HOB refugium?

[FINWIN]

I am always looking for ways to increase efficiency, especially with what's planned down the road. So what's he short list of nitrate loving plants terrestial based that like wet feet? My fish seem to love roots, either eating or sheltering in them.

They've eaten the pothos too so in some tanks I've now got more root/vine than leaves. Seems to be on a tank by tank basis. The leaves are doing best in the parrot tanks for some reason.

 

[cockroach]

I have used these on 2 guppy tanks to see how it would go.
I cannot say I have noticed a big difference with such an easy fish to keep. However, it did seem to benefit the tanks when I was gone for prolonged times as microbes breed there and flow into tank later.
You can see them on the right and left. Simple air driven refugium using old guppy breeder boxes. They are now more planted and quite successfully growing.


I think they are quite useful in creating a more enriched system in tank as well as creating safe havens fore the microfauna populations in breeding tanks.

 

[koltsixx]

I have used these on 2 guppy tanks to see how it would go.
I cannot say I have noticed a big difference with such an easy fish to keep. However, it did seem to benefit the tanks when I was gone for prolonged times as microbes breed there and flow into tank later.
You can see them on the right and left. Simple air driven refugium using old guppy breeder boxes. They are now more planted and quite successfully growing.

I think they are quite useful in creating a more enriched system in tank as well as creating safe havens fore the microfauna populations in breeding tanks.

Sorry I and just want to make sure I'm understanding what I'm seeing. So those are the tanks for the guppies and the potted plants inside are what you're talking about in comparison to a refugium? Or are those tanks the refugium for larger tanks? How long ago did you start? And what is the green j-hook hose with the strainer? A gravity feed to another tank or is it for water changes?

The plant stocking is fairly minimal. I know it might not seem it considering the tank size and fish stock but the plant is what's doing the work and the less green there is the less machine. The plants need for nutrients is what's causing them to remove nitrogen compounds from the water so they can metabolize them. If they're not provided the appropriate levels of light for the plant(which could be more or less depending on the plant) and in some cases carbon dioxide they won't grow as readily and won't be able to absorb nitrogen. That's why some planted aquariums run injectors.

Different plants have different capabilities when it comes to utilizing nutrients in the water. Like fish can outcompete other fish for food the same is true with plants. For instance algae easily grows in the aquarium with no help necessary from us and can become a nuisance. Algae can also be a plague to planted aquariums as they can outcompete most aquatic plants if conditions aren't ideal causing the algae to start growing on the plants and starving them. Algae scrubbers are a not often utilized but are an effective means of helping maintain low nitrate levels. Given a proper medium to grow on a smaller amount of algae can do the work of a lot of plants. It however can be tedious to maintain as by providing optimal conditions the scrubber can need cleaning more often and scraping it off is not pleasant, but it can be reutilized as food for fish. I believe that's why people utilize some terrestrial plants. Because they can process nutrients on similar levels to algae if not often superior to many of the aquatic plants available to us that we'd want to use in our aquarium and the setup for a something like a hang on back can be infinitely simpler and maintained easier. I'm no expert on this in anyway so take what I say with a grain of salt but I think it's fairly accurate. As I suggested earlier in the thread Plant only filtration (why not popular in the hobby???) | MonsterFishKeepers.com is a great source of knowledge and experience from people more in the know about this stuff than I.

 

[cockroach]

Sorry I and just want to make sure I'm understanding what I'm seeing. So those are the tanks for the guppies and the potted plants inside are what you're talking about in comparison to a refugium? Or are those tanks the refugium for larger tanks? How long ago did you start? And what is the green j-hook hose with the strainer? A gravity feed to another tank or is it for water changes?

The plant stocking is fairly minimal. I know it might not seem it considering the tank size and fish stock but the plant is what's doing the work and the less green there is the less machine. The plants need for nutrients is what's causing them to remove nitrogen compounds from the water so they can metabolize them. If they're not provided the appropriate levels of light for the plant(which could be more or less depending on the plant) and in some cases carbon dioxide they won't grow as readily and won't be able to absorb nitrogen. That's why some planted aquariums run injectors.

