# Refugium Mud



## rastarainy

So i recently set up a refugium and just the other day finished the plumbing for the fuge. with my fuge finished, and ready to be connected to my main tank, i went to my LFS and bought some refugium mud & LR (i plan on getting some cheato and mangroves in the next coming week). so i took the mud and put it in the bottom of the fuge, filled it with some tank water, and decided to let it settle for a while before i put my algae/plants in. so the next day (it was settled) i put my mixed greens in the fuge, and opened the pipe to my fuge. and BAM, the mud is no longer settled. i repeated this process only to get the same results. any tips for keeping my mud settled? ( i currently do not have any acrylic dividers in the fuge...its just one big fuge). (the water is getting to the fuge from a hang on overflow connected to a 3 foot PVC pipe. the water is getting back into the main tank via maxi jet connected to a bubble tube.) any ideas?


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## Fishfirst

baffles are the only way... get some glass at lowes cut to size and silicone at least two baffles in...


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## rastarainy

since its a 10g fuge, i was thinking like.....10" x 8' baffles.......should i make them higher?


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## Fishfirst

no... incase of a power failure your water level will increase so you need to test how much water will go into the fuge if the power should fail by unplugging the pump


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## rastarainy

i went and tested it today and it seemed that my dimensions for the baffles were a little off. i decided on one 10" by 7.5 and one 10" by 6. i actually dont even have to silicone them to the side of the tank because they fit so snug!


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## crazyfishlady

I had my tank overflow three times as I was testing for the correct water levels. ( http://www.fishforums.com/forum/diy...-sump-im-stuck-stupid.html?highlight=refugium) It was such a nightmare at first. Now, I just don't think the refugium works that well, I keep getting increasing levels of phosphates. So much that I can't even keep any invertebrates alive in there. I might need a protein skimmer, I dunno... From my research on refugiums it states that if you have mangrove tree's they pretty much replace the function of a protein skimmer so I decided not to invest in one. Here's my 72 bowfront







and here's my 20G long refugium, the first compartment has a phos-zorb pad in there as well as a phosphate remover sponge and live rock with a few bio-balls underneath.







The next compartment has mangrove trees (that's an older picture) the codium and cheto that I had in the middle compartment just disintegrated for some reason. I have a 36" flourescent plant light over the tank and I turn it on only at night. There is also miracle mud in there under the 2 inches of sand.







There's just live rock in the last compartment and I have another filter wrapped around my pump so it doesn't get clogged. I have also marked where the water level should be in case of a power outage. 

So, I have no idea why the phosphates are so high. My hang over the back is rated at 600gph my pump works at 825gph I have two wavemakers in the tank to prevent dead spaces. I have my light set at 8hrs a day but my tank is also in front of the window. It still doesn't explain the phosphates unless it's caused by the algae dying. I think I might take everything out of the tank come summer and thoroughly rinse it. The culprit may be the sand that I bought from other fish keepers. Who knows? I get a crapload of algae growing in there about a week after the 50% water change and cleaning. I'm just lost and aggravated to say the least. Also everytime I clean the tank I siphon through the sand really well. So I dunno...


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## Fishfirst

I think its probably due to your sand bed in the fuge, looks too shallow to be a deep sand bed and too deep to be a shallow sand bed... a "medium" sand bed is the hardest to manage, also if you chaeto died that would definately affect your phosphates... and mangroves do not replace skimmers, infact they are very poor nutrient filters (too slow)


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