One of my thriving refugiums.....

This is the top two LED light strips on a 21 hour daylight timer on the sump top, not fish tank. They rest on a plexiglass sheet. Below is the sock chamber to catch macro detritus materials needing changing weekly.
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This is the same view w one light removed. The fast growing water sprite grows like a weed and I have to trim and toss out several bunches a week. These plants are using my less desirable nutrients to grow. The roots rest in the water while the green foliage reaches upward. Above is the next sump chamber with an algae scrubber floating on the water. When I remove excess green, the plants use up nutrients to grow more. The root mass remains in the sump water is huge.
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Here are the plants with both lights removed. Because these are using up a lot of nitrates etc., my algae in the tank water s next to nothing. My nitrates are 0-10 with typical readings of 5 with a rather heavy bioload.
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I even have a sectioned off area of water sprite in the main tanks. Not only do the roots grab nutrients, but a shaded area is produced which the fish like. They can swim into brighter or lower light levels. Note...the fake driftwood has no algae growing on it;)
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Just wanted to share my happiness w refugiums. Sorry abt the poor quality tank pics. Also...my other filtration units do the main aerobic bacteria action and are not pictured.
Lastly.....a pic of my floating algae scrubbers (one in each sump) per tank. These are in the next chamber after the refugium in each sump.
With both the refugium and scrubber working, my needs are met.
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I'm impressed.

That’s a great idea Bill. Thanks for sharing-very cool!
Patty

Wow that's a lot of nutrient export. How would you suggest sizing it? Say for a 75/125 gallon display with 6-10 adult discus, usually people use a 20-30 gallon sump. If I need a refugium as well, do I go up to 55/75 in the sump?

My sump is a horse trough abt three and a half feet long and ten inches wide. The refugium section is abt twenty inches long w the other areas for a small bio ball area and housing the floating algae scrubber. Mine is for a 75 gallon tank. If I could make it larger, I would. A twenty gallon would do depending on what else you put in it. Each week, I have to trim and toss abt a coffee can sized bunch of water sprite which grows upward towards my strong twenty hour lighting strips for both my Discus tanks. It’s amazing to think that I’m removing such growth weekly that used the water nutrients to grow that otherwise would have been present in the aquarium itself. I tried the pathos approach, but this water sprite easily outdoes the pathos for very fast thick roots and super fast leaf growth. The root mat below the green in the water is thick and dense thus grabbing lots and lots of NO3 and probably NH3 with NO2 as well. I may even have to thin out some of the roots at this rate.

I will say that since I have a heavy bio load in both my Discus tanks, doing all I do (refugium, algae scrubbers, and anaerobic bacteria denitrification canisters, with Biohome in the regular canisters) is paramount. Oh yes....I still gottta do the WCs as well. If my nitrates remain below 10, then I’m happy. Someday, I’m hoping to set up a much bigger tank. For now, I’ll have to settle for my modest five tanks....keeping the wife in mind. Btw.......my love of koi involved a basement pond set up of 500 gallons used for winter time. Yes....I’m a nut who painstakingly catches my koi from the 6,600 gallon two-tiered outside pond and brings them inside for the winter. So I have to understand her reluctance to add a bigger tank. I’ve got da fish and am happy with what I’ve got. In a way......if I got a 150g tank today, how long would it be before I wanted a 300 gallon???....on so on.

Wow , that's a one fine looking water Sprite garden you are growing there Bill :) . I can imagine how efficiently your water gets filtered with that amount of plant mass .
What kind and strength of light do you use above the refugium (Watts / lumens ) and why 21 hours a day instead of 24/7 ?

I also wonder what your floating algae scrubber looks like without algae(it's structure ) ?
Is it simply a basket made of eggcrates or does it needs something else in it in order to do it's job ?

Thanks for sharing your work with us Bill .

Filip,

Thanks. My light strips are about five inches above the water. I use a 21 inch and a 24inch strip parallel to each other each filled w eLive LED pods of mostly cool white with a few warm white ones. Each pod uses 1 watt and gives off abt 80-85 lumens.
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Maybe I errored in my hour numbers. The algae scrubber gets 21 hours of day while the refugium gets abt 19. Probably bc I am a retired biology teacher, the lights are not on 24/7. In the photosynthetic cycle of plants, a period of some darkness is needed by the plants for the respiration end of things. I probably could go w 24, but since it’s all working so well, I’m inclined to leave it as is. If you decide to do up a water sprite refugium and can’t find water sprite near ya, let me know. I toss out abt a coffee can sized clump of greenery weekly. I had to special order mine to get started. The pet shops around here had none and their filtration systems are store wide systematic which gives me concern.

Regarding the scrubber, I have no empty ones to show you. I can say it is not as simple as egg cartons. There is a specially cut top that fits into the base. This top has sealed LED lights. The base has air hoses on the bottom to draw water in through holes at the bottom of the unit. Here is a pic of what it resembles.
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Santa Monica filtration has many more pics and videos of the scrubber design/operation.

Lastly, my daily approach to combating NO3 is a three pronged approach. They are the refugium, algae scrubbers, and an anaeobic only bacterial canister by Aquaripure. WCs help to keep levels low, but between the WCs, my levels were rising too much for me as I didn’t want/like an up and down swing all the time w my, admittedly, heavy bio loads. Since daily WCs are not a realistic option for me, I had to come up w the means to fight NO3 continuously. My fish are notably more relaxed and, certainly healthier, in water w nitrates around 5ppm as opposed to the 40-60ppm of days past.

Well.....had to update. I kinda got tired of constant trimming the tops of the water sprite that easily reached the plastic holding the lights. Decided to raise each refugium lighting an additional 3 1/2 inches so as to allow for more upward reach and even fuller plants. Now the lighting is around eight inches above the plants. I may even have to go higher down the road....we’ll see.

i tried refuguim with water lettuce, i didn't notice much drop in nitrates in tank, i did notice slowing of my display tank plant growth. i got tried of tending to plants in the sump so gave up on it after there was a BGA outbreak in the refugium. i'm glad its working for you though. i have a LOT more plants in the display tank as well.

Just doubled the size of the water sprite refugium yesterday. Now I have 30” and 24” light strips. The water sprite out performed the algae scrubber, so for now, I’m setting the scrubber aside and growing still more to further reduce NO3 levels. I’ll post again to confirm or correct my assumptions.

Well......after the better part of a year, I’ve taken down one of my water sprite refugiums and replaced it w two large pathos plants. I noticed that when the lower leaves in the water sprite were shaded out by the higher shoots, the shaded ones died and dead plant parts are not ideal for NO3 removal.....such dead plant leaves actually raise nitrates. Now, only the roots r in the sump water and I can easily remove any dead pathos leaves. I did take quite a while to rinse out the softball-sized root clumps for each pathos plant. Now, we’ll see if all goes well. The 55 gallon tank still has water sprite until I’m sure the pathos is doing it’s job on NO3.
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