Miracle Mud?

[Pices]

I also removed miracle mud from my sump. It was so messy and I didn't experience any miracles except the miracle of finally getting it out. It's very fine and would put a cloud of dust in the water and on plants every time I changed the water or tried to clean the sump-oh & that's with the pump turned off. I Really regretted that costly purchase.

[Jack L]

convinced, if 2 of you took i out, i don' need waste my time with it. but i am going to try water lettuce in sump and see if that does any good.

[Filip]

convinced, if 2 of you took i out, i don' need waste my time with it. but i am going to try water lettuce in sump and see if that does any good.

Try water sprite (ceratopteris thalicroides )instead Jack .
It's among the fastest growers given the strong light source and it can grow potted or as a surface floater .
Pistia s. grows much slower IME.

[Jack L]

Try water sprite (ceratopteris thalicroides )instead Jack .
It's among the fastest growers given the strong light source and it can grow potted or as a surface floater .
Pistia s. grows much slower IME.

i will look into it. the churn in my sump chamber is dunking the water lettuce, not so sure that is going to work out for me. i only have room in the first chamber, and that is where the water rushes in from siphon pipe

[Jenene]

i will look into it. the churn in my sump chamber is dunking the water lettuce, not so sure that is going to work out for me. i only have room in the first chamber, and that is where the water rushes in from siphon pipe

If the water movement is that strong the Miracle Mud would have been awful. Refugiums with substrate and plants usually have very slow flow. An option that can be submerged and still float freely is Java moss- although is is a very slow growing plant. Not sure if it does anything but it was alive and healthy so I kept it. Still re-working the media section. Just put in new baffles and Poret foam since I took this photo. I had posted this somewhere else before and after cleaning out of the mud- here is the link- http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t=#post1244188

[Jack L]

If the water movement is that strong the Miracle Mud would have been awful. Refugiums with substrate and plants usually have very slow flow. An option that can be submerged and still float freely is Java moss- although is is a very slow growing plant. Not sure if it does anything but it was alive and healthy so I kept it. Still re-working the media section. Just put in new baffles and Poret foam since I took this photo. I had posted this somewhere else before and after cleaning out of the mud- here is the link- http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t=#post1244188

i've addressed the water flow boil with a filter sock.
it was swamping several of the water lettuce, even put some through the baffle slot into the poret foam.
I swore i wouldn't use filter socks anymore, but i cut about 20 holes in it to hopefully allow it to just be a diffusion tool. its working great at the moment, few days will be the test, as that is how long it took them to overflow before.

[Jenene]

i've addressed the water flow boil with a filter sock.
it was swamping several of the water lettuce, even put some through the baffle slot into the poret foam.
I swore i wouldn't use filter socks anymore, but i cut about 20 holes in it to hopefully allow it to just be a diffusion tool. its working great at the moment, few days will be the test, as that is how long it took them to overflow before.

Very clever solution, I hope it works for you. I find myself constantly reworking my sump since it was really built for reef. If I knew then what I know now I would have built my own. I was a proponent of the filter socks (the way I was using them) until I realized it tended to float up a bit and let too much detritus through to my media chamber causing all sorts of havoc. The guy at Swiss Tropicals thought of a good solution. I will remove the sock and fill the bottom 7" of the compartment with mixed Poret cubes. Over the top there will be two 1 1/2" blocks of Poret of 10 and 20 ppi. Those can be removed for rinsing and the cubes should stay clean and act as extra bio media.

So like you are doing- thinking outside the box and re-purposing things can really solve some issues. I hope it works for you. Check back in and let us know.