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Hello Doostur, I was enjoying your build thread and I have a similar setup. I’m curious how effective you find your refugium? Waterbox has a fairly small Refugium and I noticed that you had both extra circulation in there as well as what looks like an H380. How often are you leveraging GFO to supplement your refugium? Thanks in advance!
The H380 does a great job growing nice clean chaeto. Its hard to say how effective the refugium is or what my parameters would be without it. I never did a before and after, and had to many changes along the way. I do believe it does a great job absorbing excess nutrients and left over food bits. I have a mini clean up crew in my refugium as well with crabs, snails, texido urchin and sea hare. Is it a mind blowing difference...? Probably not, but every little bit helps and GFO isn't cheap lol. I have to be doing something right... i fill a 5 gallon bucket with good quality chaeto every 2-3 months. I had a left over power head so I through it in there to help with the flow. I saw a lot of guys on youtube doing it. Definitely better than not having it.
I run about 2 cups of GFO and carbon. This is more than the BRS calculator based on 200g of water. This amount, with my reactor set to a good tumble rate, results in my phosphates being .02 - .06. I feed a small amount of flakes and pellets in the morning and 2.5 tablespoons of meaty foods in the afternoon. Its a big puzzle based on how many fish, how often you feed, where you want to keep your parameters etc. I change my GFO and carbon out every 6-8 weeks.... by this time my phosphates begin to reach .08-1.0.