When to plant refuge on a new tank?

[Scyphozoan]

Hi I will be getting a new 90g soon and want to add a planted refugium.As this is a new set up and I don't plan on adding any coral or fish for about 5 or 6 months,I'm not sure when to add the
macroalgea.
I plan on a DSB and LR for the main tank and about 2" of sand and a small amount of LR in the refuge.(I don't know if the LR in the refuge will do any good,but I figured it would'nt hurt).
After letting it cycle I will feed phyto for the critters and add snails
when the dino's and microalgea show up.Will this be a good time to plant the refuge? Or should I wait untill I add coral?Or should I
wait untill I add fish?
I plan on adding coral before fish,so what I feed will depend on the coral.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Greg

 

[kmk2307]

Hey Greg,

Here is what I did: I put sand (dry) in my tank and plumbed my fuge into the system and let the sand settle before running the main pump. I added a few cups of sand from other tanks to get the sand in the main tank seeded w/ bacteria so it would clump together. Then I started running my fuge and added live rock rubble to it (the only substrate I have in there) and put ina few strands of caulerpa and a hunk of chaetomorpha. Then I added my LR and cured it in the tank. This caused a huge jump in the rate that the macroalgae grew. I would put the algae in the fuge asap so you can use it to help cycle your LR.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[piercho]

Try to establish exportable algaes as early as possible. Having refugia macroalgaes from the get-go will help dampen the intitial bounce of nutrients comming off the rock. Better to lock up those nutrients in something you can cotrol rather than letting nuisance algaes like Bryopsis make use of it.

 

[Scyphozoan]

Thanks guy's,it makes sense to have the macro in place before nuisance algaes take hold.
I was thinking of doing water changes while the rock cycles to see if that would help preserve some of the life on the rocks(time isnt a problem)but by planting right away, maybe the macro will serve the same purpose.Did you guy's notice a difference?
Also did the macro die back after the tank was cycled?
Thanks
Greg

 

[kmk2307]

Greg,

I would still do a water change to keep the ammonia level reasonable while curing the rock but the algae should be pretty helpful. I guess if you can stand it the best thing to do is just be patient and let your tank get good and stable and get your algae growing before adding the LR and you will be able to preserve a lot of live on it.

Kevin

 

[beaslbob]

I agree with establishing the plant life at the earliest possible time. My recommendation an any aquarium is to get the plant life thriving and then do the rest.

 

[Scyphozoan]

Thanks for the advice everyone.