how to refugium

so my 125 gallon build is almost done it's all stocked and have some sand in the refugium and water but the sump is not filled only the refugium section..

since this my first refugium i would love some input..

i'm curious about miracle mud, but when i see on youtube or pictures most people with miracle mud just have the mud in there and that's it... one of my goals for the refugium is to have a breading ground for copepods.

so with that said is it better to run deep sand bed a little live rock and chateo or just the mud or mud w/rock and chateo?

i've never seen mud w/rock and chateo so i'm curious..

also lighting i think for now i will be running a home depot shop light and read somewhere we need an 80watt compact florecent true daylight for chateo and other macroalgae.. but when i went to home depot it's either 75watt or 100watt... any opinions

also for pods and chateo what light cycle should i do 12/12 or 24hrs?

last thing... what other critters would be good for the refugium snails, hermits, stars?

i was also thinking of putting a tiny nano power head down there too... in my mind this would just be for a little circulation but don't know if it's a waste or benifit..

any help would be greatly appreciated...

the point of this is once i fill the refguim i don't want to do it again

 

some think miracle mud is a good product. im not sold on the idea but havent really looked into it that much.

Sand bed, a few peices of live rock and cheato has always worked for me.

The wattage of the light isnt very important IMO. The spectrum is much more important, make sure you get one in the 5100-6500k rating.

Run your lights opposite of the display lights, it helps balance the PH. i have also ran mine 24/7 with no ill effects.

i would say no to a powerhead, its supposed to be a swamp like setting so low flow is ideal.
i never put critters in my fuge, i let it get super dirty, the dirtier the better in my opinion.

 

I run my fuge the EXACT same way. In my opinion, miracle mud is just another thing to spend extra money on. DSB and live rock will get the job done. No need to add a powerhead. The critters that naturally grow in the fuge such as small worms, snails, pods etc are the only critters you will really ever need in there. I run several different types of macro algae. Cheato, red gracilaria (can harvest clippings for tangs), ulva (can harvest clippings for tangs), and red mangroves. I run my lights 18 hrs a day opposite of the display lights. i clean my sumps/fuges/equipment once every several months.

 

oh and i run the 75watt shop light you speak of with a 75w spiral 5200K bulb from Home Depot as well. my sump is a 40 gal breeder with approx 12+ gallons of fuge space. the light works great. i just clamp it to the side and aim it down.

 

yeah man, i see no reason to change the way ive been doing things from the beginning.
i have pods up the wazoo and my cheato grows like crazy. if it aint broke, dont fix it

 

I can agree with that live sand went in tonight thanks for the help

 

I think for a fuge, you should go bare bottom. No sand, no mud, especially if you are looking to farm pods. Just add a decent amount of broken rock rubble for them to live in. Dont cover the entire bottom so that you can get the detritus which will settle out. You will definitely get a buildup of detritus. I think you should have enough flow in the fuge to keep it from accumulating and building up nitrates.

My 65gallon fuge is disgusting, full of pods of different types, lots of tiny bristle worms and a good pile of cheato. I have 4 powerheads in there to keep the detritus off the bottom, and to help move water through the cheato. I have a 12hour reverse light cycle so the it grows really well.

I also have some snails in mine. I figure they will help keep the bottom of the tank and the glass cleaner. I wouldnt add hermits because I figure they will eat the pods.

 

thanks i've put live sand in but not deep as i origanally planned only about 2-3 inch and i still will also be adding a nano power head because the entire refugium section is about 10-12 inch tall if i get a build up on the sand i can always add snuffalufagus my fighting conch for a day or two...

but thanks for the insight!

any else please welcome to chime in..

do any of you guys have pix of your refugiums?