Shading half a sump for a cryptic zone

[JoJosReef]

Continuing with my new sump saga... today's topic, splitting a refugium into a macroalgae area and a cryptic area.

I'll be running a Kessil a160we with a 30 degree reflector glued to the lense over the macroalgae section. I am thinking of getting a black polycarb lid covering some percentage of the top to shade the back half of the refugium area of the sump (usually skimmer area).

Problem: There seems to be a lot of light spillage (both into the cryptic zone and into the other chambers):

Putting a lid at about half-way (~8inch, leaving 8 inches of the 16 inch sump front-to-back open):

Lots of light spilling into the cryptic zone. Note: there will be about a 2-3 inch sand/mud bed and rocks on top of that, so the cryptic zone and macro zone will be elevated a good bit.

Scooting it forward a few inches:

Still a lot of light spillage, but now I'm wondering if the macro section will get enough light or not. *shrug

Of course, if I move the shade back, that almost defeats the purpose.

So what is likely to be the best bet here? I am ordering a half-sump lid soon, so don't want to make a mistake and order something useless.

As a side note: What about the light spillage into the filtration and pump chambers? Won't that get a bunch of film algae growing there? What do you use to black-out the glass there? Usually I see a black film of glass on the outside of the back glass of the tank (not inside in contact with water). What do you think?

Thanks!!

 

[VintageReefer]

The easiest way to do this is to get a self contained algae scrubber which will grow macro for nutrient control, and contain its light internally.

Then all the space around the scrubber is free to be a cryptic zone without any cabinet lighting, and can hold sand and live rock, and will grow pods and feather dusters and sponge just fine in the dark.

This method also solves the problem of light spill into the other compartments and will keep them free of film algae as well

This is the exact setup I run on my 75g reef, it works great, and it’s exactly what I plan to do with my new build, which if others don’t know, is the same exact tank and sump that you are using in this thread

 

[JoJosReef]

The easiest way to do this is to get a self contained algae scrubber which will grow macro for nutrient control, and contain its light internally.

Then all the space around the scrubber is free to be a cryptic zone without any cabinet lighting, and can hold sand and live rock, and will grow pods and feather dusters and sponge just fine in the dark.

This method also solves the problem of light spill into the other compartments and will keep them free of film algae as well

This is the exact setup I run on my 75g reef, it works great, and it’s exactly what I plan to do with my new build, which if others don’t know, is the same exact tank and sump that you are using in this thread

This would be an excellent solution, but my goal with the refugium is mostly display and pH balance, not necessarily nutrient removal--I'm already running a nutrient limited system, although that may change with the new fish I'm planning. So ideally, I want to see the macros: string of pearls, ORANGE GALAXY (my HG macro), Euchema, Portieria, Galaxaura, Halymenia, Padina... might not be room for all of these.

In the back, behind it, I'll have even more rocks to create a shaded cryptic zone space. I already have massive amounts of sponges to transfer over to seed it. Just a matter of getting it shaded well.

 

[VintageReefer]

Scrubbers provide ph boosts/balance because they run overnight when display lighting is off

However, your goal of a display refugium will not be met this way

Where do you keep this on the current system? Do you have a under tank refugium?

 

[JoJosReef]

Scrubbers provide ph boosts/balance because they run overnight when display lighting is off

However, your goal of a display refugium will not be met this way

Where do you keep this on the current system? Do you have a under tank refugium?

No, I used to run macros in my mixed reef, but the huge bubble algae invasion I had made me nuke the tank with Flux. Lost all my macros. Had nowhere to move them to at the time. Now with a foxface and a bristletooth in the stocking list, fleshy macros are going to stay in the sump, only calcified macros in the DT.

 

[VintageReefer]

Since water enters the middle uniformly across a horizontal bottom channel I would do this. Excuse crude drawing

The red is 3 black acrylic panels that extend above the light fixture. We divide the middle section into two sections. The macro section is 3 wall black acrylic extending above the fixture so all light is contained inside the black box. The other side can be your cryptic zone.

Green is everyday macro and I even made orange plants to represent your orange galaxy hg macro