[tango]

When starting up a refugium w/ miracle mud to an existing tank will the refugium go through a cycling and if so, how much will it affect the main tank?

[jiggly75]

Originally Posted by tango

When starting up a refugium w/ miracle mud to an existing tank will the refugium go through a cycling and if so, how much will it affect the main tank?

Hello . If your main tank is already cycled your refugium should be fully cycled also. I don't have any experience with miracle mud but I always seeded the sand in my upper and lower refugium with sand from my main display tank just to help get the critters going .

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by tango

When starting up a refugium w/ miracle mud to an existing tank will the refugium go through a cycling and if so, how much will it affect the main tank?

It will take some time for the refugium to develop its own populations of beneficial bacteria but I believe what you are wondering about is whether the refugium will have any effect on the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings in your system. The answer is no, it won't, because the miracle mud is sterile. There is nothing alive in it that could possibly die off to produce ammonia.

[prow]

hey what up, i just set up my sump with miracle mud. you can add corals and fish after 2 months. i know they dont give you good info on the set up. read through the thread in the DIY on sump water levels. it is the first one on the list right now in the important sec on top. starts out with just water level but i talk about the mud as you read the post. the mud takes 6-8 weeks to start developing 9 months to fully establish itself. and the effectiveness depends on a lot of things from the depth of the sand in your main tank to how well the rock is seeded to the flow within the refugium and most important is controling the "bad" algae prior to the mud establishing. need to keep it from chocking the mud out before it sets up. i know a couple of good articles on setting it up from Aquarium fish magazine, february 2000 by mike paletta called the ecosystem revisited- checking in after two years. this is a good article that talks about how to set up and how to deal with the problems during the cycling. the biggest advice to is be patient. well hope this helps. if you need any help or just want to talk about what going on in you system drop me a line and tell me your entire system amount of live rock and sand. flow rates ect..i will be posting pic and updating my project in the DIY sec for the next year and put this stuff to the test. hope this helps

[SPasse]

Tango,

Ninong’s observation about adding a Miracle Mud Refugium is correct. No organic load etc to cause you any problems, as in a cycle etc.

I would allow some of the tank water into the Refugium to allow the “mud” to wet/settle for a few hours before allowing the regular flow to take place. Otherwise, the water flow may flush some of the mud into the main tank.

You should seed the Refugium with sand bed fauna kits. The food you introduce into the system will tend to settle on the mud bed.

My mud beds get very “live” with time and feedings. The particle consistency of the Miriacle Mud is very conducive to all sorts of “worms” pods, and other critters.

I have some notes on this type of system on my WEB site.

Regards,

Scott