Newbie Questions

[Neopterygii]

Howdy yall,
Ive been communicating with SantaMonica on a different forum, I have several more questions and i figured i give Santa a break. A little back ground on my tank, its a 125 gallon mangrove/ BTA display. I dont consider my tank a traditional display. The tank seems stable and every things happy, nitrates and phosphates are at 0. I do not have an algae problem in the display, I do have several macro algaes and of course the mangroves. I am have some hair algae in my refugium though, so far it isnt to bad. Heres my questions:

1. Is it possible to add a scrubber and switch my refugium to more of a cryptic, low flow dark zone but keep my current stability? I really dont think my refugium is functioning properly tbh, i think the main nutrient export is the mangroves, sargassum and skimmer.

2. I dont want to lose the mangroves, sargassum or other algaes, is this a possibility? I would like to start feeding my anemones more than i am now and since i dont like my refugium setup will these switches equal the a balance i have now, more nutrients in more efficient nutrients out?

3. Other than Santas models, what other commercial models are available?

I can post more information or pictures of the tank if it will help.
Thanks
Neopterygii

[Floyd R Turbo]

I think that all of this really depends on the strength of your scrubber, and your feeding. You can keep other forms of filtration that you list as long as your don't scrub too strongly.

I make waterfall scrubbers (see my signature) and so does acorral. Mine are designed for high laminar flow rates to maximize filtration, with 3W LEDs. I am just coming out with the 3rd revision.

Generally, you can vary the "strength" of how much you scrub by varying things like the flow rate and photoperiod. You could also vary the amount of tank water input to the scrubber by putting the supply pump & drain into the same dedicated chamber, so that it recirculates the water and then you can vary the amount of tank water that is "input" to the scrubber, which would "regulate" the amount of nutrients left in the water. Essentially, you have to find a balance point.

However, I have customers who run skimmer, GFO, carbon, and biopellets, on heavily stocked and fed tanks and they are doing awesome. So you can make it happen, but a lot really depends on your specific setup.