Crypic zone vs refugium

[+KimP]

. . . Homeostatic equilibrium? [emoji12]

Naaa, "Dynamic Equilibrium"! We're dealing with competing and opposing organisms in a complex ecosystem.

"balance"!

Kidding aside, this has been a great, thought providing discussion! I feel like I've been fighting to find a lasting balance/DE/homoeostasis in my tank for a long time now. It seems to easily tip out of it with no apparent changes on my part. As far as having a lit refugium vs a cryptic one, how do you guys feel about keeping algae in the sump and the DOC's it might add?

[FarmerTy]

. . . Homeostatic equilibrium? [emoji12]

Naaa, "Dynamic Equilibrium"! We're dealing with competing and opposing organisms in a complex ecosystem.

"balance"!

Kidding aside, this has been a great, thought providing discussion! I feel like I've been fighting to find a lasting balance/DE/homoeostasis in my tank for a long time now. It seems to easily tip out of it with no apparent changes on my part. As far as having a lit refugium vs a cryptic one, how do you guys feel about keeping algae in the sump and the DOC's it might add?

I never had issues with my corals when running a refugium though I only really used chaeto in mine.

That being said, I don't run a refugium anymore. I had wanted to turn the area into a cryptic zone but now that I'm shutting down my frag tank, I'll be reusing the section in the sump as a lit frag section again.

[dshel1217]

You guys are reefing at a whole other level! I have spent a lot of time on Wikipedia looking up some of yalls term. Hahaha

FYI TY I love the background music on your video.

[Sascha D.]

I've had issues running a refugium before. It's not just set and forget. That path leads to problems. Refugiums tend to collect detritus and the algae needs to be cropped regularly.

In high nutrient tanks, where you aren't running gfo or skimming heavily, the algae can grow quickly and block light to the lower crops. The lower crops die and create a problem. You have to regularly crop the algae to create a constant growth environment. Its like trending roses and other terrestrial plants. If you don't then the growth will stagnate and possibly foul the water.

In nutrient controlled tanks, macroalgae will purposely expire to create enough nutrients for future growth. It creates is own food by decaying and releases the nitrates that you were trying to export. Chaetomorpha and Ulva are better in these tanks because they're less likely too die as long as you keep them less than 3" thick.

I don't think green leaf varieties are acceptable because the tips often die when they get bigger. The red varieties are all good and I like growing them because they are resilient and slower growing so they take less maintenance.

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[Timfish]

. . . I'll put my Tim hat on here and say, its entirely balanced on bioload. Keep a lower bioload, feed minimally, and your small refugium and cryptic zones in your sump should manage the nutrients with little issue.

. . . How many people know their grams per liter of fish Tim? . . .

But no one else is speaking for me Ty. So what are your criteria for determining a bioload of a system? Do you think you are keeping a large bioload in your system? I explain why I prefer to keep fewer fish in a system here in post 19. As autotrophs it's the corals that are the central component of the filtration in my systems. The cryptic areas (and you don't necessarily need refugiums) are for sponges that are converting DOC into alkalinity.

[FarmerTy]

. . . I'll put my Tim hat on here and say, its entirely balanced on bioload. Keep a lower bioload, feed minimally, and your small refugium and cryptic zones in your sump should manage the nutrients with little issue.

. . . How many people know their grams per liter of fish Tim? . . .

But no one else is speaking for me Ty. So what are your criteria for determining a bioload of a system? Do you think you are keeping a large bioload in your system? I explain why I prefer to keep fewer fish in a system here in post 19. As autotrophs it's the corals that are the central component of the filtration in my systems. The cryptic areas (and you don't necessarily need refugiums) are for sponges that are converting DOC into alkalinity.

Haha, I was actually paying you a compliment Tim because you are always very careful about your fish/coral selection so I grouped it as being very cognizant of your stocking/bioload levels. I only mentioned cryptic zones and sumps in reference to the original posters question/setup, not yours.

And yes, I consider my bioload to be on the higher side. You can bring a scale and weigh my fish one day for me. I'll pop open a beer for you sir. [emoji4]

[Timfish]

. . . I'll put my Tim hat on here and say, its entirely balanced on bioload. Keep a lower bioload, feed minimally, and your small refugium and cryptic zones in your sump should manage the nutrients with little issue.

. . . How many people know their grams per liter of fish Tim? . . .

But no one else is speaking for me Ty. So what are your criteria for determining a bioload of a system? Do you think you are keeping a large bioload in your system? I explain why I prefer to keep fewer fish in a system here in post 19. As autotrophs it's the corals that are the central component of the filtration in my systems. The cryptic areas (and you don't necessarily need refugiums) are for sponges that are converting DOC into alkalinity.

Haha, I was actually paying you a compliment Tim because you are always very careful about your fish/coral selection so I grouped it as being very cognizant of your stocking/bioload levels. I only mentioned cryptic zones and sumps in reference to the original posters question/setup, not yours.

And yes, I consider my bioload to be on the higher side. You can bring a scale and weigh my fish one day for me. I'll pop open a beer for you sir. [emoji4]

Well, my apologies. As I read your post it seemed to me you were saying I was endorsing keeping a light bioload and minimal feeding to help control nutrients. To be clear, when dealing with nuisance algae and nutrients I see it as being all about the corals. Having a light or heavy bioload, sump, refugium, reactors and most other equipment is at best a distant 2nd place if not irrelevant so long as the corals are getting enough nitrogen and phosphate. What I would consider important along with manual removal are urchins to scrape the holdfasts algae have off the substrate and depending on existing coverage increasing the coral cover to compete (in Mikes tank we already had a lot of corals and were removing some along with the algae).