Refugium ?

[ginrin]

I have a refugium set-up about a month ago.Water is fed by a small powerhead after phosphate reactor and skimmer. I have cheato and LR and few pieces of Xenia. Lighting is T5 42w on at 5pm off at 9am. I have lots of pods in main tank but hardly any in the refuge. How do I get more pods to grow? Thanks in advance for all replies.BTW the fuge is 40g

 

[capncapo]

You might want to pump some raw water direct from your tank into your fuge instead of the "processed" water from the skimmer and reactor.

 

[rustybucket145]

the water right now entering your fuge is super clean. Actually cleaner than water in your tank. It should be the exact opposite. The water in your fuge should be 'dirty'(ie, pre-skimmer/reactor...etc.) Basically right now there's nothing of substance making it to your fuge to feed the pods or chaeto.

 

[WaterKeeper]

And the skimmer especially will remove pods in large numbers. You can also catch pods from the main tank after lights out and move them to the fuge.

 

[nxichau]

Just give it some time. Pods from your main tank will eventually get sucked into your refugium. Or you could buy some pods at your LFS or online and just dump them into your refugium. Also, I found that feeding phytoplankton/rotifers really boosts your pod population.

 

[scoots]

Also helpful to have several piles of rubble as little pod retreats, but I agree they are all being removed before they get there. Need to redo the order of things.