Different plants have different capabilities when it comes to utilizing nutrients in the water. Like fish can outcompete other fish for food the same is true with plants. For instance algae easily grows in the aquarium with no help necessary from us and can become a nuisance. Algae can also be a plague to planted aquariums as they can outcompete most aquatic plants if conditions aren't ideal causing the algae to start growing on the plants and starving them. Algae scrubbers are a not often utilized but are an effective means of helping maintain low nitrate levels. Given a proper medium to grow on a smaller amount of algae can do the work of a lot of plants. It however can be tedious to maintain as by providing optimal conditions the scrubber can need cleaning more often and scraping it off is not pleasant, but it can be reutilized as food for fish. I believe that's why people utilize some terrestrial plants. Because they can process nutrients on similar levels to algae if not often superior to many of the aquatic plants available to us that we'd want to use in our aquarium and the setup for a something like a hang on back can be infinitely simpler and maintained easier. I'm no expert on this in anyway so take what I say with a grain of salt but I think it's fairly accurate. As I suggested earlier in the thread Plant only filtration (why not popular in the hobby???) | MonsterFishKeepers.com is a great source of knowledge and experience from people more in the know about this stuff than I.

No. I think my explanation was a tad unclear.
The green hook is my water change pipe hooked up to the faucet and draining into the toilet. No connection to the refugium.
On the rack are 3 equal sized tanks.
On the far right and left, you can see a small guppy breeder box on each side. These boxes are not used for breeding, but rather as a refugium for microbes. Each has a thick layer of mulm in it. Previously, it had some guppy grass and moss growing in it. I only started these a year or two ago and leave them. I do not touch the inside of them except for removing extra plants.
Currently it has frog bit which doesn't do well in the tanks do to bubbles splashing water on leaves constantly and them rotting. As well as some moss and rabbit foot fern cuttings.

The terracotta pots are purely to provide cover for fry and propagate crypts. And yes, sparsely planted they are. I need to be able to remove unwanted fry.

The centre tank now has a matten filter along the back wall. Behind that essentially acts as a refugium.

My main rack has a sump that acts as a refugium with plants to remove nitrates. These are all terrestrial plants for the exact reasons you mentioned. They have been working very well and the hair algae that was plaguing my tank, after excessive "help" feeding by my son in my absence, is almost all under control. I use pothos, monstera and anthurium and floating plants here.
The pothos periodically gets out of control and gets hacked back. Does not take long to refill the area.

 

[koltsixx]

cockroach I thought the breeder boxes might've been HOB's and I didn't know you had mulm in there pretty cool. Didn't see the frogbit or others either, I assumed incorrectly the only plants were in the pots. I'm sorry I missed how much was going on in there, I missed the Hamburg Matten as well.

Yeah, floating plants are usually powerhouses that I imagine would go well with Pothos, etc. Can I ask, is the main rack plumbed into all the tanks? Just trying to give myself a visual as it sounds interesting. Thanks for the more detailed description of your setup.

 

[cockroach]

cockroach I thought the breeder boxes might've been HOB's and I didn't know you had mulm in there pretty cool. Didn't see the frogbit or others either, I assumed incorrectly the only plants were in the pots. I'm sorry I missed how much was going on in there, I missed the Hamburg Matten as well.

Yeah, floating plants are usually powerhouses that I imagine would go well with Pothos, etc. Can I ask, is the main rack plumbed into all the tanks? Just trying to give myself a visual as it sounds interesting. Thanks for the more detailed description of your setup.

No worries. I could have written much more clearly .

Here are some rudimentary "flow charts"
Sump is connected to 6 tanks. 3 on each rack A and B.
Rack A was the first and plumbed into sump as a flow through rack starting at top left of rack and zigzagging down, exiting at bottom right.
Rack B was an addition and I didn't want another pump so I rigged it with a syphon from the top right of Rack A. It the goes down into the bottom of Rack B and exits into the bottom right of Rack A. This saves on pumps etc.
From rack A bottom right, all six tanks flow into sump. Sump pumps back water to Rack A top left.


The sump services all six tanks so is setup to be a nitrate sink. The first chamber has ceramic biomedia, some submerged plants and floating plants now with the filter sock.
Second chamber has plastic bioballs, some more plants in pots and some epiphyte plants on things, also an anthurium potted in large lava rock.
Third chamber is where water is drawn out. It contains ceramic cylinders and some floss.
So the sump is a refugium for microbes as well. Been trying to put shrimp in their but they are not surviving. think the planaria are taking them out.


My cube tank also has a corner matten. The space behind is used to root pothos essentially acts as a refugium. It also has a breeder box connected into the space that acts as a second refugium and is about 50% full of mulm.

 

[koltsixx]

Again, thank you. That's a very comprehensive description and flow chart. I know you said rudimentary but it's straight forward, easy to follow and the description adds to the overall detail and on 2 hours of sleep and not being very quick to begin with I need all the help I can get. lol I opened your pics in your first post to get an idea of what might be going on, this time though I opened them in a separate window so I could really zoom in. It's an impressive and interesting setup. I personally love threads like this because it serves as inspiration, and I like playing around with things for myself to put my own spin on things.