refugiums time line?????

[jsl6v8]

I was hoping to get some suggestions on refugiums. I currently have a good 2 inch half mud half live aragonite sand bed, and I'll say it looks pretty cool for being sand. Can I just go out and buy chae and copeopods now or should I be waiting 6 months?? Its been set up for a good month 20 gal long tank standard cheap pos light

 

[Blown 346]

If the tank it is connected to is established and not cycling, go ahead and get your cheato. I would wait to purchase pods as you will get tons just with the cheato.

 

[jsl6v8]

what makes them pop up? Is this one of those god 6 days and the pod appear kind of things? I guess thats my main problem is I have no clue how the pods come to be.

 

[KozmoTKramer]

Dude you don't buy cocopods. Just buy some small live rock, build it up so that it inclines from where the water comes in, the incline of liverock should go all the way up to where the water drops to the return champer of the refugium. Also buy some algae from your LFS refugium.

Cocopods should be abundant in 3 months. Smally mysis will be abundent in 9 months. Large mysis will be abundent in about 18 months.

 

[jsl6v8]

what kind of algae are you talking about that I should buy from my LFS, also what sort of lighting should I be using, currently I just have a standard light on it, will different kinds of lights make things grow faster?

 

[Chad Vossen]

refuge light this is the light i use on my fuge.

copepods generaly show up in a tank when you add your live rock. you may even get other critters. i suggest you buy however much live rock you need, wait 3-6 months, then you should have an idea of what critters you have. at this point you can choose to purchase aditional pods such as mysis shrimp, mini starfish, bristle worms, amphipods or some other pod.

copepods dont just appear out of nowhere, they hitchhike on your live rock, livesand, or even on your coral.

my personal choice for macro algae is chaeto. calerpa works but can go sexual over night.

 

[zoomfish1]

I have the light Melev used to use over my fuge now, but I have a 24" retrofit PC I was thinking about installing over the fuge.

Would the new light he recommends be better than the PC? I think the PC is 2x55w. 1 daylight and 1 actinic.