Cleaning and changing my refugium

[polarbear]

So I want to redue my refugium. All of my cheato has recently died. I think it was from using the algae fix to clear the hair algae from my display. I now have a red slim problem because of built up nutrients. I look in my refugium and see all of the build up under the skimmer and in the middle chamber all over the rocks. I want to pull everything out and take out what sand I do have in there and go with just live rock. I don't have much rock in there now but want to pack it full. What do you think about me draining the refugium so that I can clean out the waste and restock with a lot of live rock?

[Big_Pun]

use a shop vac.... as for packing with rock, I wouldn't because it's going to trap dietris at bottom and dead spots. this is why I run a little rock so my grape culerpa can attach to, and a bare bottom. every six months or so I pull it all out and vacuum any dietris. i just toss live rick and algae in a bucket.

[polarbear]

That's true. I need to get some more macro since all of mine is dead. I didn't know that algae fix would do that. How often do you clean your skimmer? Also how do you clean it?

[Big_Pun]

I run a sea side aquatics cs-2, it's a cone skimmer that completely disassembles base comes off to get to pump so every 3 months it takes me like 20 min to scrub it down and put it back in. latley it's been growing a lot of coraline so I may need to use extra strength vinegar soak it a lil. that stuff works fast like 10-15 min soak in a 50/50 mixture.

[reefreak]

i have one small piece of oystercrete only about 5 inches like 1 inch tall just have it in there for the pods.

[polarbear]

Thanks for the advice. One last thing. Do you use a filter sock? If so which type?

[reefreak]

i don't last time i had chemi pure in mine it made my tank cloudy because the flow would break it up into powder.

[Big_Pun]

yup I use a felt and nylon filter socks from BRS nylon is 200 micron but easy to clean

[polarbear]

thanks for the advise. I was using felt but switched to the mesh ones about 4 months ago. I think Im going to switch back since they worked a lot better.