Beginner Build and Refugium Help

[TankTinkerer12]

I am looking for some advice regarding my beginner 20 gallon saltwater setup. I currently only have fish (2 clownfish), snails, and crabs and plan on keeping it that way for a while. I don't have a sump, just a HOB filter. I am wondering if I could use the linked Fluval breeding box as a refugium to start growing some macroalgea and breeding copepods in hopes of eventually adding some soft corals and anemonies.

Any advice helps.

Thank you!

 

[Euphyllia97]

Yes! But to be clear you don’t need to have a refugium or copepods to keep coral :) I have found many soft corals to be easier to keep than chaetomorpha. Unless you are planning on keeping a mandarin dragonet I would just let your copepods reproduce in the rocks :) If you want to do it out of interest, go ahead

 

[TankTinkerer12]

Yes! But to be clear you don’t need to have a refugium or copepods to keep coral :) I have found many soft corals to be easier to keep than chaetomorpha. Unless you are planning on keeping a mandarin dragonet I would just let your copepods reproduce in the rocks :) If you want to do it out of interest, go ahead

Thank you for responding! If I don’t have a refugium for them to breed in, do I have to worry about the copepods getting sucked up by my HOB filter? Or will they be able to establish themselves in the rocks/sand?

The reason I was interested in the refugium to begin with was a few months ago I bought an anemone for my clownfish and it slowly died. I think I was putting too much light in the tank and a bunch of green algae started appearing. If I buy an anemone in the future, I would use less light and hopefully have some copepods to eat algae. I was also thinking macroalgae could help keep the water chemistry in check. I typically to one 25% water change per week. When my anemone was dying, my local fish store guy said to bump my water changes up to 50% to help reduce nitrates. I didn’t know if a refugium with copepods and macroalgae would help reduce nitrates.

Thanks again

 

[Euphyllia97]

Thank you for responding! If I don’t have a refugium for them to breed in, do I have to worry about the copepods getting sucked up by my HOB filter? Or will they be able to establish themselves in the rocks/sand?

The reason I was interested in the refugium to begin with was a few months ago I bought an anemone for my clownfish and it slowly died. I think I was putting too much light in the tank and a bunch of green algae started appearing. If I buy an anemone in the future, I would use less light and hopefully have some copepods to eat algae. I was also thinking macroalgae could help keep the water chemistry in check. I typically to one 25% water change per week. When my anemone was dying, my local fish store guy said to bump my water changes up to 50% to help reduce nitrates. I didn’t know if a refugium with copepods and macroalgae would help reduce nitrates.

Thanks again

Pfoo… Anemones require stable water parameters and a well established tank. The reason it didn’t make it is unlikely to have been the light. I think it is quite a challenge to keep an anemone in a 20 gallon tbh.

A refugium which is limited in that size will probably not really help with nutrient export. I would just stick to weekly water changes and I would not recommend a 50% WC. Gradual and slower is better in this hobby.

Copepods will get sucked in your filter, but enough will find a safe spot and start reproducing to a nice self-sustaining population. (Add them with lights and filter/flow off and let them settle in for 30 minutes). Add some phytoplankton a couple days a week and the copepods will be good to go :)

Edit: I don’t think the copepods will do a lot when it comes to algae. They do clean up detritus and you definitely need them for a healthy biome, but you would be better off with snails/tuxedo urchin for algae growth :)