Back after 25 years.

Edward Leitner

Edward Leitner

Member
Ok I have been out of reefing for a quarter of a century. We have a special needs son that loves looking at fish tanks and my wife talked me into getting back into it. Much has changed in equipment as well as methodologies. I am gonna mix a bit from the new thought and what I knew worked "back in the day".
So it will be a 90 gallon mixed reef with medium fish bio-load. I built a 40L sump with a normal sump on one end and a fuge on the other. In the fuge there will be 1 inch of mud caped with 1/2 inch of sand. There will be a small amopunt of live rock rubble and chaeto. It will have a much slower rate than the main sump so it has it's own pump feeding from the return chamber of the sump and then overflowing back into the return chamber. I am using a Reef Octopus 10 INT. There is also a ATO system that will provide KALKWASSER as needed. I have a APEX that monitors temp, PH, salinity and controls various functions. One nice thing I set up is a dual pump for the ATO. one pump runs through the KALKWASSER reactor and the other is just fresh water to the sump. If the APEX sees the PH is too high it will use the fresh water only pump and if PH is within acceptable limits it will use the reactor pump. Never had nothing like this 25 years ago LOL. I have a phosban reactor as well as a carbon reactor. These are used on an as needed basis and will not run 24/7. Eventually I will be able to see a pattern and program the APEX to turn them on/off as needed. Lighting is a Reef Breeders Photon 48. Still working on a lighting program I like. Well thats it for now. I will post more when it happens :chainsaw:. Until then here are some pics of the build so far.
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Generally, I like what your doing with the system, but I would leave the mud out of the sump. I think it's going to cause you a lot more problems than it will solve.

Be careful with the "worked back in the day" stuff. Very often what was done then is considered wrong or far less than optimal by todays standards. Case in point, trickle filters.
 
Edward Leitner

Edward Leitner

Member
DaveK said:
Generally, I like what your doing with the system, but I would leave the mud out of the sump. I think it's going to cause you a lot more problems than it will solve.

Be careful with the "worked back in the day" stuff. Very often what was done then is considered wrong or far less than optimal by todays standards. Case in point, trickle filters.
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Thanks for the input. What issues do you think I will have with the mud?
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Edward Leitner said:
Thanks for the input. What issues do you think I will have with the mud?
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From experience, I've found mud has the potential to become a massive dirt trap. This can lead to anaerobic zones you don't want, and also making it a big nitrate factory. Unlike a deep sand bed, you can't disturb the mud at all with out making a mess of the system.

There might be some places where you might want mud, such as a systems where you want to show a mud flat as the environment. While there are people that have used mud refugiums and love them, I feel your much better off with out one. If you feel you still much have one, I recommend that you set it up in a separate tank with valves and such so you can isolate it from the system when you need to work on it.

Note this only applies to a mud refugium on a SW system. In some other systems, such as a FW planted tank, a mud base covered with gravel can often be exactly what you want.
 
Edward Leitner

Edward Leitner

Member
I understand exactly what you mean. I had much experience with mud long ago. One thing I learned was to run it after all filtration so that detritus and such never makes to the mud bed. That's the way mine is set up, it takes water from the return chamber (filtered) and then sends it to the fuge at a slower rate. Very little chance of "Bad Zones" poping up. Of course there is always that chance in any tank.
 
Squatch XXL

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Nice setup. Im glad to see someone further out from the hobby than I am, but yet can still can get back on the bike and make a great tank. I only have about 13 years off. This is a great build thread and I am inspired to continue my re-learning. Thanks! (tanks)
 
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