When to plant refugium on new tank

[JamMcd]

I have a new tank cycling, and it's been about 6 years since I have cycled a tank. This is the first one to have a refugium. When can I add Chaetomorpha to the refugium. Can I do this before the cycle is over? I would think this would aid in breaking the cycle faster. Or, do I need to wait.

 

[cmashman]

Ditto. My tank is <1 month old and I'd like to know the answer to this.

 

[hmott]

Don't know the correct answer, but I added macro's to mine after about two weeks and everything is doing great. I believe its harder to add them later when you have no nutrients than when you have lots, depending on the macro. I wouldn't add halimeda or any macro that needs low ammonia, nitrite, nitrate to survive, but the cheato and caulerpa's should do fine.

 

[cmashman]

I got a contact who is hooking me up with chaeto on Friday, so here I go into the world of macro....

 

[mellen]

Ditto hmott - no calcerous or stony algaes at first, but fleshy macros are great at mitigating extreme ammonia spikes in a new tank - but you need a goodly amount of it, and may need to do water changes anyway, 'cause REALLY bad spikes can "burn" the algae just like putting too much fertilizer on a lawn all at once...

 

[JamMcd]

I added plenty of chaeto into my sump/refugium last weekend. It's doing fine so far. The person who gave me the extra chaeto told me just to drop it in the water, so that's what I did.