I just don't have a choice in that.

I've already go over 2 inches of live sand in the tank with a few pieces of dry rock and the cycle has already started. Ammonia has started to spike and I have a little bit of nitrite started as well. I used about 10-15 gallons of my DT water to seed the 40 when I was doing a 10% water change last week. The DT is in last stage of it's cycle as my diatoms are disappearing and I am getting all sorts of colorful green and yellow algae growing now. I haven't hooked up the overflow out from the DT to the 40 nor put the pump in the 40 and plumbed that yet either. I'm still waiting for the overflow to come in.

Unfortunately I'm using a DT that wasn't drilled for a sump so i'm doing everything HOB. (i know it's a risk but I'm aware).

I think that about covers the plans for now.

Do I need to use miracle mud at all for growing plants in the 40?

Why not place all the HOB (or get non hob stuff) in a section of the 40 that would be before all the algae and other fuge stuff?

 

[Humblefish]

Do I need to use miracle mud at all for growing plants in the 40?

No, you can use dry mud or even sand. I just like miracle mud for it's nutrient export capability.

 

[jsiker]

Thanks @Humblefish

@Shep The tank is not split up like a sump or anything like that, it's just a 40g. I'm going to be putting a few clowns and an anemone in it as well, plus a few smaller fish and a small CUC. I just won't be putting any corals in it and thought I could use it as an extra filter tank and for copepod growth. And adding it to the 135g DT for extra water seems like a good idea as well.