Biological filtration uses natural processes to reduce unwanted chemicals such as nitrate and phosphates. Certain types of macro algae’s, such as mangroves, chaeto, culpera, etc use these nutrients as food to grow. As the algae’s grow, they take up the nutrients and leave our water quality good as new. Of course the effectiveness of your bio filter relies on the size compared to the total water volume of your aquarium. From my own research, a refugium 1/10th the size of your total water volume is sufficient, but results vary and there are many methods to chose from when making your bio filter.

On my aquarium, I built a refugium/sump combination out of an old 15 gallon aquarium. I sectioned the tank off with glass baffles and some aquarium safe silicone from home depot. Here are some pictures of my setup and design.

Refugium sump design

Refugium sump build top view

The refugium portion (the larger part of the sump) came about to be just about 5 gallons. When installed, it will hold macro algae and a deep sand bed. The smaller side will house my protein skimmer and the overflow from the tank. It will flow through the bubble trap (3 glass panes close together) and into the center section, which holds the pump for my return to the main aquarium as well as a pump for my phosban reactor.

here are a few more pictures of what the sump looks like after I installed it in my stand. Click the images to expand them.

refugium sump with a small sandbed

Refugium sump with Chaeto

refugium sump with mangroves and equipment

Since installation, I have definitely seen a drop in nitrate and phosphate in my reef aquarium. Currently in the refugium are about 20 mangroves, a nice size ball of chaeto, and a small strand of some grape culpera. All of the algae are doing well and seem to be growing very nicely. I have also placed my yellow watchman goby inside the fuge because he was looking a little sick, as well as a few crabs that were messing with snails and coral.

I will try to post some diagrams of the actual build into the stand and show how the flow through the refugium/sump works. Also, if you are planning to take on a build like this yourself, please make sure that the silicone/glue you use is reef safe. Look for things that say 100% silicone and FDA approved. If your silicone says anything about mold inhibitors, stay away, it is not reef safe, even if it says 100% silicone. If you are still unsure, look at the types of silicone your local hardware store sells and look them up online to see if they are safe. Also, Prepare to get a little messy if it is your first time working with silicone.

Common brands of reef safe silicone are:

• Silicone that you find at your local fish store
• DAP 100% silicone
• GE silicone 1 – window and door ONLY. There are many debates of whether or not this aquarium silicone is indeed reef safe, but this is the kind that I have used, and it doesnt seem to be causing any problems.

Finally, if you are going to attempt building your refugium sump out of glass, please be careful. You don’t want this to happen to you.

Related posts:

1. Mangrove’s in Reef Aquaria
2. Mandarin Fish
3. Filtration and Cycling

Also, it is recommended to have at least 1 mangrove per 2 gallons of total water volume of your system if they are your only source of biological filtration. I cannot comment on how accurate this statement is as I use other types of macro as well.

I built my refugium on november 3rd, 2009. It is a refugium + sump combo made with glass baffles and 5 gallon refugium section (you can find more on the build by clicking here). Here is what it looked like while I was testing to make sure there were no leaks.

Refugium

Then, on november 8th, I was able to install the refugium sump into my stand.

Refugium installed into my aquarium stand

My first macro algae, a nice size chunk of chaeto, was added November 12th.

Refugium with chaeto

Then, on December 3rd, I received my first 10 mangroves. I don’t have a picture of them, but I know this was the date as it was the day of Art Basel in Miami. On the way home from the art show, I went by the inter coastal and snatched a few mangroves out of the water. To my knowledge, it is O.K. to harvest mangrove seeds as long as they have no leaves or roots starting to form. The ones that I found were just seeds floating in the water.

The first picture I have of the mangroves was shortly after the seeds finally opened on January 15th 2010.

Mangroves in refugium January 15th, 2010

The next picture I have of the mangroves in the refugium is from January 20th, 2010. As you can see, more leaves have opened on a few of the seeds, and the ones that were open now have larger leaves.

Mangroves January 20th, 2010

Then, on feb 3rd, you can see that most of the mangroves have opened and a few of them are growing quite large. Some are even starting to grow their second set of leaves.

Mangroves February 3rd, 2010

Finally, a picture from today, February 17th, 2010. Most of the mangroves are doing well. I have also added 10 more mangroves that have not yet opened, a ball of chaeto, and a small piece of some grape culpera. All seem to be doing fine.

