How early to begin a refuge?

[Muse]

Hello, I've been out of the hobby a while and I'm about to start up a new 350 litre tank and have never used a refuge in any of my previous tanks.

Please feel free to advise, my plan is:
* Add ATM colony to the new tank
* Run the tank for a few days to 1 week with no lights and no skimmer - to allow the nitrifying bacteria time to get a foothold biofilm and feed from the live sand ammonia.
* Add a fish or two for more ammonia.
* get a refuge established to avoid "the ugly stage" and export nutrients as opposed to algae growing in the tank.

Questions
1. How early could I start the refuge?
2. My sump is small, I don't know what to put in each compartment or where to house the refuge and skimmer, see the photo of my sump below.
3. What's the best low cost LED refuge light people use?
4. What should go in the refuge with the chaeto?
5. Is my cycling method OK? The bottle of ATM colony says to add fish right away?

Thanks very much, a sump and refuge are all new to me.

 

[Macbalacano]

Answer to your questions:

1. I would personally start the fuge once there are actually detectable levels of nitrates and phosphates.

2. I'm guessing you'll have to put the skimmer in the largest chamber. my skimmer and fuge are in the same chamber (not ideal). You can run the fuge in the other chamber as well.

3. I'm just using a plant grow light from Amazon. Cost around $30. I would just pick one that will fit and not generate too much heat. Many people (myself included) report very good success with these types of grow lights!

4. You don't need to put anything else in there, but you could put pods in your tank too, they'll be happy in the chaeto. Some people put some sand or rocks, it's not necessary.

5. Cycling method sounds good to me!

 

[Tastee]

I would not be adding fish that early, particularly if you are not seeding the tank with some live rock. I recommend you test for Ammonia and Nitrites every 1-3 days and don’t add any fish until you have seen a cycle complete. You will most likely need to ‘ghost feed’ a little during this process.

A textbook cycle would look like this:

1. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0
2. Ammonia > 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0
3. Ammonia > 0, Nitrite > 0, Nitrate 0
4. Ammonia 0, Nitrite > 0, Nitrate 0
5. Ammonia 0, Nitrite > 0, Nitrate > 0
6. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate > 0

Depending how often you test you may not see all the stages. You may also see Ammonia stay > 0 for longer. The most important thing is that you want to be at 0 Ammonia before adding fish, and preferably 0 Nitrite. When you add fish and bio-load the cycle will start again but will be much quicker as you now have bacterial colonies which will quickly grow.

When I started my latest 130g tank I filled it with dead rock and seeded it with a small amount of live rock from my existing tank. I also added Seachem bacteria-in-a-bottle. I had detectable Ammonia within 7 days, detectable Nitrite within 14 and also detectable Nitrates within 7 days (a little earlier than I expected). Ammonia was at 0 by day 26 and Nitrites at 0 within a couple of days after that I expect (I didn’t bother testing again for Nitrite until 4 weeks later as I was confident in how the cycle was progressing). The first fish was introduced on day 37.

You can run the process more quickly, and many do, but they are quite experienced. Personally I would suggest patience, patience and more patience. Good luck!