What do you keep in your refugium?

[WrasseyReefer]

A refugium can serve many purposes. You can grow macroalgae to help with nutrient export or to feed your fish. You can grow copepods to feed your fish and to clean your tank. You can put inverts or fish in “prison” if they misbehave. What do you put in your refugium and for what purposes?

 

[Borat]

I keep the 2 green BTAs there - amongst chaeto.. Could not move them on - but they happily live amongst refugium algae.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I keep the 2 green BTAs there - amongst chaeto.. Could not move them on - but they happily live amongst refugium algae.

Why do you keep your BTAs in your refugium?

 

[Lebowski_]

Why do you keep your BTAs in your refugium?

Not the person you asked but I have a BTA that fancies himself to be Marco Polo and has wondered all over my tank. I stopped gluing plugs lol.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I keep considering inverts in the fuge, but haven't jumped the gun on it yet since the nuisance algae that does show up disappears, I am guessing due to the pods.

I have chaeto I puchased specifically for the fuge.

Sea lettuce that popped up in the display put of nowhere that I tore off the rocks and tossed down into the fuge.

A brightwell media brick.

Some rocks, and an absurd amount of pods.

I did a few jars from algae barn initially and they have done well, but one small algae covered rock from the LFS, and a bag of pods from reef cleaners have absolutely bloomed the pods in the fuge.

There are so many different kinds, and millions and millions of them.

Highly recomend the reefcleaners one, they had a bunch of different ones in the bag, and there was some sort of crud in the water that the fuge seemed to love.

Edit: i highly recommend algae barns as well, especially if you want species specific, but for me, the dirty mix of everything is way cooler.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

Not the person you asked but I have a BTA that fancies himself to be Marco Polo and has wondered all over my tank. I stopped gluing plugs lol.

Yeah, I’ve also had BTA that won’t stay put, so that could be why. But curious.

 

[WrasseyReefer]

I keep considering inverts in the fuge, but haven't jumped the gun on it yet since the nuisance algae that does show up disappears, I am guessing due to the pods.

I have chaeto I puchased specifically for the fuge.

Sea lettuce that popped up in the display put of nowhere that I tore off the rocks and tossed down into the fuge.

A brightwell media brick.

Some rocks, and an absurd amount of pods.

I did a few jars from algae barn initially and they have done well, but one small algae covered rock from the LFS, and a bag of pods from reef cleaners have absolutely bloomed the pods in the fuge.

There are so many different kinds, and millions and millions of them.

Highly recomend the reefcleaners one, they had a bunch of different ones in the bag, and there was some sort of crud in the water that the fuge seemed to love.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Borat]

Not the person you asked but I have a BTA that fancies himself to be Marco Polo and has wondered all over my tank. I stopped gluing plugs lol.

the refugium section only has chaeto - other sections are closed off by baffles - so there is no way for BTA to move over to another section of sump..

Btw - if you want to prevent your BTA from moving, create a glass jar home for it - filled with some rock rubble and also keep your nem well fed (once every 7-10 days).. The nem won't move if it has (i) good hiding space (jar + rocks) and (ii) good amount of flow / light and (iii) sufficient amout of food.

 

[Borat]

There are 2 nems hiding in this picture!

 

[carbondave]

I keep considering inverts in the fuge, but haven't jumped the gun on it yet since the nuisance algae that does show up disappears, I am guessing due to the pods.

I have chaeto I puchased specifically for the fuge.

Sea lettuce that popped up in the display put of nowhere that I tore off the rocks and tossed down into the fuge.

A brightwell media brick.

Some rocks, and an absurd amount of pods.

I did a few jars from algae barn initially and they have done well, but one small algae covered rock from the LFS, and a bag of pods from reef cleaners have absolutely bloomed the pods in the fuge.

There are so many different kinds, and millions and millions of them.

Highly recomend the reefcleaners one, they had a bunch of different ones in the bag, and there was some sort of crud in the water that the fuge seemed to love.

Edit: i highly recommend algae barns as well, especially if you want species specific, but for me, the dirty mix of everything is way cooler.

Great info on reefcleaners. Did you just get the pods+? It looks like they have a couple of species-specific ones, too.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Great info on reefcleaners. Did you just get the pods+? It looks like they have a couple of species-specific ones, too.

Yes it was the pods+

I do not know what it contained, but very quickly I could tell there were a couple different, and some amphipods.

They came in 4days due to a usps screw up, and idk if the crud in the bag was some sort of die off / decay, but there were tons still alive, way more concentrated than I expected.

If my population severely declines, I would do reefcleaners again.

 

[revhtree]

Literally all of the above! HA!

 

[dwfain]

I keep Chocolate Chip Stars in my refugium. They're healthy and happy but can't go in my reef tank. Thinking about putting some feather dusters in there too. Have a fantastic farms of pods thanks to Algae Barn. Lots of Chaeto that I have to harvest.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I have lots of live rock along with some dry rock, rubble live rock, live sand and even some old school GARF Grunge. There are a couple of big Turbo Snails that were banished from the DT, lots of pods, sponges, tube worms, brittle stars and all sorts of other life in it. I don't like to use anything that needs light. I believe this arrangement controls nitrogen well and provides a lot of "food" for the organisms in the system. While the organisms in the system also process and bind phosphate, I do have to use a little Lanthanum Chloride from time to time. I have considered adding a remote Cheato fuge to help with the phosphate and provide some pH stabilization.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

chaeto, live rock, sand, copepods, snails, aptasia, green hair algae, dinos, cyano, bristleworms, etc lol