It is a good product...different product than the Fiji type. A lot of what you see will die off but you are left with a nice mix of life...and it is environmentally sound....
Is your water source RO/DI or Tap? It Might be a phosphate problem. Test of it or try to run a phosphate reactor with a product like phosban to control it….
Good idea about making it into its own box within a box. It can be hard to clean the fuge out as I have it now. But either way it dos the job...here it is “wet” for the first time” today you can hardly see into it b/c of all the coralline.... :)
I did the same thing. Sump W/ small fuge in center for cheto.......works great for my 30 display...demensions depend on your skimmer, return pump etc. The is the "dry setup" shot of mine (not a clean looking anymore) :D
Some folks in our club (BRS-Boston Reefers Society) run only NSW…it is collected off shore of NH/Main and is run through carbon during the collection, we need to slightly adjust the alk and sp (and obviously temp) before we can use it in our tanks. I do not personally use it but we have a LFS...