Rock in your refugium?

[Picassoclown]

Hello everyone. This is more of an opinion that I am asking for. I am tempted to remove the rock from my refugium slowly over the next few weeks. I think it is doing more harm than good. It's difficult to clean around, trapping bits of food, and not allowing my macro algae to tumble around with flow. I think it has contributed to my cyano outbreak.

What are people's thoughts of live rock in refugiums? Should I just stick with a chamber full of macro algae?

 

[bushdoc]

I agree that too much rock in might be a detritus and nitrate trap. I assume that your refugium is a part of a sump?
I keep a bit of rock rubble there and took out large bio-brick as it was simply stripping my tank of nutrients.
There are ways of cleaning sump/refugium though.
Some also think that refugium should be "dirty" as it increases biodiversity and harbors more meiofauna.
My personal choice is less rock, just a bit of rubble.

 

[Hemmdog]

+1 rubble over rock

 

[CoralB]

Their shouldn’t be anything in the refugium to deter proper water flow and operation movement of macro algae etc. . You also should have some sort of mechanical filtration to keep the food from freely going into the refugium , ie: socks , floss, pads etc . That’s my opinion

 

[Cthulukelele]

IMO it really depends on the goal of your fuge. Optimal chaeto rolling for nutrient export likes a clean bare bottom fuge. A nice layer of rock or rubble can be great for added pod hiding spots and biodiversity. Things like bio bricks or dsb can be interesting paths for nitrogen gas production for another avenue of nitrate lowering in sump.

At the end of the day it's really just a refuge zone in the sump, and what's in there is entirely up to the goals of that sump zone for the system.

 

[Picassoclown]

I agree that too much rock in might be a detritus and nitrate trap. I assume that your refugium is a part of a sump?
I keep a bit of rock rubble there and took out large bio-brick as it was simply stripping my tank of nutrients.
There are ways of cleaning sump/refugium though.
Some also think that refugium should be "dirty" as it increases biodiversity and harbors more meiofauna.
My personal choice is less rock, just a bit of rubble.

Hey Doc. Sorry, yes, it is part of a sump. My display is 200 gallons and the entire sump is 50 gallons with a 10 gallon chamber where the rock is in. I like the feedback I have received here. I am going to take out the rock and just get some rubble to throw in there. I also have 1 biobrick, you think I should remove that or leave in place for copepods to reproduce?

 

[Picassoclown]

Their shouldn’t be anything in the refugium to deter proper water flow and operation movement of macro algae etc. . You also should have some sort of mechanical filtration to keep the food from freely going into the refugium , ie: socks , floss, pads etc . That’s my opinion

Hi Coral. Yes, I do have mechanical filtration. My sump starts off with filter socks than goes into the macro algae/rock area, then flows into the biobrick and skimmer area, and then finally back into the return chamber where I have my dosing lines.

 

[Picassoclown]

IMO it really depends on the goal of your fuge. Optimal chaeto rolling for nutrient export likes a clean bare bottom fuge. A nice layer of rock or rubble can be great for added pod hiding spots and biodiversity. Things like bio bricks or dsb can be interesting paths for nitrogen gas production for another avenue of nitrate lowering in sump.

At the end of the day it's really just a refuge zone in the sump, and what's in there is entirely up to the goals of that sump zone for the system.

Hi Cthulu. I think I am just going to keep some tiny pieces of rubble in the same chamber as my filter socks, right underneath them, than keep an entire chamber of macro algae. I will keep the brick for the pods.

 

[Picassoclown]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Hi Cthulu. I think I am just going to keep some tiny pieces of rubble in the same chamber as my filter socks, right underneath them, than keep an entire chamber of macro algae. I will keep the brick for the pods.

Seems like a plan!

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Pull out like rock, to battle cyano seems like a completely backwards move to me personally.

I'll throw More rock at most issues before taking some out

 

[Cthulukelele]

Pull out like rock, to battle cyano seems like a completely backwards move to me personally.

