Refugium setup...

[gabegmonkey]

I am starting a small (10 Gal.) Fuge and I have never set one up before... anyone have any advice/tips?

I have so far put a 20 lb bag of "Live" sand and about a cup of my own ("Live" with actual pods) tank sand so the sand bed is like 1 1/2" to 2" deep.

I also used about 2 handfulls of rubble from my main tank and a couple "medium/small" sized pieces of live rock which all have nice dark green encrusting type algae and or Corraline growth...

Should I use Chaeto? or something else? Is there something available that won't "Go Sexual"

Oh yeah, almost forgot... Lighting for the Fuge is a Coralife 24'' fixture (65W x2)with 10k and Actinic

 

[tkeracer619]

Actinic is for our eyes and won't help your algae grow. Cheap Home depot bulbs will work just fine here.

I would use Cheato.

2" sand bed is plenty. Put all the rock into a rubble pile for a pod heaven.

Hope you have some meat eaters in that 55. A manderin or wrasse will do the trick with all those pods floating around.

You could also go crazy with it and order some pods. Diversity is never a bad thing with benifitial pods.

 

[gabegmonkey]

as far as the light goes, I already have it so I might as well use it rather than go buy cheap ones.
Actually I got the light for free even... My boss bought it for me.

would it be better to get another 10k bulb to replace the Actinic? I do prefer the color the Actinic light adds but if it will help Algal growth I suppose I could live with all "white" light. maybe it won't make a difference in such a small tank?

 

[AIMFish]

If you were going to buy another bulb get a 6500 or 6700 one if you are using it to grow chaeto.

 

[gabegmonkey]

so the 6500 range is better than 10k?

Is there anything I could use other than Chaeto? I really don't want to have to run it 24/7

are there any critters I can add to the 'fuge? No crabs for sure but can I use Snails? or will they eat too much of the algae?
could I make the 'fuge like a Nano tank/propagation tank with mushrooms/corals etc. or something like that? or is that a no-no?

 

[Avi]

You don't have to run it 24/7 if you use Chaeto. It won't "go sexual." I'd suggest that you put the refugium on a timer so that the lights stay on overnight when the reef lights are off.

The 6500Ks are preferable to the 10,000Ks for the refugium application like AIMfish said. They provide more of the part of the spectrum that plantlife uses than other bulbs do.

There's no reason not to put snails in the refugium. They'll eat any micro-algae that shows up in there. And, you can put coral in there if you'd want to but the Chaeto would have a tendency, particularly in a small sump/tank, to shadow it and prevent the lighting that the coral would need from getting to it, so it's not a great idea from that standpoint, IMO.