Mangroves February 17th, 2010

Over the last month, I have definitely seen a drop in my nitrates and phosphate in the aquarium since the addition of the refugium and mangroves. Also, when people come over to see the tank, they are sometimes more intrigued by my sump than my actual reef tank, and I must admit, it does look pretty cool.

You can find more information on my tank here

Related posts:

1. Refugium Biological filtration
2. Review of Different Reef Lighting Brands and Types

The aquarium I have chosen to for my 1 gallon reef is the Tom Aquatics Mini Deco aquarium, which comes with a small filter, small pump, and an inefficient for coral light. most of this will be tossed out as I am planning to make this an all in one tank, which means no hang on the back filters or external sumps. I plan to do this with sheets of acrylic from home depot, some aquarium safe silicone, and a little DIY guess and check. I have always been the type of person to buy a fully done item, but the bug has bit and I want to try some custom stuff.

Here, I will record all of my trials and tribulations concerning this tiny tank.

Pics of what I’ll be working with.

It looks a little dirty, but nothing a little vinegar and some buffing wont fix. Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Importance Of Maintenance On Your Reef Aquarium
2. Chemical Parameters Optimal for a Reef Aquarium
3. How To Do A Reef Aquarium Water Change

Related posts:

1. Hawkfish pictures
2. My Aquarium Stats 1/4/2010
3. 4/9/2009

Related posts:

1. Visitor Questions

Just trying to catch up on all my updates here. I havnt added pictures for a while and my tank has been through quite a few upgrades.

Coralife Clamp on 150 Watt Metal Halide

The first of which was a coralife clamp on metal halide fixture. I would not recommend coralife to anyone looking for a new fixture for their tank. Overheating was a problem for this fixture and it needed to be supplemented by another fan. Light output was poor due to cheap reflectors. Also, the fixture quality seemed pretty cheap for a $350 piece of equipment. The neck is also not adjustable enough to fit on a tank less than 12 inches wide making light spillage an issue. For the price, I would have expected a little more quality.

Coralife Clamp on 150 watt Metal Halide Fixture mounted on my 37 gallon tall reef aquarium

Catalina Aquarium 6 x 24watt 24″ T-5 fixture

Next, I upgraded to a 6 x 24watt 24″ T-5 fixture by Catalina with dimmable LEDs. Unfortunately, because my tank is 30″ long, the fixture did not sit flush on my aquarium, which is the main reason I do not use this light any longer. The fixture comes with individual reflectors, and that combined with 6 high quality bulbs was a great combo that produced a ton of light. All my coral seemed to do well with this light and the light spread covered every inch of the tank. However, the light does not have any type of internal cooling (no fans), and for T-5 bulbs to run optimally, they must be under a certain temperature. So, I had to add a small fan, which isnt a big deal, but again, for the $400+ price tag, you would expect it to be perfect out of the box.

Another reason I chose to upgrade to another fixture is the fact that the bulbs can get expensive. Most good quality bubls are in the $20-$25 each price range for the 24″, and that times 6 equals a little too much for me every 6 months. Also, when I purchased the fixture, I did not know very much about light spectrums and color, and I chose a poor color, but high par spectrum. This means that my coral was happy, but the color was not to my liking. Overall, its a nice fixture, but I would go with the current t-5 fixture over this for the quality, cooling, and similar price.

Catalina Aquarium Solar T5 6x24w Fixture /w Dimmable LEDs mounted on my 37 gallon tall reef aquarium

Current USA 20″ 250 Watt Sunpod

Finally, I upgraded to Currents line of metal halide fixtures called the Sunpod. This is a high quality, solid, professional fixture. It looks and functions very well. Light output if very high and all my corals are loving this fixture. I opted to go with the Ushio 20k bulb, which is very blue, but really makes the coral pop. I opted to go with the shorter fixture because I am going to be installing a hutch on top of my aquarium shortly and I needed something that would fit inside with no problem. Also, I decided to go with this fixture instead of a retro because I like the warranty and this fixture has all the fans and LED moonlights already installed.

However, not everything about this fixture is desirable. Unfortunately, the fan on both the ballast and the fixture itself are pretty noisey. Also, this fixture puts out a lot of heat, but this is to be expected with a metal halide fixture. Other than that, this fixture is perfect.

