Tumbling effect in refugium

[jquigley524]

Trying to find a good way to creat a “tumbling” effect for some macro algae in my refugium. I put the smallest power head I could find in there but it didn’t really work well. I have a Reefer 300 with the stock sump. Modified for the clarisea in place of the filter socks and the fuge section in the front right next to it. Has anyone had good success with a setup? Looking for ideas

thanks!

 

[Spare time]

The marineland maxi-jet's works with the flat nozzle but the macro kept getting caught on the doser/probe holders in the sump. Now I just flip it every other day.

 

[Pkunk35]

Just have the flow go thru the chaeto or anchor the chaeto down, it most definitely does not need to tumble.

 

[Gtinnel]

Mine used to tumble and pieces would often break off, then it grew so large that it will no longer tumble. My plans were to flip it every few days but I got lazy and didn’t flip it. Even without flipping and my fuge overfilled with chaeto (apparently I’m too lazy to harvest as often as I should too) it has done fine. The chaeto at the bottom doesn’t seem to have had any significant death from lack of light.
I’m starting to wonder if the need to rotate or be turned periodically is way over stated.

 

[DesertCitiesReefer]

My chaeto doesn’t tumble and it’s grows and takes up nutrients just fine. Plus it’s to big to tumble and takes up the entire refugium It is green all the way through top to bottom

 

[pecan2phat]

I have a micro pump running in the refugium section just to agitate water near the surface and it does not tumble the Chaeto. After reading this post I decided to turn over the Chaeto just to see if the bottom section was yellowing and was surprised to see that it was even a deeper green than the top section that is exposed to the refugium light.
Just my 2¢

 

[Gkrockman]

I using an airs tone in my HOB refugium and it seems to be working well. Trying to tumble in a small space never worked for me.

 

[jquigley524]

The marineland maxi-jet's works with the flat nozzle but the macro kept getting caught on the doser/probe holders in the sump. Now I just flip it every other day.

That was one of the issues I had with the small power head. Always seemed to be clogged with chaeto

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Here's one option you could try. This drawing may help in explaining the theory of the hydraulics behind it.

(This is an abbreviated drawing of just the chaeto section of my sump.)
The total sump flow enters the right side chamber. Inside the right side chamber is a pump (the bigger the better, well, within reason of course. No need to flow more than your total sump flow.). Coming out of the pump the flow is teed off angry-face:? No, not as in mad, just split), then comes through the right side baffle and shot into the main chaeto chamber through eductors (spreading them out to each side helps to center the chaeto ball within the main chamber). In the above drawing, the blue line represents the flow that the pump itself creates. Because the pump is in a separate chamber, the intake does not get clogged. This flow gets pumped into the main chamber and then flows right back out over the left baffle. That flow by itself would tend to draw the chaeto over the left baffle. This is where the eductors come into play. The green line represents the additional flow that is picked up by the eductors. Because the source of the green flow is picked up within the main chamber, it just circulates within the chamber creating a horizontal vortex. This helps keep the chaeto in a spinning ball and off the walls and bottom. The red line represents the additional total flow of the sump (at least in my case) and allows for a water level equilibrium between the right and main chambers. If the pump you would use has a flow rate higher than the total sump flow, the slot at the bottom of the right baffle would allow the water from the main chamber to return to the right chamber. Blah blah blah.... sorry if that was a little on the long winded side, hope you're still awake. Now in all honesty, does that keep every little loose strand of chaeto balled up. Not quite, but close. That's why I also have a piece of large open pore cell foam running across the opening of the left baffle. It catches a few loose pieces making it easy to remove instead of going to the return pump. This will happen more when the chaeto ball gets huge but that just means it's time to harvest!
As I said, this is just to help explain the theory. Implementing it into your sump will be up to you if you choose to try it.
Hope this is of help to you.

 

[jquigley524]

Here's one option you could try. This drawing may help in explaining the theory of the hydraulics behind it.

(This is an abbreviated drawing of just the chaeto section of my sump.)
The total sump flow enters the right side chamber. Inside the right side chamber is a pump (the bigger the better, well, within reason of course. No need to flow more than your total sump flow.). Coming out of the pump the flow is teed off angry-face:? No, not as in mad, just split), then comes through the right side baffle and shot into the main chaeto chamber through eductors (spreading them out to each side helps to center the chaeto ball within the main chamber). In the above drawing, the blue line represents the flow that the pump itself creates. Because the pump is in a separate chamber, the intake does not get clogged. This flow gets pumped into the main chamber and then flows right back out over the left baffle. That flow by itself would tend to draw the chaeto over the left baffle. This is where the eductors come into play. The green line represents the additional flow that is picked up by the eductors. Because the source of the green flow is picked up within the main chamber, it just circulates within the chamber creating a horizontal vortex. This helps keep the chaeto in a spinning ball and off the walls and bottom. The red line represents the additional total flow of the sump (at least in my case) and allows for a water level equilibrium between the right and main chambers. If the pump you would use has a flow rate higher than the total sump flow, the slot at the bottom of the right baffle would allow the water from the main chamber to return to the right chamber. Blah blah blah.... sorry if that was a little on the long winded side, hope you're still awake. Now in all honesty, does that keep every little loose strand of chaeto balled up. Not quite, but close. That's why I also have a piece of large open pore cell foam running across the opening of the left baffle. It catches a few loose pieces making it easy to remove instead of going to the return pump. This will happen more when the chaeto ball gets huge but that just means it's time to harvest!
As I said, this is just to help explain the theory. Implementing it into your sump will be up to you if you choose to try it.
Hope this is of help to you.

wow, thank you for all of that! not sure how to accomplish all of that in my exact sump setup but definitely something to think about !

 

[Duncan62]

Trying to find a good way to creat a “tumbling” effect for some macro algae in my refugium. I put the smallest power head I could find in there but it didn’t really work well. I have a Reefer 300 with the stock sump. Modified for the clarisea in place of the filter socks and the fuge section in the front right next to it. Has anyone had good success with a setup? Looking for ideas

thanks!

Tumbling is over rated. As long as the flow and light are good the results of passing the water thru the mass is very effective.

 

[Duncan62]

Tumbling is over rated. As long as the flow and light are good the results of passing the water thru the mass is very effective.

 

[Spare time]

That was one of the issues I had with the small power head. Always seemed to be clogged with chaeto

Yeah the maxi jet is nice because its less likely to have that issue if you run it in the non wavemaker style option.

 

[Spare time]

I had this sideways and it gave a nice sweeping movement. I didn't use the airline tubing like in the pic. This seems to work decently, but again, your sump design impacts if the chaeto gets caught on something or not. The nice thing about these is they are cheap and last a long time. I now use it for siphoning snail poop out of my sump

 

[Useful_Idiot]

A spraybar off a power head works well flowing from the surface down or across the bottom. You can use thin plastic to round the square bottom, kinda like a kreisel but only the bottom half

 

[Lavey29]

I have the 300 tank also. My chaeto grows huge but does not tumble at all. I rotate it about once a week by hand.