Refugium setup.

[Ann Enomy]

I am in the planning and ordering stuff stage of a 220gal. With the expanded space offered by the larger footprint over my 120g I am setting up a sump with a separate 16x12x16 lifereef refugium that will be fed off the return manifold and overflow back into the sump. My question is for phosphate reduction and Pod production should the bottom of this refugium have nothing(bare bottom), live sand, ceramic biomedia balls, rubble, rock or mud substrate and should I stock the refugium with a CUC? Also Is it better to grow algae that is attached to live rock or have the tumbling ball I see so often. I have been in the hobby for 25 years but never have kept a refugium. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Marco_99]

I keep a ball of chaeto in my sump refugium chamber with a couple reef rocks. It seems like I’m always housing some living thing in there so the the algae growth or the structure itself comes in handy. I used to have a lot of smaller rocks in the bottom but that was harder to clean (if desired).My ball will sometimes rotate, sometimes won’t, it doesn’t matter it’s still grows. Right now I have an urchin down there with two tiny clownfish growing them out a bit to put up top, and snails. The urchin usually attaches the ball to himself

 

[Tcook]

I have live rock and sand in my refugium.

 

[Ann Enomy]

I have live rock and sand in my refugium.

That looks amazing! I'm not really going for a specimen tank though. I'm look for the "how to" on using the refugium as a part of the filtration system and pod producer.

 

[Ann Enomy]

Bump for more opinions.