To fuge or not to fuge: Have you had a refugium?

[Peace River]

To fuge or not to fuge: Have you had a refugium?

The promise of a refugium is amazing. Grow your own nutrient export complete with a place for pods to hide and be slowly dosed to your display tank. If it works the way it is supposed to then the refugium is mostly self-sustaining. Whether you have a successful refugium, have tried and had mixed results, or have never started, let’s talk about your thoughts on adding a refugium. Have you ever had a refugium? Tell us about your experience and share any tips or recommendations with the community!

Photo by @Ratherbeflyen


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[tzabor10]

Bought a HOB refuguim and have never regretted it. Wanted an in sump solution but didn’t account for my oversized skimmer ( 250-INT). Just wish I could find an overflow guard to keep the noise down. It sits on my sump

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I do not have one right now but in the future I would like to try one out

 

[Kayvon]

I don't anymore. When my fuge light died I just turned that space into a cryptic zone since I had a lot of sponges in there. I had major issues keeping potassium levels due to the macroalgae.

 

[The_Skrimp]

I have one but my chaeto grows super slow. I carbon dose and run GFO as well so there really aren’t enough nutrients for the chaeto to really do much. I keep it mostly as a back up for when I over feed.

 

[CasperOe]

To fuge, definetly! Here's my Triton-style sump with plenty of room for the fuge.

 

[FrugalReefer]

If using Xenia instead of Macroalgae for nutrient export counts then yes I have one.

 

[Uncle99]

Added a 50g fuge to my 180g, 40g sump system at 2 years of age. It maintains a consistent nutrient level and better PH, mops up a ton of excess nutrients and allows for the development of diversity, which, makes its way to the DT.
Running 4 years, zero maintenance except pulling a handful of macro-algae.

 

[vlangel]

I have a basement sump/fuge that works amazing and costed me very little. It is an Aqueon 30 gallon XH tank that I priorly used as a seahorse tank. It has a very deep sand bed and the return pump and drain just sit on top of the sand bed. It has live rock and extra macroalgae that I pulled out of my living room 56 gallon display tank. All the water change mess is in the basement. The fuge ( with the macroalgae) are working so well that my system is down to a 5 gallon water change about once a month. I have so many pods plus the fuge houses a rescued clownfish and a renegade pistol shrimp. It's not pretty but is very functional.

 

[redmorrigan]

I have a round 3 gallon aquarium that I was thinking of using as a beginner refugium. I'd like some tips on setting something like that up, or if it's even feasible. I've also been looking at hang on back fish nurseries because it seems like you could set one of those up like a HOB. Has anyone else done that? I'm a beginner. I have a 30 gallon tank cycling, nothing but live rock and live sand, and water from a friends tank.

 

[Troylee]

Nope! Strips what little nutrients I got and competes with my corals lol..

 

[sheel be right]

Jake Adams was against fuges, so am I.

 

[EricR]

I have no sump so no room for proper refugium, although I wish I did.
Chaeto ball in shower caddy on side of DT is best I can do.
Only getting off-axis light from regular coral LEDs so it doesn't grow a ton but it's been alive for close to two years in this configuration.
I only pull out and toss maybe 1/4 of the mass when it gets too tight in the caddy and that's only about every 2-3 months.
*must be consuming something and pods still hang out in it so sticking with it

 

[CBonito]

I am using a mud refugium which I had awesome success with on my 90 gallon. I just started it recently, but there is already life in there.
I'm not necessarily using it to control nitrates/phosphate, but rather to make food for corals. I'll take whatever nitrate consumption it gives though. Right now I am feeding it a shot of phytoplankton every night to keep what's in there multiplying. We'll see how it goes this time around. These things take time.

 

[exnisstech]

To fuge. I run 3 systems and have 3 fuges. I love having them for the critters that live there.

 

[Mikeltee]

I considered a HOB, but it is so simple and interesting to culture pods and phyto that I chose that route. Isochrysis and Tetra phyto and Tigs, Tisbe, and Apo pods.

 

[bakbay]

I had one and will not do this going forward. I was not diligent enough to yank out chaeto and it stripped the tank of all nutrients -- N&P bottomed out and I got dinos. Yes, my fault but it was too effective! ha Also, it was nasty in the fuge before -- my sump is finally clean again!

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I will always have a fuge.

My experience has been so great with mine. I can feed tons of aminos and coral good every day because even with the absurd input, I have almost no detectable nutrients, or struggle to keep them there.

On future tanks, i would prioritize having a fuge before any other filtration.

 

[hexcolor reef]

Added a 50g fuge to my 180g, 40g sump system at 2 years of age. It maintains a consistent nutrient level and better PH, mops up a ton of excess nutrients and allows for the development of diversity, which, makes its way to the DT.
Running 4 years, zero maintenance except pulling a handful of macro-algae.

How much algae is in the 50gallon refugium? I’ve been trying to calculate the weight or amount needed to absorb more co2 from water to stabilize PH in a 200gallon tank

 

[Seansea]

I dont use a fuge now but have had them before. The hair algae would just grow over the chaeto and i have found hair algae scrubs the water way better than chaeto. So switched to algae scrubber. Get no nuisance algae of any kind in display. Can feed as heavy as you want and the hair algae just grows faster. Dont get as many critters growing as a fuge thi so that part is bad