Cycling a refugium?

[Peach02]

essentially I am planning a new tank and I've decided to make a external refugium for it however I cannot afford the new tank as of right now. My question is do I need to cycle the refugium if I start it now as all I would be putting in it is some cheato some media. My question is will this need to cycle before adding some copepods?
The current setup for the refugium will be
70L glass tank
AI prime refugium
ill add a airstone to keep the water oxygenated until I get the new tank and plumb them together

 

[Eagle_Steve]

essentially I am planning a new tank and I've decided to make a external refugium for it however I cannot afford the new tank as of right now. My question is do I need to cycle the refugium if I start it now as all I would be putting in it is some cheato some media. My question is will this need to cycle before adding some copepods?
The current setup for the refugium will be
70L glass tank
AI prime refugium
ill add a airstone to keep the water oxygenated until I get the new tank and plumb them together

Typically you need nutrients from an already cycled tank for a fuge.

With that said, you can grow macro without fish in a stand-alone setup. Pods included. It will involve dosing nutrients and possibly some phyto for the pods. The pods can live off of the micro algae that grows, but for a good population you will need a supplement food.

Unless you plan to culture pods and macro like I do, I would wait until the new tank has nutrients available for the macro in the fuge to consume.

 

[Peach02]

Typically you need nutrients from an already cycled tank for a fuge.

With that said, you can grow macro without fish in a stand-alone setup. Pods included. It will involve dosing nutrients and possibly some phyto for the pods. The pods can live off of the micro algae that grows, but for a good population you will need a supplement food.

Unless you plan to culture pods and macro like I do, I would wait until the new tank has nutrients available for the macro in the fuge to consume.

could I just add some pellets instead?

 

[lapin]

The pods will not eat pellets and pellets will not suppy the nutrients needed for marco. Pods need film algae or phyto. The film will grow but it will take time.The chaeto will help, but might not live without nutrients. Your best bet would be to start your fuge and when it starts to show some green algae you are ready for pods and chaeto.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

The pods will not eat pellets and pellets will not suppy the nutrients needed for marco. Pods need film algae or phyto. The film will grow but it will take time.The chaeto will help, but might not live without nutrients. Your best bet would be to start your fuge and when it starts to show some green algae you are ready for pods and chaeto.

This exactly.

 

[sprinklerdudes]

My tank was a few years old before i added a refugium. I just plumped a small tank in with a small pump from my sump into the refugium and let it drain back into the tank. I seeded it with some chaeto from a friends sump that was well established, and had a little live rock rubble in the bottom, been going for over ten years, always loaded with pods and other critters. And it always has a good film of algae on the sides well worth the time, but it needs to be added to a established tank, just my opion. So i think as long as you dont go overboard adding a ton of rock or a large volume of something new, you shouldn't have to cycle a refugium, but for it to work well, the tank needs not only to be cycled, but well established and the refugium will help with balance. Lot of good threads on here with refugiums, cryptic fuges etc well worth the time to search and read up before you take the plunge.

 

[Peach02]

This exactly.

The pods will not eat pellets and pellets will not suppy the nutrients needed for marco. Pods need film algae or phyto. The film will grow but it will take time.The chaeto will help, but might not live without nutrients. Your best bet would be to start your fuge and when it starts to show some green algae you are ready for pods and chaeto.

So you guys are suggesting I set up the tank with just the media and a heater add some pellets. wait for film algae to grow then add cheato and pods?

 

[sprinklerdudes]

So you are wanting to start the refugium before the tank? I guess that will be ok, i started with a ten gallon tank and a hang on the back filter, after a couple of months the filter sock was full of pods. I just used a piece of live rock that had a lot of diversity on it and a little macro algea to seed it , . The filter had enough flow to keep everything going , my first salt water tank was that ten gal tank on the work bench of the shop had to move it to the house, everyone kept stopping work to stare at it. It was wounderful, but i just couldn't get any work done for watching the tank.