LobsterOfJustice
Recovering Detritophobe
Hello everyone,
I have been keeping reefs for about 3 years now, but never had a proper refugium set up until now. With my last tank I "didnt need one", but high nitrates in my current tank prompted me to set one up. Since then, I've spent more time looking at the refugium than the display. Depending on how this all works out I might be making some changes to my display to turn it into more of a macroalgae/seagrass tank.
Here is a picture of my whole system:
That curtain can be closed if I ever feel like the room not looking like a complete mess. Here is a closer pic of the closet:
My unholy mess of a sump:
And my refugium:
The livestock consists of a mated pair of A. aurora and a symbiotic A. randalli. The refugium is a 30g breeder. The area to the left of the eggcrate divider is open sandbed with a large wad of cheatomorpha. Here is a (bad) picture of one of the gobies during acclimation. No pictures of them in the tank yet, they are still getting settled in (just arrived this past saturday).
This is the rock structure (er, two rocks and a skeleton) that the gobies have chosen to live under. On the skeleton you can see two algaes I collected locally (one is ulva I believe):
This is the top I fashioned to keep the gobies IN! Eggcrate with fiberglass window screen zip tied on. I know this is cutting back on some light, but it was necessary. The lighting is a Tek2 retrofit (2x 39w T5s), bulbs are GE 6500K sunlight. Over the cheatomorpha there is also one of the popularly used refugium bulbs.
Every few days I have to move this urchin back over to the left side of the egg crate. I really like him but now that I have all these macros I'm not sure he can stay.
And here is a small cluster of various algae and sponges which I collected locally:
So that's where it stands now. Let me know what you think, and I will update as I add more interesting plants/macros, as the existing ones grow out, and as the gobies settle in.
I have been keeping reefs for about 3 years now, but never had a proper refugium set up until now. With my last tank I "didnt need one", but high nitrates in my current tank prompted me to set one up. Since then, I've spent more time looking at the refugium than the display. Depending on how this all works out I might be making some changes to my display to turn it into more of a macroalgae/seagrass tank.
Here is a picture of my whole system:
That curtain can be closed if I ever feel like the room not looking like a complete mess. Here is a closer pic of the closet:
My unholy mess of a sump:
And my refugium:
The livestock consists of a mated pair of A. aurora and a symbiotic A. randalli. The refugium is a 30g breeder. The area to the left of the eggcrate divider is open sandbed with a large wad of cheatomorpha. Here is a (bad) picture of one of the gobies during acclimation. No pictures of them in the tank yet, they are still getting settled in (just arrived this past saturday).
This is the rock structure (er, two rocks and a skeleton) that the gobies have chosen to live under. On the skeleton you can see two algaes I collected locally (one is ulva I believe):
This is the top I fashioned to keep the gobies IN! Eggcrate with fiberglass window screen zip tied on. I know this is cutting back on some light, but it was necessary. The lighting is a Tek2 retrofit (2x 39w T5s), bulbs are GE 6500K sunlight. Over the cheatomorpha there is also one of the popularly used refugium bulbs.
Every few days I have to move this urchin back over to the left side of the egg crate. I really like him but now that I have all these macros I'm not sure he can stay.
And here is a small cluster of various algae and sponges which I collected locally:
So that's where it stands now. Let me know what you think, and I will update as I add more interesting plants/macros, as the existing ones grow out, and as the gobies settle in.
