What do you put in your refugium?

[Taklu]

So I am looking to make my refugium do some more than what it does right now. Its a 10g drilled tank with some live rock & lot of chaeto & caluerpa & maybe some bristle worms and probably that is it.

Right now its light using a small coralife light...may replace that with some flourscent lights (under cabinet) like the ones Ikea sells.

What more would you add to this as far as critters etc.

[David Grigor]

Depends on what your wanting to accomplish. If only for filtration sand/mud and calerpa is all you need. Providing your using LR in your show portion, it isn't needed. I prefer not to have LR in there to maximize the space for macro algae and to reduce the amount of detritus from accumulating in the mud. In my design, most all the detritus is filtered out before the refugium. No critters of anykind except for what makes it down there.

[Taklu]

Depends on what your wanting to accomplish. If only for filtration sand/mud and calerpa is all you need. Providing your using LR in your show portion, it isn't needed. I prefer not to have LR in there to maximize the space for macro algae and to reduce the amount of detritus from accumulating in the mud. In my design, most all the detritus is filtered out before the refugium. No critters of anykind except for what makes it down there.


Primarily filtration & safe home for pods ( that I can shake into the show tank every now n then). the LR is in there coz i dont have room in the show tank & dont way to throw it away & dont want to sell it either.. coz I plan to upgrade my tank when I move to a larger space & all the rock is porous & very nice.

Dont plan to use mud....so it sounds like no critters to control anything bad in the fuge?

[Chad Vossen]

how about a trio of peppermint shrimp in the fuge area, so that you have almost weekly spawning. a big batch of baby shrimp getting sucked up the return pump and feeding your display tank. food for your LPS and maybe some SPS corals.


i currently have a pair of cleaner shrimp in the display, and a pair of peppermints in the sump (because i dont like them very much, they get to stay in the sump). if you dont mind peppermints in the display, then maybe a trio up there as well to double the spawning activity.

i greatly appreciate invertebrates that mass produce plankton babies. its the perfect way to feed some of your corals at night.

[gogregerson]

I don't like to have sand in my refugium, it's make it harder to clean in there. I've got Pod Condos, Xenia and macro algae with an opposing light cycle.

[wolmutt]

ixnay the caulerpa and switch to only chaeto

[David Grigor]

I don't like to have sand in my refugium.

I have in there only for denitrification purposes since show tank is bare bottom. Macro algae alone was not keeping Nitrates low enough ( but was still below 10ppm ).

Design of sump/refugium was to allow detritus to settle/remove before the remote sandbed/mud to minimize nutrient sink. My only purpose is for filtration so I don't want nor care for critters to disturb the mud/sandbed.

[wolmutt]

So you don't having any critters in there to stir up the first 2 inches to release gases?

[wolmutt]

I am going with the same design, but thought that I needs to have sand sifters to release gases slowly from the top layers of sand. I will be doing at least 5 inches of sand in the fuge. I was thinking of having the over flow go into the first part of the sump you sold me, then the main part of that sump would be skimmer and chaeto, then I would have another tank connected to the sump which would be a deep sand bed, and then a baffle and then return pump. Do I need the sand sifters? do you think this is a good idea?

[David Grigor]

If purpose is only for denitrification and your minimizing detritus accumulation via filters/baffles, I don't see why you need any sandshifters and really is counter productive IMO because the main goal is the low oxygen zone. Any shifters is going to disturb that.

To each his own though. No right or wrong way really and probably negligable either way you go.

[gogregerson]

DG, That's the key. If your going to do sand or mud you don't want ditritus getting to it and in my setup that wasn't going to work.

[wes]

skip out on the peppermints IMO, they'll consume more than they put in by way of spawning, to a very large degree. Trophic energy level conversions are usually something by way of 10%

[Taklu]

So Im going with just a emarald crab in the fuge & may add a few snails down the road or cleaner clams.... curious as to how much flow is needed through the fuge to allow it to be an effective nutrients filter.

[spsick]

From my experience. The best fuge uses MH to produce good macro growth. I have been using pc on my small fuge and I think it's doing more harm than good. Nuisance algae seems to grow faster than the macro. Also I think the larger the better, mine is ~5-7 gallons and I think it may be useless. My dad has a 30g fuge w/ 175w MH and it does the job well. Agressive macro growth and too much intensity for nuisance growth.

