reefkeeper1
New member
Eric Borneman is my new favorite reeftank author (Julian Sprung and Anthony Calfo are up there too though). His Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History book was a very detailed yet easy to read book on corals for a reeftank, and his co-authored work, A Practical Guide to Corals, was one of the first reeftank books I read that really turned me on to the diversity of corals one could keep in an aquarium. What has impressed me most lately are his "Mything the Point" articles in Reefkeeping magazine. I particularly liked his writings on the Refugium Concept, and this section in particular:
"As a final point, many aquarists comment on the amount of small crustacean life in refugia - and there often is. However, many of these same crustaceans are benthic or demersal zooplankton, and are often associated with reef structure and cavities. Providing a fair amount of rubble in refugia is a good idea. In fact, I would suggest (and know personally for a fact) that most people would see far more crustaceans in a refugium filled with live rock rubble that is allowed to have turf algae grow on it than in the macroalgae and sand dominated refugia that are common today. The difficulty will be keeping enough turf algae growing as fast as the amphipods consume it."
I can see in my own refugium that the biggest congregation of amphipods is in the lower flow, detritus and mulm areas. With the very fine sand beds most people put in their tanks and refugiums these days, the interstices in larger sized gravel aren't available for the amphipods to populate. I'll have to add more reef rubble to my refugium and main tank in order to increase the living spaces for amphipods and other small critters. One of my most vivid memories of the Shedd Aquarium was observing the high amphipod populations in the substrate of some of the marine tanks there. They're such active and interesting little critters.
"As a final point, many aquarists comment on the amount of small crustacean life in refugia - and there often is. However, many of these same crustaceans are benthic or demersal zooplankton, and are often associated with reef structure and cavities. Providing a fair amount of rubble in refugia is a good idea. In fact, I would suggest (and know personally for a fact) that most people would see far more crustaceans in a refugium filled with live rock rubble that is allowed to have turf algae grow on it than in the macroalgae and sand dominated refugia that are common today. The difficulty will be keeping enough turf algae growing as fast as the amphipods consume it."
I can see in my own refugium that the biggest congregation of amphipods is in the lower flow, detritus and mulm areas. With the very fine sand beds most people put in their tanks and refugiums these days, the interstices in larger sized gravel aren't available for the amphipods to populate. I'll have to add more reef rubble to my refugium and main tank in order to increase the living spaces for amphipods and other small critters. One of my most vivid memories of the Shedd Aquarium was observing the high amphipod populations in the substrate of some of the marine tanks there. They're such active and interesting little critters.
