Refugium

[Crabs McJones]

Do you keep sand or live rock in your refugium? I have some in mine but my chaeto seems to be dieing off. And I know there has to be enough nutrients in the system because I have algea growth all over my display tank. I don't know my exact parameters at the moment as i'm at work but i'll try to get them later tonight. But just wondering how others keep their fuge. If its bare or if you do use sand and live rock in it.

Thanks,
Crabs

 

[camreef]

i have both rubble rock and fiji mud in my refugium.

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

Mines bare bottom, but with live rock. No rubble. My chaeto doesn't grow very fast, but it still grows.

What are your lighting cycles for display and refugium? Is the display out competing the refugium?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Mines bare bottom, but with live rock. No rubble. My chaeto doesn't grow very fast, but it still grows.

What are your lighting cycles for display and refugium? Is the display out competing the refugium?

I do opposite of the display, so from 9 pm to about 9 am and 1 hour of complete darkness between both and then my Dt lights come on.

 

[Orm Embar]

Some live rock rubble, macro, Xenia, and coral frags that seem to recover (suspect I have at least 1 gorilla crab in the display)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Everything. Dsb. Macros. Bugs rocks Xenia some shrooms got tosssed in there, a brittle star etc.

If your not having success , double check your flow and spectrum of the light as well as intensity.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

When we had our 125g tank we had a 55g sump and we used one side for a refugium. We didn't have anything but a some rock rubble which we made by breaking up some live rock from the DT and chaeto and a basic light. The chaeto grew so fast we couldn't keep up with it. It seemed like evwey week we had to remove some so it could move around. We never did anything special in the tank because it was fish only.

 

[Diazcm]

Glad I found this thread I seem to be having the same issue as Crab-mcjones. my only difference is i'm running a kessil H80 grow light and all the algae is growing in the fug and my cheato doesn't seem to be growing as fast as I'd hope for.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Glad I found this thread I seem to be having the same issue as Crab-mcjones. my only difference is i'm running a kessil H80 grow light and all the algae is growing in the fug and my cheato doesn't seem to be growing as fast as I'd hope for.

I'm using the Kessil H80 as well. According to Ryan at BRS, with the size of my fuge, the light should be mounted 6 to 12 inches off the waters surface at 100% intensity. The fuge is 10x11x12 inches deep and I have the light mounted 6 1/4 off the water surface running at 100% and it lights it up pretty good. I took the rock out last night and just have a sand bottom. I'm considering getting rid of the sand tonight and running a bare fuge. I have extra saltwater cooking right now to replace the water from vacuuming out the fuge.

 

[Diazcm]

I'm using the Kessil H80 as well. According to Ryan at BRS, with the size of my fuge, the light should be mounted 6 to 12 inches off the waters surface at 100% intensity. The fuge is 10x11x12 inches deep and I have the light mounted 6 1/4 off the water surface running at 100% and it lights it up pretty good. I took the rock out last night and just have a sand bottom. I'm considering getting rid of the sand tonight and running a bare fuge.

give it a try and wait a bit. i'm running bare fug bottom with just my baseball sized cheato and a bunch of brown hair algae that's been growing. I'm not sure how high my kessil is from the surface but i'll check when I get home tonight and let you know.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Well the refugium has been scrubbed clean, it is now bare, and I salvaged what cheato I could. It's super tiny so if anybody is feeling extremely charitable I could use some more cheato;) Well see if I get any growth.

 

[ca1ore]

Really depends on what role you intend for the refugium. For example, I actually run three of them on my system (four if you consider a frag tank to be a refugium). One is an unlit cryptic/RDSB with 6 inches of very fine sand, a second is a 120 setup as a full reef tank to shelter inverts that get munched on in the big display, and a third is a typical chaeto-growing area in my sump with no rocks or sand. I light it both from above (Kessil H380) and below (ebay grow light de-jour). So, plenty of light and macro-nutrients, but I do have to judiciously dose iron in order to get good growth.

Regularly give away big bags full of the stuff.

 

[Sonor]

CA a little off topic but, do you feed your RDSB or just let it feed itself from the system? I also run a system similar to yours and was wondering if i needed to feed the RDSB. I have been feeding it about every other week but it is now 2 yrs old, and was wondering if it could self sustain at this point.

 

[ca1ore]

CA a little off topic but, do you feed your RDSB or just let it feed itself from the system? I also run a system similar to yours and was wondering if i needed to feed the RDSB. I have been feeding it about every other week but it is now 2 yrs old, and was wondering if it could self sustain at this point.

I do not 'target' feed the RDSB, but I do feed the system a lot so I doubt its starving LOL. My own anecdotal observations of RDSB is that over particularization (not a real word) is the most common reason that they foul, so I try to not allow too much detritus buildup. I have a persistent population of swimming Tisbe-like pods so it's getting nutrients clearly.

 

[madweazl]

I have about 3/4" of lose rubble at the bottom of my refugium (used to hold the macros down originally). The refugium is packed full of macro algae now so it serves little purpose (at least, that was intended). I'm sure there are plenty of things living in and amongst it. I use an H80 on "grow" at 100% intensity mounted eight inches above the water surface and the refugium is 10x13.5x10.

 

[d2mini]

My refugium's purpose is strictly for nutrient uptake/export.
So nothing in mine but macros.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I have about 3/4 of lose rubble at the bottom of my refugium (used to hold the macros down originally). The refugium is packed full of macro algae now so it serves little purpose (at least, that was intended). I'm sure there are plenty of things living in and amongst it. I use an H80 on "grow" at 100% intensity mounted eight inches above the water surface and the refugium is 10x13.5x10.

That pretty much measures up to what i've got, your fuge is 2 inches shorter , but my light is 2 inches closer to the waters surface. Thank you for the information :)

 

[Dom]

Do you keep sand or live rock in your refugium? I have some in mine but my chaeto seems to be dieing off. And I know there has to be enough nutrients in the system because I have algea growth all over my display tank. I don't know my exact parameters at the moment as i'm at work but i'll try to get them later tonight. But just wondering how others keep their fuge. If its bare or if you do use sand and live rock in it.

Thanks,
Crabs

Just some macro, a 75 watt grow light from Home Depot and a deep sand bed for me.

 

[madweazl]

That pretty much measures up to what i've got, your fuge is 2 inches shorter , but my light is 2 inches closer to the waters surface. Thank you for the information :)

For what it is worth, there is very little visible light about 4" below the surface but the algae at the bottom stays a dark green. It originally had gracilaria and three varieties of caulerpa (paspaloides, sertulariodes, and prolifera) but one of them (paspaloides) has started to take over. I cant see any sertulariodes any more and the gracilaria died off long ago. Not sure where it was hiding (I never intended to have any) but chaeto has started to grow in and amongst what is left now. Been interesting to see how everything has matured down there over the past year.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Regularly give away big bags full of the stuff.

You still doing this? Could really use a good sized bag :)