refugium substrate

[mattsfishes84]

I know this question has probably been asked a million times already.. but..

What substrate do you use in your refugiums?

I am thinking I probably want to use some cheatomorpha or some caulerpa.

thanks in advance.

 

[horwitzs]

I'm a rookie but I'm pretty sure you can have either of those without any substrate at all.
A lot of people put a deep sand bed in the fuge since they like the look of just a shallow bed in the display tank.

 

[jdieck]

In addition to live rock and macroalgae I also have about 5 inch deep sand bed to develop and promote worms whcih upon reproducing will also provide zooplankton to feed the tank and also provide some additional de-nitrification.

Of course you can run a refugium without any substrate and I would recommend not using it if the refugium is relatively small (less than 10 gallons) as a deep sand bed will occupy too much spcae and if not deep enough it will not give much of a benefit.
Regardless of size I bout recommend some live rock or rock rubble so in addition to the macroalgae you can grow additional pods which will generate zooplankton and also will migrate to the main tank and provide additional food for filter feeders and fish.

 

[BlueSi4]

I'm going to be setting up my Sump soon, and i will go with Cheato and some rubble rock, since the space for the 'fuge isn't that big. As said before, a DSB is about 5-6", and if you have a 10G fuge, that would take up too much space.