I'll throw More rock at most issues before taking some out

I'm to a point where whenever I see a local reefer post about dry rock or cured rock they want to dump I start getting the sweats trying not to buy it for this reason lol especially if it's ultra porous old reef rock

 

[Picassoclown]

Pull out like rock, to battle cyano seems like a completely backwards move to me personally.

I'll throw More rock at most issues before taking some out

Hey Sauce. I would agree with you if my rock was live rock. Unfortunately it is dry rock, hence why I believe this is part of my cyano problem. The lack of flow in my macro chamber where my rock is and not having enough bio-diversity (tank is only 6 months old post-cycle) is probably not the sole reason, but definitely attributing to the issue I'm facing.

The next time I set up any system, I am getting live rock from a sustainable source and adding it to the tank. I will never again do a dry rock set-up like this. Cyano was out of control, but seems to be getting a bit better. I will be using @SunnyX method if in a week it does not start to improve.

 

[Picassoclown]

I'm to a point where whenever I see a local reefer post about dry rock or cured rock they want to dump I start getting the sweats trying not to buy it for this reason lol especially if it's ultra porous old reef rock

I don't understand. Do you think me taking it out or leaving it in is a better idea?

 

[Cthulukelele]

I don't understand. Do you think me taking it out or leaving it in is a better idea?

Oh I don't think it'd matter a whole lot. At the end of the day it's personal preference. More rock typically equals more stability.

 

[Lavey29]

Personally, if I had a large sump like yours I would just drop a couple good size pieces of real live ocean rock in there and call it a day. I have rubble and marine pure balls in my sump along with chaeto. The chaeto does not need to rotate to grow huge but the rubble allows for detritus build up. If you use large rocks you can easily turkey baste that sump section clean. You can grow chaeto in there too if desired. You have good options with a large sump. You can see how tight my small fuge is and I had to use rubble due to the size but so far my nitrates stay at 10 month after month with heavy feeding 3x per day with frozen and 12 fish.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Hello everyone. This is more of an opinion that I am asking for. I am tempted to remove the rock from my refugium slowly over the next few weeks. I think it is doing more harm than good. It's difficult to clean around, trapping bits of food, and not allowing my macro algae to tumble around with flow. I think it has contributed to my cyano outbreak.

What are people's thoughts of live rock in refugiums? Should I just stick with a chamber full of macro algae?

I would remove the Cheato & light and add ocean cured live rock. I would not use premium live rock, but the less expensive "Base" rock. I think the resulting diversity would help use nutrients in a more balanced fashion rather than simply binding N&P. Add a CUC to the Fuge to keep gross organics from building up. Feeding some phytoplankton to encourage pod production would help also.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Personally, if I had a large sump like yours I would just drop a couple good size pieces of real live ocean rock in there and call it a day. I have rubble and marine pure balls in my sump along with chaeto. The chaeto does not need to rotate to grow huge but the rubble allows for detritus build up. If you use large rocks you can easily turkey baste that sump section clean. You can grow chaeto in there too if desired. You have good options with a large sump. You can see how tight my small fuge is and I had to use rubble due to the size but so far my nitrates stay at 10 month after month with heavy feeding 3x per day with frozen and 12 fish.

What size tank do you have out of curiosity

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I always pack as much rock as I can in my refugium. I do not grow Chaeto though, I greatly prefer Caulerpa. It grows SUPER fast, and Im able to harvest over 2 lbs weekly from my 20 gallon refugium/sump on my 75 gallon. I use it to feed the tangs, angels, and rabbitfish in my FOWLR. It prefers having some rockwork to grow on vs just floating around. Plus, I have a ton of copepods breeding in there, to constantly replenish the display and keep the mandarin and all my wrasses fat and happy.

 

[Lavey29]

What size tank do you have out of curiosity

Irs 65g DT and 15g sump but with all my rockscape I'm guessing I have 65g total water volume.