Best substrate for refugium?

[Aussie_Saltwater]

Hi Team,

I am setting up my first refugium. The primary purpose is to provide a safe haven for micro fauna. Second purpose is to keep Nitrates and Phosphates down but I already have good filtration system in place.

I have three choices caribsea live sand, caribsea mud or Marine pure blocks. Is one superior to the other ?

Secondly I use carbon most of the time in the last chamber in my sump, does a refugium make the use of carbon redundant ?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Bruttall]

Only thing in my Fuge is macro algae, no sand, no rocks. Just the detritus that settles out of the water column as it flows thru the chaeto.

Water comes in on far right, filters thru some Polyfil pillow stuffing sometimes, then thru the Seachem Matrix in bags, into the Fuge which is just Chaeto, then into the Skimmer chamber where my feed pump for skimmer is with an Activated Carbon reactor, to the return pump chamber with a GFO reactor.

I use the Triton Method of Sump design mostly from the Triton Method. Here is a Link for ya.
https://www.triton.de/en/method

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, my refugia do not have substrate. There are some left over rocks on the bottom, but no sand or synthetic media.

 

[exnisstech]

I run a cryptic fuge with just rocks and whatever grows like sponges and filter feeders.

 

[JonoH]

Same as the above, only Chaeto in mine plus the occasional rock I am trying to seed.