MD’s 50 Gallon Low Boy

[MichaelB]

Anybody know if a refugium is a good idea on a frag tank? Or should I use that area for rock since there won’t be any if the display? Or biomedia instead of rock?

You could also use the ceramic bricks for a section of the sump they are extremely pourose. Don't take this as any type of expert or first hand recommendation by any means. I watched several videos compairng different types of media for the sump. Many claimed the bio bricks once seeded and well established can house more bacteria than standard rocks. That's what a fair amount of the videos suggested a few others said they were expensive and possibly over rated. I saw some i would have liked to try but to they were to expensive for my budget, so went with cheaper ones. My 65 my plan is to do both. The fuge depends on how my acrylic diy project works.

This link is to a guy testing various ones out. I’ve seen countless videos on various type. So just one of the more compartive ones I recalled.

Pictured below are the cheap ones I bought from Amazon. I haven't added them to the new tank yet, pending until I attempt sump mod. I've been soaking them for 3 months in my main tank. So I
have no real personal opinion on them until later down the road when i can see their effect good or bad..

 

[MarcosDelgado0]

You could also use the ceramic bricks for a section of the sump they are extremely pourose. Don't take this as any type of expert or first hand recommendation by any means. I watched several videos compairng different types of media for the sump. Many claimed the bio bricks once seeded and well established can house more bacteria than standard rocks. That's what a fair amount of the videos suggested a few others said they were expensive and possibly over rated. I saw some i would have liked to try but to they were to expensive for my budget, so went with cheaper ones. My 65 my plan is to do both. The fuge depends on how my acrylic diy project works.

This link is to a guy testing various ones out. I’ve seen countless videos on various type. So just one of the more compartive ones I recalled.

Pictured below are the cheap ones I bought from Amazon. I haven't added them to the new tank yet, pending until I attempt sump mod. I've been soaking them for 3 months in my main tank. So I
have no real personal opinion on them until later down the road when i can see their effect good or bad..

Thanks for the rec I’ll look into that! I actually have a box of those cheap ones. I wanted to soak them in my tank but they didn’t really fit well in the AIO chamber and I didn’t really want them in the display tank since retail in there is scarce as it is

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for the rec I’ll look into that! I actually have a box of those cheap ones. I wanted to soak them in my tank but they didn’t really fit well in the AIO chamber and I didn’t really want them in the display tank since retail in there is scarce as it is

Understandable they aren't something you wanna look at daily. They fit almost exact in rear of my biocube, I did have to double check the measurements thou.

 

[ReyDeFarts]

Personally, I think I'd stay away from a refugium. After seeing my nutrients bottom out so quickly without a refugium, because I've got so much rock in there, I'd be worried. I wonder where all that rock came from?! Hmmm

But I will need to find the link to "study" about various porous materials and their efficacy in filtration. Let's just say that a lot of those products out there for biomedia can be smoke and mirrors. I think it's tough to beat natural crushed coral (larger reactor media) for bacteria. Neptunes recently got a big shipment in.

And it's really hard to beat the K1 media! Enough surface area for bacteria to colonize and detritus doesn't get built up in it, making it easy to clean out. Gotta run, but if forget to get you the link to it, remind me.

 

[MarcosDelgado0]

Personally, I think I'd stay away from a refugium. After seeing my nutrients bottom out so quickly without a refugium, because I've got so much rock in there, I'd be worried. I wonder where all that rock came from?! Hmmm

But I will need to find the link to "study" about various porous materials and their efficacy in filtration. Let's just say that a lot of those products out there for biomedia can be smoke and mirrors. I think it's tough to beat natural crushed coral (larger reactor media) for bacteria. Neptunes recently got a big shipment in.

And it's really hard to beat the K1 media! Enough surface area for bacteria to colonize and detritus doesn't get built up in it, making it easy to clean out. Gotta run, but if forget to get you the link to it, remind me.

Thanks Andy. That was definitely one of my thoughts too regarding the nutrients. I have to look into some of the bio media @MichaelB mentioned. I saw the description on Brightwells Xport BIO Brick claims to support up to 1000 gallons. Seems like a crazy claim but would be awesome if true because it’ll make things neater in the sump. I do see some reviews where people say they “melted”.

 

[H2OPlayar]

@MichaelB should have some extra crushed coral from my old system.

The bricks will "melt" or disintegrate over time, crushed coral doesn't

 

[MichaelB]

@MichaelB should have some extra crushed coral from my old system.

The bricks will "melt" or disintegrate over time, crushed coral doesn't

Yes bleached the first half and have it dryjng out. I have the 2nd batch in a bleach soak now. Will need to soak it in a clorine remover for a few days next week. Should have it all good as new in another 2 weeks I estimate.

It's definitely been a heck of a job lmao. I will glady share some. It was stored outside on the ground so lots of debris, organics, and sand mixed in it. So going through all the steps to ensure it's clean and won't have any leeching phosphates down the road.

Definitely greatful @H2OPlayar for this. At $6.49 a lbs this would have had to be well over $300 saved

I ended up with just under 2 5 gallon buckets of it. After sorting it out.

 

[Darkxerox]

@MichaelB should have some extra crushed coral from my old system.

The bricks will "melt" or disintegrate over time, crushed coral doesn't

Marine Pure and seachem blocks have been know to leach aluminum in tanks as well, would recommend not using them if you can avoid it (especially no name Amazon brands too). Whether that's a problem or not is up to you. Not sure if anyone has confirmed if the polyplab blocks are better but it would be cool to see.

 

[MichaelB]

Marine Pure and seachem blocks have been know to leach aluminum in tanks as well, would recommend not using them if you can avoid it (especially no name Amazon brands too). Whether that's a problem or not is up to you. Not sure if anyone has confirmed if the polyplab blocks are better but it would be cool to see.

I didn't know it was a possibility, I will definitely dig deeper on the subject. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[derek_SR]

A lot of well known coral farmers specifically avoid excessive porous material and even minimize live rock in their systems. Bacteria consume oxygen and this puts downward pressure on PH. I think this fact is often overlooked - consider what happens with bacterial blooms. Obviously bacteria are important, but I think in some cases having too much can cause problems too.

Perhaps adding media to help balance the system once it’s up and running and you have a sense of the feeding and livestock and nitrate levels and such might help. But you don’t have any of that information yet, so adding media at the very start just because seems like a bad idea. Just IMHO

In fact my last tank, which had nothing but issues, was started with a ton of media in the sump. Always struggled with PH and a host of other mystery issues I ultimately blamed on the bacterial biome. Eventually Dino’s. Awful tank from start to finish.

My latest tank is much more successful, and while there are a few other differences, this has been a key one IMO.

 

[ReyDeFarts]

@derek_SR Brings up a great point @MarcosDelgado0 !

Don't start off with a too much, too soon. I never really thought of what he said, in that way. Being that it will be a frag tank. You really only need the essentials to keep them happy, right. Shoot, the frag plugs may be enough surface area initially for all the bacteria the system needs. As you get dialed in, you can slowly add more biological filtration.

My 50 was started with A LOT of live rock from you. And looking back, it was a huge biological load for a brand new tank. It was great. No real ugly stage really. But at the slightest decrease in feeding, the nutrients would plummet. Also, the pH was a constant struggle. I didn't attribute that to the biological load of the O² honestly. Definitely a perspective to seriously consider!