[wes]

I don't mind the nuisance growth in the fuge. I'd certainly rather have it there than the display. :-)

[spsick]

I don't mind the nuisance growth in the fuge. I'd certainly rather have it there than the display. :-)
good point, I don't have a speck of crap in my display.

[morty]

Just rubble in mine so far, it might need more time before it will suppport cheato so I'm holding off on that. It's not part of the sump, it's a remote tank. Above it I have a wide spectrum screw-in type PC bulb in a reflector (65W I think, equiv of 150W incandescent or something like that). I am thinking about putting some powerheads in there that will be on a timer and blast the cheato when the light goes off, when the pods are more active, and maybe blow some young ones into the water to get pumped to the display and feed corals at night. Not sure if this will work at all. :confused:

[Taklu]

good point, I don't have a speck of crap in my display.


I have some... now very under control...but would love to get the cleanest look. One more for the holiday shopping list...get a brighter light.. huh!

[wolmutt]

Wes, the pepermints will eat either aptaisa or excess nutrients. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want them consuming the excess and turning it into food for corals through spanwing?

[wolmutt]

Also, I totally disagree with using halides on a fuge to grow macro. The amount of heat, energy, etc is not needed for macro growth.

[Taklu]

Just rubble in mine so far, it might need more time before it will suppport cheato so I'm holding off on that. It's not part of the sump, it's a remote tank. Above it I have a wide spectrum screw-in type PC bulb in a reflector (65W I think, equiv of 150W incandescent or something like that). I am thinking about putting some powerheads in there that will be on a timer and blast the cheato when the light goes off, when the pods are more active, and maybe blow some young ones into the water to get pumped to the display and feed corals at night. Not sure if this will work at all. :confused:

Same kinda setup I have...only very small. wont the pods get churned in the return pump & die? well if the dead are food too I am ok with that too.

[David Grigor]

curious as to how much flow is needed through the fuge to allow it to be an effective nutrients filter.

There are several different philosophies on that. No right or wrong answers.

If you were at the last speaker event it was talked about by Sprung and makes logical sense........ Where does algae like to collect in the show tank, typically up near the high water flow areas etc.

I don't really buy the logic of low flow will give longer time for algae to consume nutrients.

Therefore, I believe you want the max flow through it so mine is configured inline with the sump/return. Visually despite being 1000+gph doesn't move that fast because it is all moving linear the width of your sump/refugium.

[David Grigor]

sorry duplicate post.

[David Grigor]

Also, I totally disagree with using halides on a fuge to grow macro. The amount of heat, energy, etc is not needed for macro growth.


There's pros/cons to everything. My sump in in the coldest part of the basement. My heater is on constantly. So If MH running at night can help warm the water as well as light it up, this can offset some of the additional electrical costs. I haven't done it yet but keeping my eye out for a good deal on ghetto style MH setup vs. running the t5 65ks ( at least during wintertime ).

[morty]

Same kinda setup I have...only very small. wont the pods get churned in the return pump & die? well if the dead are food too I am ok with that too.

That's what I used to think, but when I was setting up my tank I was testing it with freshwater, and noticed a perfectly intact dead spider in the sump, about as big as a nickel. Later I saw it drifting around in the display, still perfectly intact. And it had obviously gone thru my Dart return pump. So I don't think that type of pump is as hard on zooplankton as I first believed.

[wes]

Wes, the pepermints will eat either aptaisa or excess nutrients. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want them consuming the excess and turning it into food for corals through spanwing?

you'd have to do a cost benefit kinda thing to estimate how much food you feed and how much detritus they're eating. I don't feed all that much, so they'd wind up finding other sources, I'm sure. In a fuge situation where they could constantly graze on microfauna, I'm pretty sure they would. They are good for aiptasia, though, I can certainly agree with that, though they can get oportunistic after the aiptasia are gone. overall, I like them as an organism, but not as a primary producer of planktonic sustenance.

[Dhummel]

this is what i have:
20 gallon high, with lots of left over rock from tank, lots of plants, different kinds, 1 or2 snails and my mean yellow damsel.
the flow is somewhat slow with a maxijet 600 for water flow.
how does this sound to everyone ?
should i change anything.

[Taklu]

this is what i have:
my mean yellow damsel.
should i change anything.

Good idea for my yellow damsel too lol

[Dhummel]

lol, well it was either that or the long tolite ride...