Questions on refugium

[dkuster]

Hi All,

If I understand correctly, there are 3 potential benefits to setting
up a refugium:

1) If live sand and rock is added, various copepods, plankton,
and other 'bugs' will flourish and presumably spread to the
main tank where they serve as a source of food.

2) If macro algae is grown and the excess harvested it will
help remove nutrients from the water.

3) If the sand bed is deep enough for anaerobic regions to form
nitrates will be reduced.

Did I miss anything?

Will 'pods really spread by themselves from the refugium into
the main tank, or do you need to manually collect them? Are
people having success keeping a Mandarin in the display tank
by doing this?

Thanks!

[rawskyje]

I think it depends on your pod growth. I had a mandarin go through a refugium full of pods in about 1 month. Your best bet would be to try and get a mandarin who also eats prepared foods or pellets. Mine eats mysis and omega-3 brine shrimp. I use a turkey baster to drop food infront of him, now when he sees it he goes right too it.

[pledosophy]

Pretty right on.

The growth of macro algaes also remove nitrates. Personally I don't run a DSB in my fuge.

IME a refugium does dramatically increase the amount of pods in the system. Having a place for them to reproduce without being hunted seems to do wonders. I have kept manderins in tanks with refugiums, but IMO you still need to have a larger tank with a good amount of LR.

What size tank and refugium are you looking at?

[thorsen]

Yes, the pods go from the refugium into the display tank as do other good things. There are studies out about how much stuff is killed by going through the pump - some is but a lot survives. Another benefit of a refugium you missed is that it is a place to put misbehaving members of your reef. I think most everyone ends up putting something or another in their refugium that is making a pest of itself.

And yet one other benefit of a refugium is that you can run the lights on the refugium at night and keep them off during the day and by doing this it keeps the pH of your tank better balanced.

I added a refugium to my tank and noticed a marked improvement in the overall health of my system.

[dkuster]

Originally posted by pledosophy
Pretty right on.


What size tank and refugium are you looking at?

I'm going to set up my old, spare 30 gallon as a refugium on
my 180 gal. display tank.

Is that too small??

[K' Family Reef]

Originally posted by dkuster
I'm going to set up my old, spare 30 gallon as a refugium on
my 180 gal. display tank.

Is that too small??

bigger is better but its better then nothing
if its filled w/ macro and pulling nutrients out of the hoh column then its benefiting your tank and pods will be filling up the macro/fuge in no time - i use chaeto and recommend it espec as a pod condo - they love it

i have seen a lot of people only think in terms of what size 'tank' (aquarium) they have room for or have laying around their house... - why not use a CHEAP rubbermaid container and buy one big enough to fit into the space you have to work with... someone on here named cap'n hiliner has a good size fuge simply made out of a rubbermaid container and gravity fed into his sump - great idea and CHEAP/EFFECTIVE too!

i have a 50 gallon display fuge sitting under our 125 - and we love it... recently added a mandarin that was starving (to death) from another reefers tank - that mandarin after 2 mos is finally going from being emaciated to fattening up and just noticed yesterday its beginning to show signs of a protruding belly! which means its stay in my fuge has been long enough!

this is so much fun!

best of luck w/ yours

[dkuster]

Yes, my plan is to grow chaeto in the refugium. I may also
put some live sand (not to deep, just an inch or two at most)
and live rock in it to give the bugs more places to live and grow.

[K' Family Reef]

you dont need to spend a lot of money on liting either!
in fact you might be better off going w/ cheap reflector and some of the lites recom on melevs site - they work well if not as good as any more expenive liting and saves more on electricity then more high dollar liting as well!

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

i have heard of others just using similar simple bulbs from homedepot or walmart which seem to do the job well also

be sure to post pics of your new fuge when you get it installed!

regards

[JeffersonReef]

I agrree with the others.... skip the dsb in your fuge. The footprint isnt big enough for a dsb to make a difference. DSB's belong in remote water bins or in your display... not in a fuge (IMHO).

I found that my 60g fuge did wonders for my tank... plenty o pods and does well exporting nutrients. I learned a little trick to get even more pods into the display tank though... I place a plastic container (like a rubbermaid cookie-jar sized container), in the fuge where it is submerged and there is like an inch of water OVER the mouth of the container.... I also place a couple of filter pads in there. I put a little of my chaeto in it (usually full of pods), and when I feed the tank and fuge, I also place a tinny bit of food in this container. The pods go CRAZY in there... it is an area of low flow. Then, when there a lots of pods in the container.... I DUMP IT INTO THE MAIN TANK! It works great. Then, I place the container, now with just the filter pad in it, back into the sump and start over.

Another trick is every once in a while, I will prune my chaeto. I give some to local reefers, and trade some to the lfs for misc things.... and I will take a little bit and stuff it into a crevice in my display tank... IE behind some rocks or something, where it wont be blown around. This way... I dont lose all the pods that were growing in it, and it also creates a refuge right there in my main tank. You cant really see the chaeto, though I wouldnt mind it if you could... and it works great.

Anyway, hope my ramblings are helpful. :P

[dkuster]

Originally posted by WarrenAmy&Maddy
you dont need to spend a lot of money on liting either!
in fact you might be better off going w/ cheap reflector and some of the lites recom on melevs site - they work well if not as good as any more expenive liting and saves more on electricity then more high dollar liting as well!

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

i have heard of others just using similar simple bulbs from homedepot or walmart which seem to do the job well also

be sure to post pics of your new fuge when you get it installed!

regards

Yes, that is the bulb I am planning on using. I've already bought
a couple...

[dkuster]

Originally posted by JeffersonReef
I agrree with the others.... skip the dsb in your fuge. The footprint isnt big enough for a dsb to make a difference. DSB's belong in remote water bins or in your display... not in a fuge (IMHO).

. :P

As I said, I'm not going to put more than ~1" of live sand in
the refugium. I'm definitely _not_ going to make it a DSB.

I am planning on doing an RDSB in my sump.

Thanks for the tips!