What's in the refugium?

[rerr001]

Setting up a refugium in my sump, 30g sump 75g DT. Refugium will be holding chaeto, should I also include sand and rubble or just chaeto and rubble? How do you have yours and why? Thanks for your opinion.

 

[barry_keith]

Seachem matrix, not the carbon, and macro algae.

 

[degibson84]

most people use rubble but i like larger pieces of rock so it doesn't trap any detritus. not sure wbout the post above but i would just add cheato, sand and large rock

 

[reeftivo]

1 liter of matrix in a mesh bag and reactor with chemipure works for me.

I used to run LR rubble on top of fiji mud and a chaeto ball and it worked well, but didn't care for the mass of red algae I would always get running 6500K grow lights at night. I opted for an equipment only sump with the exception of the matrix and perams are stable with much less maintenance for me. If you want an abundance of pods then a substrate (sand/mud/rubble etc.) would be best, as long as it's not a detritus sink.

 

[rerr001]

reeftivo, that is exactly what I have....sand, rubble, small ball of chaeto, 6500k grow light and I'm getting the red algae in the refugium. Tanks been running for about for months. How do i get rid of the red algae? Is it the wrong bulb?

 

[reeftivo]

whats you light cycle over the fuge at night?

 

[reeftivo]

reeftivo, that is exactly what I have....sand, rubble, small ball of chaeto, 6500k grow light and I'm getting the red algae in the refugium. Tanks been running for about for months. How do i get rid of the red algae? Is it the wrong bulb?

There's no real easy fix for red slime IME. A few things I tried which helped a little are;

cutting the light cycle at night over the fuge

change to a more actinic bulb at around 420/460 (chaeto suffers though but doesn't completely die)

increase flow via small powerhead in the fuge chamber to keep things stirred up. drawback is it may blow stuff everywhere-(hydor pico pump is nice and small)


As long as it's in the fuge and you don't see any effects in the DT you shouldn't stress too much. If you eventually decide you've had enough of the red algae and want to remove the sand, you should do it in small increments because most likely it will be loaded with microfuana and if you remove it all at once you can get a pretty big ammonia spike.

 

[williewilliams]

BRS has a rubble bag I bought that is cheap and 15 lbs worth. From fist size to marble sized pieces. That plus macro. the rubble needs curing however. I didn't for long enough and phosphates spiked. Also a started pack of pods helps get it started.
When I had some cyano forming I turned up the flow, changed my GFO and it went away in a week.

 

[michaellee64]

My Refugium is a 55G plumbed into my main system with 2" crushed coral and Chaeto. I have 2- 27 watt 5100K spiral compact fluorescent bulbs hanging above it on a 14 hour lighting cycle opposite of my Display Tanks. I have about 800 gallons an hour flowing through it. It is completely full of Chaeto, Pods, and mysid shrimp. I take some out about once a month and by the end of the month it is completely full again. My System is approximately 375 gallons between all of my tanks and I have undetectable N03!