Need Help changing Wet/Dry to Refugium

[john rambo]

In an attempt to get my nitrate levels drastically lower I'm taking Beth's advice and adding a Refugium to my aquarium. I have a mega-flow model 3 wet/dry filter. I took out the bio-balls years ago. It only has the blue filter pad that goes in the black tray and the blue rectangular sponge right before the return pump.
I attached 2 pictures. The red is where I would put acrylic. I was thinking if I put a piece of acrylic on top of the egg crate at the bottom of the bio-balls area that would help stop the strong water flow that would stir the mud. Also would I have to use the second piece of acrylic right before the rectangular sponge or could I just leave it how it is? Sorry the picture is kind of hard to understand. Any input or changes to the design would be great.
Thanks a lot.

 

[handbanana]

I think I get it. One piece of plexi would raise the water level in the center area while the other on "top" would be a flow difuser? Would there be holes or slits in the difusing piece to allow water to trickel down?
Looks like a good setup to me. Will there be LR in the chamber above the mud?

 

[john rambo]

Thanks for your input. And yeah the first piece will be to diffuse the water. I'm going to either put holes in it or leave a small area open. I hope it will be good enough to prevent the mud from being stirred. The second piece will be around 8" tall. I'm going to put Live Rock on top of the mud and then algae. Any other suggestions?

 

[handbanana]

Maybe put something in the first chamber to slow down the water or stack LR under the output for the difusion chamber?

Good luck, awesome sump too!

 

[ryancw01]

Yeah, you will definetely want to build up that wall before the return and the blue sponge. You can just glue plexi to the wall that is already there. Once you build up that wall, you can ditch that blue sponge. Those are nitrate factories also. I like using rock rubble in those kinds of areas. Bigger rocks though so water is not too restricted. Refugiums and RO/DI units are the biggest game changers for saltwater tanks so you should notice your water getting much more stable after the change-over.

 

[john rambo]

Thanks for the replies. I added the mud and then water but now I'm stuck. I didn't take into consideration that the mud needs to settle/cycle. It's in my wet/dry filter right now and the water is really cloudy/foamy. Obviously starting the filter back up isn't a good idea so how should I let it cycle? If it sits long enough with the water in there do you think it will just clear up and then I'll be good to go?
Thanks.

 

[ryancw01]

Yeah...just let it settle. You want to be able to at least see through to the other side before you fire it up.

 

[john rambo]

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. Tell me what you think about this picture. I'm going to add live rock all around where the water is going to empty into the bottom. I also placed a piece of plastic on top of the egg crate at the bottom of the bio-ball chamber leaving an opening on one end for the water to flow down through. I just hope the mud won't get stirred up because the water level isn't going to be as high as originally planned because I've had my wet/dry flood over when the power goes out and I'm not home to stop it.
The water level is going to be slightly higher, to about the top of the foam you see in the picture.
**Edit**
The water cleared up and I started the filter back up. Everything is working great. Any advice for inverts? I currently have 1 nassarius snail and 3 blue leg hermit crabs. The hermits sometimes kick the mud up into the return pump when they search for food in it, but very little actually goes high enough to get over the wall. I'm getting the algae in a few days to finish it all up.
Also, should I remove the sponges from my overflow box and the blue sponge in the black tray at the beginning of the wet/dry? Will the inverts have anything to feed off besides algae on the rock if i keep the sponges in there?
Thanks.

 

[handbanana]

Looks great!

 

[john rambo]

Thanks. I just got the algae today, all I need now is some more inverts.
I have a few questions,
Which sponge filters should I remove? There are 2 before the refugium. They are in the over-flow box and also there is a blue pad in the wet/dry (now refugium) tray right before where the bio-balls used to be.
After the water enters the mud area there is also a large blue rectangular sponge followed by a sponge that is attached to my mag 12 return pump.
Do I ever need to feed the inverts?
Any other suggestions to help improve the nitrates would be great. Thanks.
Here's a pic of the finished refugium. It was pretty easy to do with the exception of draining/drying the area so I could silicone another taller piece of plastic in. Im actually surprised the mud doesn't stir with the water level being as low as it is.