Adding a Mud Refugium to an Existing Tank

[latuttle]

Hi everyone...

My tank has been up for a almost 2 months, and it has a cleanup crew and a handful of coral frags in it. The first two fish destined for it are in quarantine.

I've been having a lovely hair algae bloom, which the hermits and snails have mostly kept up with. My concern is that I know this algae bloom will get worse when I have fish in the tank and I start really feeding - right now, I just occasionally put a tiny piece of seafood in a fish net and watch my cleaner shrimp pig-out, then remove what he doesn't take. By the way, this is a marvelous way to cozy-up to your shrimps - this guy now swims to my glove when I have hands in the tank. Greedy little guy - and a good eater. I guess he doesn't know about humans and shrimp cocktail.

Anyway, back to my question... After reading a great deal here about the virtues of refugiums for nutrient export, I decided to try adding a hang-on-back refugium. I would like to use mineral mud for a substrate. My concern is that the directions say to set up the refugium when the tank is cycling; they don't really cover what to do if you're adding a refugium to an established tank.

Has anyone done this? Will sediment from the mud or the establishment of the mud bed do bad things to an existing tank? Any thoughts on how I should proceed? Or if I should proceed? I suppose I could bail on the mud and go with a live sand bed, but I would love to experiment with the mud.

Thanks!

Laura

[robinscp]

I currently have a hang on the back system filled with mud and water on my tank. I am also worried about filling my tank with mud etc.

I filled it up yesterday and I am waiting for it to settle before I turn the pump on.

I will let you know how long it takes and if I have any problems when I finally intergrate it with the tank.

Craig