Refugium - what’s in yours

[Difrano]

I have sand, rubble, hermits, trochus, fern caulerpa, GHA, some mushrooms, a couple of bait shrimp and enough amphipods to create an army and take over the world

 

[Reef GE]

Two large bags of ceramic rings on floor, one large bioblock, chaeto, caulpera (grape variety) which I want out but keeps coming back, two tunicates that just showed up, snails, pods,. I dont worry about detritus. That’s part of the whole bio balance. Removing it would require a rebalancing somehow. As long as parameters are in control, I let nature do its thing and leave the sump “dirt” alone.

 

[Reef GE]

Chaeto, a pod hotel, and a couple nerite snails to eat the undesirable algae that grows in there. Thinking about adding an emerald crab if the snails don't keep things in check. Plus I've had dumb snails manage to plug the intake for my skimmer..

Pod hotel?

 

[BobT]

Bio cubes and sea lettuce - adding cheato soon

 

[Reef GE]

Pod hotel?

Never mind...I googled it. Going to make my own with plastic dish scrubbers and corrugated plastic!

 

[SMSREEF]

No sand,
Live rock to within 3" of top of water, then mat of chaeto, divide in 1/2 every 2 or 3 weeks.
Pods and snails.

Interesting... Do you have a pic of your fuge?
This sounds like something I may try. Right now I just have rubble on bottom Of fuge and macro algae, snails and hermits.

 

[Luke’s reef]

My sump will have rock rubble and cheato once it cycles. Maybe in the future ill have a layer of sand to add a few different macro algae's but for now building a good pod population in the rubble is the aim.

 

[Pistondog]

Interesting... Do you have a pic of your fuge?
This sounds like something I may try. Right now I just have rubble on bottom Of fuge and macro algae, snails and hermits.

Will try to get one later after cleaning salt splash.
The rock keeps the chaeto higher in the water, better par.

 

[Amstar]

What are some concerns with going with other macros than cheato? Some can go asexual and reproduce and get into the man tank?

Is cheato the best for nutrient absorption?

 

[E_reefer]

Cool thread- seeing some sweet fuge setups here- I keep rock, chaeto, a few mangroves and I just added some halmedia. There is some hair algae in there that I try to remove when doing water changes. I have been thinking about reducing the rock and growing more macro algae.

 

[E_reefer]

i have nothing in mine yet, i cant decided what to put in it.

Side question, for those of you running Skimmers also, are they before or after your fuge? do you think it even matters?

I have skimmer first, then the refugium chamber so less pods get sucked up into the skimmer.

 

[Difrano]

What are some concerns with going with other macros than cheato? Some can go asexual and reproduce and get into the man tank?

Is cheato the best for nutrient absorption?

Cheato grows fast and is easy to prune, but i don't like the look and prefer other macroalgae like fern caulerpa, plus any bits that make their way to DT gets eaten by my Yellot Tang and lawnmover blenny. They love it.

 

[Pistondog]

Sorry, fuge is messy.

 

[Rich Klein]

Do you have sand and cheato? Just cheato? Any cuc?

Packed Chaeto (grows back as quickly as I removed it), a couple of types of worms, some Marine Pure cubes for Pod hiding places, all kinds of Pods, Brittle Stars, and other cool stuff that I find when I pay attention.

 

[K7BMG]

Humm
Well I have rock, Trochus snails, three Peppermint shrimp, dozzens of Pineapple sponges, and a diy Algae Scrubber.
So far my Chato attempts have failed.

 

[TJD]

Marine Pure Cubes (2 inch), Chaeto, Pods, Tunze EcoChic Refugium Light

 

[GrapevineReefs]

Miracle mud with the AI prime fuge grows a variety of macros in my fuge I separate the reds in Drilled specimen containers to aid in their survival as the chaeto and more aggressive varieties will choke them out.

 

[Amstar]

I like the idea of separating the various algae, as you stated cheato will choke out the others

so why red macro? Do fish eat it?

do different macros pull/use different nutrients out of the water column?

 

[drblakjak55]

I believe I win the awards for 1. Ugliest sump ever. 2. New use for cotton candy Macroalgae No red stuff in the DT. Skimmer on other side of red plastic barrier(Keeps the skimmer from growing algae in it) with two mesh socks. Bag full of charcoal hangs over DC return pump. Million pods and harvest fist full of red stuff weekly. Who knew?
s

 

[NinjaTiLL]

Side question, for those of you running Skimmers also, are they before or after your fuge? do you think it even matters?

Doesn't really matter for most setups. If you want to try the "Triton Method" then they recommend the refugium before the skimmer so that the macroalgae and other microfauna can up-take what nutrients they need before the skimmer removes it. That's what I'll be doing and I bought a sump setup specifically for Triton (the Trigger Systems Triton 20v2). The fuge is before the skimmer and can hold approximately 9 gallons (needs to be approx 10% of tank volume for this method.) The skimmer and return sections are adequate but smaller than what I've seen on most non-trident sumps. I bought an appropriately sized skimmer (Reef Octopus Essense S-130) and ended up putting my over-sized return pump outside the sump and have the intake plumbed up and over the side of the sump with a strainer that keeps the intake about 2-3 inches off the bottom.

Fuge has some marinepure 2x2" blocks and left-over dry rock. I'll see if the marinepure makes a difference on my first ICP test. No livestock yet... probably going to stock up from ipsf.com.