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How do you keep Chaeto in your sump?


FarmerTy

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So, I've finished transitioning my all my corals and live rock from my nanocube to my 60 gallon and I was wondering, what have people been doing to keep their chaeto in their sump without a million little broken fibers floating everywhere! It's 3-chambered:

1st Chamber: holds return pump

2nd Chamber: has skimmer in it and bag of activated carbon

3rd Chamber: water entry pipe from main tank

The baffle separating 1st and 2nd is lower than the baffle separating 2nd and 3rd chambers.

Also, how do I keep the bubbles down? Put a bunch of live rock frags underneath where the water entry pipe is?

Thanks in advance for all the advice! Big tanks and sumps are all new to me since I've been running just a nanocube the last 5 years.

-Ty

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I've got a split drain going into the two outer chambers. I cut the flow down pretty far on my refugium chamber. Return in the middle.

I get really good chaeto growth without a huge amount of water flowing through there. That really has cut down on the bubbles.

I also keep the water level pretty high in the middle chamber so that the water falling over the baffles to the chamber doesn't splash and/or drive bubbles all the way down to the intake on the return pump.

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In my second chamber of my Solana, from top to bottom (water flows top to bottom) I have:

Polyfil

Top Drip Plate

Chaeto

Live Rubble (1 pieace)

Chemi-pure Elite

Bottom Drip Plate

The chemi-pure elite prevents bits of broken chaeto from getting into the return pump area.

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I use a mag12 return pump and use the sponge block to catch any pieces of chaeto that break off. I just clean it real regularly to keep nitrates down as much as possible. I also have a split sump now but was running a sump like you have. I liked having the fuge in the middle to keep the skimmer as far away from the return pump as possible. That helped keep micro bubbles from making it back to the display. I also have a piece of egg crate siliconed on the top of my baffle for my fuge now. I have used poly fiber in the past and it caught all of the small pieces of chaeto.

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