+southside45 Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Hello all, I'm new to the site and the hobby, I have a new 55g tank (4mo) with a 20g sump. I have just made a very small box to fit in my sump that I want to use as a refugium. The box basically sits in the sump with a few holes drilled on each side for water flow. As the area is so small, would I benefit at all from adding sand or should I just throw in a little chaeto and let it float around? I don't have a deep sand bed in my tank so I thought it would be good to try and incorporate one, I fear however that only having such a small space to do it would really just end up being a headache and not worth the effort. Any input would be great Also on a side note, does anyone use the culligan water machine from wal-mart? I've been using it for all my topoff and for mixing saltwater. I did a phosphate test and it read 0 but I still seem to be getting diatoms well after my initial cycle bloom. I only have one purple fire fish and feed 1/4 frozen cube of mysis shrimp a day so I don't think I'm putting excess nutrients in. Again any input would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 I think sand would be a waste. A little Cheato might do you some good. Do you have a light for it? I would not personally trust the water machines at stores. If you do consistent water changes an RO/DI will pay for itself and save you a lot of headaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismunn Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 what are the exact dimensions of the box you want to add into the sump? if its small enough that your questioning it then ide agree with gaberiel that it probably has no real use. and it wouldnt work as a DSB if you drill holes in the box cheato is ALWAYS a good idea, i dont care what anybody says! if you can get a 1 gallon jug full of sand to fit into the sump then your good, anything less is probably a waste. you dont have to drill holes in it, just set it in and let water pass over the open top. did you test the walmart water before adding salt? most test kits will only test in a specific type of water, salt or fresh. if your using a saltwater test kit to test the fresh walmart water you'll get an in-accurate reading. make sure that you mix up a batch of salt water to test if your using a saltwater test kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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