30gal. Precision Marine Fuge

[Iceeeyyyy]

I have this refugium that I bought from Andy at Fishland when I was into saltwater, but I never put it into use. I am no longer in the salty scene and wanted to know how I can use this for my 210 tang tank. I have the pumps and overflow that came with it and thats it. How would I convert this into a working sump and what media can I use in it?! I wanted to put in a drip plate kind of thing where the water drains in but there is a piece of acrylic there and I cant get to it, im not very skilled handywise so please all the help is appreciated.

-Yoji-

[Zulaab]

Are the two plates on the right hand side removable (ie can you turn them upside down ?)

If not yes you can still use it, but it will be like a refuge which means you will need to fill it with bale basically. It will work.

Keep smiling :)
Jesper

[Iceeeyyyy]

I cant remove anything without smashing the whole thing, LoL. Will this work better than say a FX5 as I have 2 running on my tank currently.

-Yoji-

[Zulaab]

A wet/dry setup always works better than a canister.. why because the O2 exchange is SO MUCH higher..
If you understand the ammonia->Nitrite->Nitrate exchange OXYGEN is catalyst to convert the everything. This means in short.. the more O2 the faster ammonia is broken down the faster Nitrites are converted to Nitrates. So in short.. a wet/dry will always out perform a canister.

Ask fshfrk. He had a wet/dry and he poured pure ammonia into a 210. Brought it up to 4.0ppm (fishless cycle) I think the first time he did this ammonia was down to nearly 0 in matter of a couple of days, the last time he did that, he converted 4.0ppm to 0.5ppm over night.

Please read http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7080

This will give you the eheim 2080 vs Fluval FX5
Eheim took 11 days to convert 4.0 ppm to 0
Fluval FX5 13 days to convert 4.0 ppm to 0

I promise you it takes 1/2 the time on a wet/dry.

Again only difference between a wet/dry is amount of O2 in the system. Wet/dry wins.. and all the extra O2 in the tank.. your fish will always love you for that too

[Zulaab]

The water comes in on the left then over the top then from there ??

[Iceeeyyyy]

The water comes in from the left and then goes through these wavey grooves on the lower third of the first panel, it then fills up the "fuge" part of the filter and overflows to the next chamber via the serated teeth in the second panel. The last panel is raised about an 1.5" off the bottom to allow water to fill up the last chamber where the pump is located the wholes at the top are so that the water flows back into the previous compartment if it gets too full I guess.

-Yoji-

[wvgdiscus]

You can put a sponge filter in the 3rd chamber (serated teeth aka skimmer & the wall lifted up off bottom). This will allow you to use it as wet/dry. Most of the detris will fall in the bottom of the 2nd chamber. The only thing you wont have is bio balls in it. But you can put bags of carbon the same area too.
With bags of carbon in this area they will be easily removed if you ever have to meadicate the tank.

[Iceeeyyyy]

So your saying in this whole thing all im going to put in are some filter pads and carbon in that one compartment?! I wanted to ask is there anyway I can cut the acrylic where the inlet tubes are so that I can place a sponge under them?!

-Yoji-

[cichlid1409]

put some filter socks on the inlets.... crystal clear water. i wouldn't cut the acrylic ... you can maybe mod it with sheets of acrylic from HD and silicone them in to create a placce for bio media. personnally i'd sell it and get something else for freshwater.

[Iceeeyyyy]

Ahh, I would do that but the thing is I cant get to the inlets on the inside due to that first piece of acrylic thats why I was asking a way to cut into the top. I probably should just sell it though would make everything easier on me. Thanks for the help everyone.

-Yoji-