I have a 20 Gallon Waterbox Cube with a reasonably heavy bio-load, a lot of corals etc.
I run chaeto loose in the refugium in the rear AIO chamber which seems to be going great, I have sand sifting gobies who sift the substrate so I haven't needed to siphon or agitate. I use an AWC/ATO unit for daily 2 percent water changes and it keeps the nutrient levels in check, while also managing evaporation. A clam, and an anemone also help to absorb nitrates/phosphates out of the water.
I haven't been running a protein skimmer because of fears the loss of skimmate, evaporation and then FW top-up would mess with the salinity pretty quick in such a small tank. I've been running a square of filter floss in the rear chamber (ditched the sock in favour of a caddy full of mixed media) but I'm noticing this interferes with the flow to the pump chamber quite a bit. If I remove the floss I do start to see a bit of an oily protein buildup on the surface of the water. I've tilted the return outlet up a bit to increase agitation of the surface which helps some but I am wondering if I should re-visit the question of the Protein Skimmer?
Short of trying to measure evaporation, volume of skimmate, tank salinity and try to work out how much salt to add to the top-off water, is there any suggestions for how to manage the skimmer taking out salt water and the ATO returning Fresh?
If it's just a matter of adding salt to ATO water, is there any advice on working out how salty is needed?
As an alternative, I recently purchased a Santa Monica Slip.7 chaeto reactor/scrubber (https://www.santa-monica.cc/Two-wee...waterfall-scrubber-upflow-scrubber_p_104.html) that should slot into the middle rear chamber. It has the option of using a small pump to get some decent water movement through the reactor, and even add an airline for increased agitation and aeration. I haven't got around to installing it but I wonder if the increased water movement from something like this might help to break up the film buildup and encourage the algae to take care of it?
Appreciate advice or thoughts
I run chaeto loose in the refugium in the rear AIO chamber which seems to be going great, I have sand sifting gobies who sift the substrate so I haven't needed to siphon or agitate. I use an AWC/ATO unit for daily 2 percent water changes and it keeps the nutrient levels in check, while also managing evaporation. A clam, and an anemone also help to absorb nitrates/phosphates out of the water.
I haven't been running a protein skimmer because of fears the loss of skimmate, evaporation and then FW top-up would mess with the salinity pretty quick in such a small tank. I've been running a square of filter floss in the rear chamber (ditched the sock in favour of a caddy full of mixed media) but I'm noticing this interferes with the flow to the pump chamber quite a bit. If I remove the floss I do start to see a bit of an oily protein buildup on the surface of the water. I've tilted the return outlet up a bit to increase agitation of the surface which helps some but I am wondering if I should re-visit the question of the Protein Skimmer?
Short of trying to measure evaporation, volume of skimmate, tank salinity and try to work out how much salt to add to the top-off water, is there any suggestions for how to manage the skimmer taking out salt water and the ATO returning Fresh?
If it's just a matter of adding salt to ATO water, is there any advice on working out how salty is needed?
As an alternative, I recently purchased a Santa Monica Slip.7 chaeto reactor/scrubber (https://www.santa-monica.cc/Two-wee...waterfall-scrubber-upflow-scrubber_p_104.html) that should slot into the middle rear chamber. It has the option of using a small pump to get some decent water movement through the reactor, and even add an airline for increased agitation and aeration. I haven't got around to installing it but I wonder if the increased water movement from something like this might help to break up the film buildup and encourage the algae to take care of it?
Appreciate advice or thoughts