I originally intended to add-on a simple Aquatic Plant Filter in an effort to reduce Nitrates as much as possible thereby completing the Nitrification Cycle, and minimizing my maintenance efforts--in pursuit of high water quality and minimum maintenance. As I pursued the details of putting together a functional plant filter--I began realizing the availability of various Freshwater creatures that would bring it all together as more of a Refugium. Right now, it is somewhat of a mess. The Val. has been eliminated and 4 different Crypts and Chain-Sword has been added, but I will get it straightened out over time as all the new inhabitants make themselves at Home. The reason for this refugium was simply because once I started leaving the Arafura's food (Comets) in the tank 24/7--They started eating all of the plants! And then there were none! So, the easiest way I could determine to keep the plants and the Comets separated was to build a separate Plant Filter. Then it grew into a Refugium. And here We are....
I purchased the Anubias, Crypts and Chain-Sword for this refugium, but I already had all of the other plants. The Duckweed, Frogbit, and Anacharis are all good "Sump" plants that suck the "Extra" nutrients out if the water (i.e., Nitrates).
Snails The Snails I am using are all Plant safe and are as follows:
Ok, so it all comes together like this:
The Arafura is housed in a
55gal. aquarium
with an undergravel filter with Reverse-Flow Powerheads, Gravel, plenty of wood and rocks, Corkbark floating on the top providing Top-Coverage and supporting "Marble Queen" Philodendron. The water transfers from the 55gal. into the 29gal. Refugium via a Home-made Overflow Box. The water is then tranferred back to the 55gal. via a Rena xP3 canister filter-(Intake in the 29gal., Return-line into the 55gal). The 29gal. Refugium is additionally filtered by a HOB filter that came with the aquarium kit-(Wally-World).
All of the Plants in the Refugium are easy to grow, do well in low-light or higher levels, and remove "waste" directly from the water column. The various Snails and Red Cherry Shrimp are scavengers that clean up "waste" including dead plant matter and eat various types of algae. The Bamboo Shrimp are scavengers also, but they and the Clams are Filter Feeders--Filtering out fine particles and microbes from the water column. With all of the filtration(i.e., Undergravel filter, canister filter, HOB filter, overflow box input prefilter, overflow box output prefilter, Refugium Sand substrate)their should be plenty of bacteria at all times to make sure that things like ammonia and nitrites never get out of control for any reason. Nitrates and other water-bound "waste" and minerals will be absorbed by the plants and filter feeders, while the scavenging clean-up crew takes care of the rest.
So far, everything seems to be working well. The Shrimp, Clams and Apple Snails cannot handle very much exposure to Copper--so any foods, Plant fertilizers, or medications have to be watched closely. At this point, I am adding Hagen's Iron enriched PlantGro once/wk at about 1/6th the recommended dosage(5ml/60gal.)--just to be sure that the are some trace elements and other minerals floating around.
I am adding food to the Refugium (Algae wafers, Flake fish food and Hermit crab bites) in order to make sure that there is enough food for all of the inhabitants.
I will update this page whenever there is a reason.
