Display Refugium

[cincyjim]

I'm thinking of starting a display refugium and I wanted to know what experiences others have had before I do. The main reason I want one is to keep pods. I have a Scotter Blenny, Pink Streaked Wrasse, and a Leopard Wrasse. The Pink and Leopard are eating flake now but it is their nature to hunt pods which is what I'd like to give them. The Scotter isn't eating flake and doesn't look the least bit interested in it at all. I have/had a decent pod population but the three of them are putting a dent in it. Is it worth the effort to do this? Any equipment recommendations, etc. I have 150g 5'x24"x24" tank that has 200 plus pounds of rock in the display and another 50 or so in the sump (refuguim section) acting as a cryptic fuge.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[mcgyvr]

You seem to already have a large enough system that should support a healthy pod population already..
So I'm not sure what added benefit you think you are going to get with a display fuge that you don't already have.

 

[Night Reefer]

Why can’t you just increase your pods population in your refug. You do have a large area to house a large population of pods

 

[cincyjim]

My fuge is not lit and doesn't have any macro algae or algae of any type in it. Plus with all the rock in it there wouldn't be any room for chaeto or the like. So basically the pod population is what I have in the DT which I'm afraid will be depleted overtime. Maybe I need to rethink this some more.

 

[Thornbreaker]

Any reason why you can't drop some cheato in, and an inexpensive light to keep your pod population up? (Nevermind, reread your last post, take enough rock out instead?)

Good to know that your leopard wrasse is eating pods. I plan to have maybe 2 of those in my 150 as I think my wife will like them (primarily because of the name), but I do plan to get a mandarin too after a year or so. Would like to make it easy on the mandarin to have enough pods for sure.

 

[cincyjim]

I really don't want to disturb the fuge as it is acting as a cryptic fuge right now. There are many sponges and other stuff growing in it, so I really want to keep that as is which is why I was looking at a display fuge.

It took about a week for the Leopard to start eating flake. Up until then though I was feeding him brine shrimp twice a day. I think it is hit and miss with them going to flake and I got lucky with this one.

 

[PeteStarks]

I have found that a lot of times the best environment for pod growth is usually undesirable for general reef keeping. Might be worth looking into a completely separate small tank to grow out algae and pods without causing any issues with your existing system.

 

[JohnnyHildo]

I have found that a lot of times the best environment for pod growth is usually undesirable for general reef keeping. Might be worth looking into a completely separate small tank to grow out algae and pods without causing any issues with your existing system.

can you elaborate on this a bit? pods seemingly do well in my refugium which is simply a 15"x15"x16" lit with a h380 over chaeto. I'm sure they would probably appreciate the light not being so intense but aside from temperature I can't imagine what else they'd be better suited in.

 

[PeteStarks]

can you elaborate on this a bit? pods seemingly do well in my refugium which is simply a 15"x15"x16" lit with a h380 over chaeto. I'm sure they would probably appreciate the light not being so intense but aside from temperature I can't imagine what else they'd be better suited in.

Pods will definitely do fine in a normal display tank/sump setup with some chaeto to live in. I do exactly this myself, however if you want pods populations to explode you need to let the water slip a little(in a separate system!). When you have enough nutrients in the water to have a tank that looks like a hair algae jungle, you will be have a pod factory on your hands. I had a small setup like this to raise pods for a goby and it was pretty successful. The goby would nuke my standard pod population and transplanting new pods from my farm tank was the only real way to go.