20" Current USA 250 Watt Sunpod mounted on my 37 gallon reef aquarium

Related posts:

1. SPS Corals
2. Types of Algae and how to take care of it
3. My Aquarium Stats 1/4/2010

Stats:

• 55-65 LBS of live rock – mix of Figi and Haitian rock
• 10-15 LBS of Base rock
• 40 LBS of live sand
• Current USA SunPod Metal Halide Fixture, 250 Watt HQI, 20 inch with 20k ushio bulb
• Two little fishes Phosban reactor with Maxi-jet 400 – I use ROWAphos and Phosban phospate sponge
• AquaC Remora protein skimmer with Maxi-jet 900
• 15 gallon sump/refugium combo homemade with 6 gallon section fuge, 40LBS of live sand, chaeto, mangroves, Rio 1700 return, and a 33 watt floodlight 4-5000 k rating.
• 2 x Koralia 2 powerheads
• Aquacontroller JR with DC8, temp and pH probe. Koralia 2 powerheads are oscilated by the wavemaker function on the controller for random flows in the aquarium.
• 150 watt Heater

Livestock

• 2 True percula clownfish maited pair
• 1 Midas Blenny
• 1 Lawnmower Blenny
• 1 Yellow Watchman Goby
• 1 Purple Firefish
• 1 Purple Reef Lobster
• 2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• 1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp paired with YWG
• 1 Coral Banded Shrimp
• 1 Green Bubble Tip Anemone

Corals

• Red Montipora Cap
• Green Frogspawn
• Yellow Finger Gorgonian
• Various colored Zoanthids – Greens, pinks, yellows, oranges, etc
• Purple mushroom
• Green Star polyps
• Ricordia Anemones – Green and purple
• Green Toadstool Leather

More pictures can be found here. I will be updating this section with new pictures tomorrow. I have a lot of great stuff to show

Related posts:

1. My Aquarium Statistics
2. Pictures of my aquarium 1/13/2010
3. Long Nose Hawkfish

Fish in quarantine can be fed medicated food, as needed or as a prophylactic. New animals should be observed for any trace of disease, fungus, or hitchhiker pests. A sick fish that is placed in quarantine will have the opportunity to recover from illness in a quiet, protected area where there is no competition with other tank mates, creating a much better chance of survival. The quarantine tank will allow you to treat your new or sick fish with medicines that could potentially harm your invertebrates or corals as well.

While in quarantine, new fish will learn what food is being offered without having to compete with other fish. They will become accustomed to feeding times and how the food will be offered. This will greatly increase the chance of success with the new fish because it will know what to do when feeding time arrives, how the food will enter, and what it should do it get its fair share. It is recommended that you quarantine a new fish for 4-8 weeks before introducing it to your display.

A quarantine tank can also be used for corals, which can also carry unwanted hitchhikers as well as pathogens. By placing your new specimens into quarantine, you will be able to closely monitor the coral, without putting your display tank and its inhabitants at risk. Many corals go through a tough time rigorous and traumatic shipping conditions and can use the time to recover in a separated space.

These are all very important reasons to set up a quarantine tank to protect your fish, coral, invertebrates, and your system as a whole. But, if you are not yet convinced, lets take a brief moment to play out an inevitable scenario: Lets assume that you decided to go without a quarantine tank and your shipment of new fish has just arrived. Instead of putting the new specimens in a place they can be closely monitored, you decided to place the questionable fish into the display. Unfortunately for you, the fish was carrying marine ICH and your whole system is now contaminated. What will you do now? your fish are infected, and the only proven method to treat them is with medicines that will instantly kill coral, invertebrates, and live rock. Now, you are forced to remove all your fish, which probably means emptying your tank since they will all hide, and then you still have to buy a quarantine setup to treat them. On top of that, marine ICH can remain dormant in a fish tank for 8 weeks or more. If you try to treat the fish in the system with a drug that claims to be reef safe, you will be adding more chemicals into your tank and the chances that it will do more harm than good are high.

The quarantine tank is a means of loss prevention. Please, include a setup like this with your initial start up and you will save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run as well as have happy, healthy, long living inhabitants.

Related posts:

1. Items Required for a new tank

Related posts:

1. 9/5/2009 Algae scrubber cleaning day!
2. 8/24/2009
3. 8/25/2009

If anyone wants a scrubber like the one I have below, I can send the specs of what I used to make it, or make you one and ship it for a small price. I will post comparison picture from start to finish in a couple days when work permits. Thanks all for following along. And please, if you have questions, or just want to talk about some reef stuff, send them to my email: Jason@reefchronicle.com or instant message me on AIM: Jason@reefchronicle.com (im normally on from 9am-5pm.

here is what the tank looks like now…Time for coral =)

Related posts:

1. Algae Scrubber down time ~
2. New Algae Scrubber!
3. Algae Scrubber Experiment