Refugium discussion

Ok, you know I like starting topical threads that entice opinions, experience and result in education. With that in mind – lets discuss refugiums. There have been a couple threads lately regarding refugiums – so lets have a complete discussion in one thread. I am sure this has been done before, but……

For my upfront contribution I suggest no shrimp or crabs in a refugium.
What’s a refugium witout pod’s? Refugium is just that, a refuge – a place safe from predation and of course a place to grow macro algae. Many people want to put shrimp, and crabs in the refugium – no I say ! remember the part about “predatory free”. Copepods, mysis and mysids will multiply and follow the flow to the DT and feed your mandarin and other fish this way. Thus, in addition to the consumption of excess nutrients the refugium will supply a natural flow of nutrition to your tank inhabitants.

There are no wrong answers – please share your experiences, and what you have learned so others can read this thread and have a decent starting point. Please posts success and failures, I will start us off with some general questions.

• What are the benefits of Growing macro algae?
• How much flow ?
• What macro’s – pros and cons?
• Should skimming be pre, post or away form the refugium?
• When should the lights be on and why?
• should there be a cleaning crew?
• What lights should be used?
• how much sand?

These are just a few of the “hotter topics” surrounding the refugium discussion.

EDIT --- Lets let this discussion run for a few hours without our "heavy weights" chimming in -- i could have drafted the entire topic myself, I am looking to get a discussion going but I want to get some creative thought going and maybe even some research done in order to post.

 

For me Macro's have been great - they have eliminated my nitrogen.
Also I have to agree that no crabs or shrimp in the Refugium
Nothing I can say bad about cheto.
When I started my refugium my lights were on 2 days @ 24 hours and 2 days 12 hours. For two weeks
Now I just have them on 12 hours a day
Very good question on the skimming - I do it post refugium
I have one nuss snail and a bristle worm - and many pods and mysis in mine.
I have 3 inches of sand then a layer of LR
I just use 100w florescent

The flow is 1200 gph up into a reservoir then over flow down into a siphon back into the main tank

Don't know if it's right but seems to be working

 

I think some of those you can answer yourself. lol

chaetomorpha is a good all around macro. Most likely won't go sexual.

Caluerpa is a great macro provide these things, A you don't have SPS(caluerpa is toxic to them and animals that eat it), B your lighting is 24/7(caluerpa is more likely to go sexual in a day/night cycle lit fuge).

Caluerpa still has value even with chaeto in the hobby now because, caluerpa grows the faster and can reduce the levels lower. Another warning caluerpa will go sexual in a ULNS because it will go sexual when its about to die. In my experience a .3 ppm of nitrate is enough to keep it alive in a 24/7 fuge.

 

Absolutely but I am looking to get a meaningful discussion going, with some personal experiances shared. It's all about education, not necessarily my own...but you never know !

So with that said -- what is this "asexual" thing you mentioned....can you go a little more into detail?

 

I have designed several sump/Refugium combinations over the years and have settled on a design that I use on all of my tanks now. The design is somewhat unconventional but has a few benefits over many designs that I have seen.

The basic premise of my design is that the input from the display tank is forced along a channel where the heating element(s) are placed for maximum heating efficiency. The flow is then spit with adjustable valves to the Refugium and the sump chamber. This design allows for precise flow to the Refugium while allowing a high flow rate to the sump.

The discharge from the Refugium is returned directly to the display tank while the high flow that bypasses the Refugium is directed to the chamber that houses the protein skimmer then back to the display tank.

By not skimming the discharge from the Refugium the nutrients, co-pods, etc… are not processed through the skimmer and have better viability.

For the other basic setups: I use 4~6 inch sand depth, 6~12 inch water depth and only LED lighting!
No snails, crabs, shrimp or any other livestock!

Lighting runs 14 hours opposite the display tank lighting.

After the Refugium has been running for a while it looks like crap! And I do not disturb the system period! (except for removing some macro algae when it crowds out everything else)

 

I just started my refugium a couple on months ago. I try to keep the flow pretty low and the refugium ugly with algae. I have tossed any nuisance algae that grows in my tank into the fuge with the hope it will eventually out compete the algae in the tank for nutrients. I run my lights in the fuge opposite my daylight bulbs so I have a 16 hours photo period. I keep chaetomorpha as my main large macro algae. There is some caulerpa that I try to keep track of so it does not die off (go sexual by releasing gametes into the system prior to dying). The water exiting the fuge goes back to the sump after the skimmer section.

 

PDCCO I would love to see a picture of your design it sounds very interesting.

 

Do much larger tanks like 200+ gallons use a refuge/sump?

 

Absolutely ! a 20 gallon refugium on a 200 gallon tank flowing just a few gallons an hour would do very well.

I have a 20 gallon on my 180 and I perk about 2-3 gallons per hour through it set to a reverse photo period from mt DT. These conversations was what I was hoping this thread would bring .... thank you for bringing it back to life --I think it time that everyone weighs in their experianced opinions ...... I'll check back in a few days for mine

 

Great thread!!!