What powerhead for Fuge?

PiscesPower · Mar 17, 2018

I recently upsized my sump and now have an 11 gallon refugium for my RSR 250 system. I have Chaeto in there and need some type of powerhead in there as the flow for dosing, although I have a Vario 2 at full speed, is not quite enough to prevent precipitation of 3A & B with the way the water enters the sump. Does anyone has suggestions on a pump, and a way to prevent it from getting clogged with bits of Chaeto? Don't really want to buy something new. I have a few here, a Hydor nano, MJ1200, some really small cheap thing, and a Cobalt Aquatics EXT In-Line Pump.

tastyfish · Mar 19, 2018

I used a tiny little newave nano powerhead for the macroalgae, pointed back towards the downpipes from the display and up at the surface.

However I wouldn't dose into the refugium anymore. Move your dosing lines to the return section, you need more flow and the algae will hold the core7 even with high flow, causing precipitation.

Whipples · Mar 19, 2018

I use a Sicce Syncra 1.0 pump mounted in between the baffle of the return section post-refugium as I ran into a similar problem that you had, and the MJ1200 will do the job just fine. This really helped, but the bigger factor was not dosing for a few days and trying to get all the precipitation out of the system to "reset" it a bit. On a smaller volume tank such as a RSR250 you may need to dilute the alkalinity components with some RODI (1 part each) and just dose twice as much to account for it. How often and how slow are you dosing the A/B components? I have my doser set to frequent .1ML doses which has also really helped. Core7 is no joke!

Tim2@Triton · Mar 19, 2018

I'd love to see the sump upgrade!

PiscesPower · Mar 19, 2018

Tim2@Triton said:
I'd love to see the sump upgrade!

The sump is made by Crystal Reef Aquariums here in WA state. Julian, the owner, has made some additional modifications so that it is now plug & play with the RSR 250. He is making Triton friendly replacements for the 250, 350 & 450, so far, of the Red Sea tanks. Super high quality too.

Crystal Reef Aquariums Stealth Series Red Sea replacement sumps

11 gallon refugium. I think I increased the full volume of the tank to about 72g before considering displacement. I have a Seneye and am going to check the PAR in various places of the sump. I've spent so much time in there the past 2 weekends, I felt I need to just back away for a few days and let it settle itself a bit.

Dealing with some algae. I still have the dosers dosing Other Methods. I have new cartons of Triton Method (did not leak LOL, just had to say that). @Tim2@Triton should I switch back to Triton Method or try to get ahead of the DT algae first?

PiscesPower · Mar 19, 2018

Whipples said:
I use a Sicce Syncra 1.0 pump mounted in between the baffle of the return section post-refugium as I ran into a similar problem that you had, and the MJ1200 will do the job just fine. This really helped, but the bigger factor was not dosing for a few days and trying to get all the precipitation out of the system to "reset" it a bit. On a smaller volume tank such as a RSR250 you may need to dilute the alkalinity components with some RODI (1 part each) and just dose twice as much to account for it. How often and how slow are you dosing the A/B components? I have my doser set to frequent .1ML doses which has also really helped. Core7 is no joke!

I'm dosing mixed 3A & B @ 16ml/day broken into 24 doses. I did just increase that from 12 a day. I think I have solved the issue for now with a well placed Hydor powerhead, I'll probably have to readdress once the Chaeto fills the fuge more.

Whipples · Mar 19, 2018

Do you have the ability to dose those 24 as 48 even smaller doses? I have found the smaller the dose the better.

tastyfish · Mar 20, 2018

Whipples said:
...I have my doser set to frequent .1ML doses which has also really helped. Core7 is no joke!

+1 on that. Nice and easy with an Apex DOS as it works the schedule out for you and executes it. I still dose into the return section with very high flow as I've had precipitation form stalagtites. I have also cut the tubes at a 45 degree angle so that the solution drips cleanly off and doesn't start to crystalise.

blazeby · Mar 24, 2018

I thought about just letting the DOS work out the schedule but how do you ensure that different elements are not dosed at the same time?

tastyfish said:
+1 on that. Nice and easy with an Apex DOS as it works the schedule out for you and executes it. I still dose into the return section with very high flow as I've had precipitation form stalagtites. I have also cut the tubes at a 45 degree angle so that the solution drips cleanly off and doesn't start to crystalise.

Whipples · Mar 24, 2018

I don’t have the Dos, (I use GHL) and I set it to dose core 1 and 2 every hour, 15 minutes apart :00 and :15, and 3a/b at half the normal dose, but twice per hour at :35, :40, :45, and :50.