Refugium are they worth it?

[Redbird5]

I have been in a major battle with phosphates leaching out of my rock this year. I have a 45g JBJ AIO and I have about 50 pounds of rock, at least, in there. I currently have six tablespoons of GFO in the aquarium because my phosphates were .53 on Monday. Last week they were .29. It's been a roller coaster over the last six months. My goal is to get the phosphates stabilized and I have a two prong assault planned. First get the phosphates down with GFO and stabilized and possibly use a back chamber of my AIO as a refugium with chaeto.
I've heard of refugiums but not fully researched them until today. My understanding is I need chaeto algae a light to feed it and remove the algae once a month or so to remove the phosphates it collects. It would be about $100 project, but I want to do more research on it before I buy anything and I also want to let the GFO work. Is the refugium worth it? I know the problem. The rocks is leaching phosphates into the water column. GFO does a great job of removing it but it drops it too low then I remove it and the phosphates skyrocket. I feed half a cube twice a day, I feed either reef roids or gonipower once a week and plankton once a week. DKH, Calc, MG, salinity are stable.

 

[Saltyreef]

I have been in a major battle with phosphates leaching out of my rock this year. I have a 45g JBJ AIO and I have about 50 pounds of rock, at least, in there. I currently have six tablespoons of GFO in the aquarium because my phosphates were .53 on Monday. Last week they were .29. It's been a roller coaster over the last six months. My goal is to get the phosphates stabilized and I have a two prong assault planned. First get the phosphates down with GFO and stabilized and possibly use a back chamber of my AIO as a refugium with chaeto.
I've heard of refugiums but not fully researched them until today. My understanding is I need chaeto algae a light to feed it and remove the algae once a month or so to remove the phosphates it collects. It would be about $100 project, but I want to do more research on it before I buy anything and I also want to let the GFO work. Is the refugium worth it? I know the problem. The rocks is leaching phosphates into the water column. GFO does a great job of removing it but it drops it too low then I remove it and the phosphates skyrocket. I feed half a cube twice a day, I feed either reef roids or gonipower once a week and plankton once a week. DKH, Calc, MG, salinity are stable.

You can adjust the amount of GFO you are using if your phosphates are dropping too low. .29 is still pretty darn high though.
I would implement the use of a refugium after your phosphates stabilize with the use of GFO. I like a chaeto refugium in the rear chamber for the simple fact of a pod home away from my pod hunters in the tank.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I had a refugium in my sump but removed it, nutrients were bottoming out as the tank aged. I stuck to a regular scheduled water change routine to help manage the nutrient levels.

 

[mfinn]

Refugium's are one tool to deal with those issues. I'm not sure the space you have is actually big enough to make a difference or not. I have not used a AIO.
There are several products like cheato reactors in different styles. Maybe more research into them might be an option. Some get kind of spendy.

 

[Rob A]

Algae scrubber FTW.

 

[Redbird5]

You can adjust the amount of GFO you are using if your phosphates are dropping too low. .29 is still pretty darn high though.
I would implement the use of a refugium after your phosphates stabilize with the use of GFO. I like a chaeto refugium in the rear chamber for the simple fact of a pod home away from my pod hunters in the tank.

It goes up and down almost every time I test it. Last week it was .29 so I lowered the amount of GFO I used and then it shot up again so I added more this week. This week is water change week and more than like the phosphates will drop between the GFO and water change. I'm hoping to find a medium where everything is stable.

 

[mpatterson42]

I love chaeto. It does a great job of keeping nitrates and phosphates in check. I have a refugium chamber in my 20 gallon sump for my 40 gallon tank, I have a media basket in my 20 gallon all in one with chaeto, I scraped off the black backing and put a light back there, and I just set up a chaeto reactor on my 180 gallon.

 

[BryanM]

An ATS would be better in your situation, I'm not sure you can run a big enough fuge.

But my reality is GFO is your best option.

And/or to look at corals and let them tell you if it is an issue.

My tank has gone from 1+, down to .1, thought it was stable at .31, and is now at .72 again. Corals all look happy and there are a ton of beautiful dirty tanks in our hobby.

 

[Euphyllia098]

Other than the number being high are you experiencing any issues?

 

[LPS Bum]

Not a fan of refugiums. They can certainly work for nutrient export, but they create a real mess in your sump and the algae is never truly contained there. I prefer a roller mat and a good skimmer, paired with regular water changes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I like refugia if there is space. The macroalgae grown there can be free, fresh fish food.

 

[PPBlimpy]

Yes the "refugium" you are talking about will help, but can be slow to get going.

I personally would look into an Algae turf scrubber, one can be built very easily with a pump, pvc pipe, grow light and a plastic container and plastic screen.

I have been running them for years and no long run a macro algae chamber.

 

[Biokabe]

My experience is that refugia aren't really worth it for the purpose of controlling phosphate. They can be great as a safe haven - a refuge, if you will - for small life to establish a breeding colony to seed the rest of your tank on a persistent basis. But there just isn't the concentrated volume of plant material in there to really suck phosphates out.

ATS are better if you're trying to reduce phosphates, they concentrate more algae per unit area than refugiums can, but aren't as good at providing habitat for copepods and other small inverts. I'm very fond of my Santa Monica unit (Surf2), but it's not a great fit for an AIO - you might need one of their upflow models. They are spendy and I won't deny that they are. Probably spendier than they need to be, but the workmanship is great on them and I've never had a problem with mine.

 

[exnisstech]

Chaeto fuge never did anything to lower N and P when I ran one even harvesting half of a 5 gallon bucket every 7-10 days. It was a great place for pods to reproduce. I'm running an ATS on my 330 and my PO4 will peg 0.9 on Hanna ULR tester and I'll run GFO to bring it down to 0.4 but it climbs back up. Also NO3 runs 50+ so I'm sure it's because of my heavy handed feeding. The tank looks good and fish appear happy and healthy so i just let it roll and keep and eye on things.