Setting up a refugium

[danielp]

Hi again,
Since apperantly I have too much time on my hands I decided to add some natural filtration to my 50 gal cube reef.
I have few questions about refugiums (I have never had a refugium in any of my reef tanks).
1. Should I just toss some small pieces of LR, add some cheato, put light over it and I am good to go? Or should I worry about putting in some extra sand, mud etc.?
2. Somebody long time ago told me about putting small powerhead in the refugium to push water around??? But isn't it gonna mess with cheato small and pieces of LR moving it around too much.
3. Finally with refugium is there still need for po4 remover (I use Rowaphos in small reactor) and carbon in some media bag? Or should I just remove them, I am thinking if cheato is even gonna grow with Rowa in the sump at the same time?
Any tips, answers, advices more than welcome,
thanks

 

[DgenR8]

You should use a small power head, just to keep things from going stagnant. Pointed up to ripple the surface and increase gas exchange is a good idea. Live rock can't hurt, but it's not something you need to do.
Lighting is important for growing your macro algae, lower kelvin than what you use in your reef is preferable, somewhere around 6,500 K.
Every system is different, but if you have PO4 issues now, chances are that adding a refugium is not going to solve them, and you'll probably still need that reactor.

 

[danielp]

Thank you for your advices. Should I put some mud or sand on the bottom though?

 

[sonict72]

Thank you for your advices. Should I put some mud or sand on the bottom though?

Most people don't use sand or mud. Lighting is most important, especially if you are going to use Chaeto. I saw some report claiming that Chaeto grows best at 5000 lumens. I use Caulerpa (there are some definite downsides here), but its lighting requirement is less at 2500 lumens. Both will grow with less light, just not as well. In fact, I use a CFL 23W flood light and it does ok (1300 lumens). But I am thinking about adding another bulb...

 

[trackfast]

You can do your fuge with what you like. My fuge has LR, chaeto and a power head. The lighting I used a clamp light and cfl from the hardware store. The bulb is 5000k.

 

[tassod]

Just my experience but a refugium didnt work out so well for me. I had sand, LR and chaeto in there with a PAR 38 LED light on it and all it gave me was a big fuge full of algea and Cyano. I totally got rid of it and it actually cut my nitrates in half in the tank.

 

[DgenR8]

Thank you for your advices. Should I put some mud or sand on the bottom though?

I have a shallow sand in my 'fuge, but I'm not running a real refugium. By definition, a refugium is a refuge for pods and mysid shrimp, etc. to grow and prosper.
My refugium has Seahorses, Pipefish, Harlequin shrimp and Starfish to feed the Harleys. Horses and pipes spend their days hunting pods, so their numbers are not where they could be. Not a real refugium, but I like it

 

[TheGrog]

I have always had one in my system and if anything I would recommend is to NOT use grape caulerpa (or any caulerpa) in it. It will escape and reek havoc with your display. Had to do a total breakdown to get rid of it. Cheato or other very edible algae (like tang heaven) is better. I am going to repopulate mine with tang heaven so I have a constant supply for my tang of fresh algae.
My $0.02

 

[kahooch]

Anyone have their refugium above their DT so pods etc can flow into DT alive?

 

[3yellowtangs]

Bare bottom fuge is great. 2 comparments One high flow from overfow with rocks and one medium low flow with cheato

 

[JasonnosaJ]

I kinda thought that it would be great to do a deep sand bed in my new fuge. That deals well with nitrate, no?