AIO Refugium Benefits

[esolo16]

Hi all,

I recently had to move states and restart my IM Fusion 20. Everything is going well and settling, however my new apartment is very well insulated and my PH is low (7.8 - 8.0). The levels are still in the acceptable range, so I am not too worried about it; however I am wondering about the benefits of adding a refugium using one of my custom caddies. I am not concerned about reducing Ns and Ps, but more for stabilizing/raising PH (opening a window or door is not a feasible option for me). Would a refugium that small have any actual effect on my PH or oxygen levels?

Also, if I was to set up a refugium, does anyone have any experience removing the back cover of the IM tanks? Since mine is already setup, it may be hard for me to get behind the tank and remove it. The other option I am exploring is to put a small refugium light above the custom caddy (I was looking at the Kessil 150P the other day), but I would be worried about the light spillage into the tank.

Thanks for the help!

 

[coreysreef123]

Following along. I have an IM Fusion 40 and was wondering the same. I am also curious because I want to keep a mandarin, but want to make sure my pods have somewhere safe to reproduce.

To add on to your questions, Would a refugium this small be good enough to sustain a healthy enough pod population for a mandarin in my tank?

 

[esolo16]

I would like to know that too. Even though I am not planning on getting a Mandarin, I would like to know if a refugium this size is an effective place for pods.

 

[esolo16]

Even though I did not receive any feedback here, I still went ahead and ordered the IM LED refugium light and prepped the back of my tank for it (although that was kind of a pain since the tank is set up). I am going to set the light on reverse schedule of my main lights and am monitoring PH with an Apex controller. I will post the effects it has on PH for anyone else that may be interested. The light arrives today so I should have an update soon.

 

[esolo16]

Sharing my results in case anyone is interested after having the refugium for about two weeks. The first few days, I saw a slight effect on my pH averaging around a .05 increase overall. What was surprising to me was that this increased both my high and low values, so did not really limit my daily/nightly swing. Following that, I left town for work for four days. I work from home so me not being in my small apartment adding CO2 to the air usually results in higher pH. With that in mind, I did see an increase of about .1 from my usual pH from when I am out of town.

Now after being home for the past two days, my pH is continuing to slowly increase. Today it peaked at 8.25 and had a low last night of 7.95. I have never had my pH rise above 8.2 and had even set my Apex to send me an alarm if it ever got that high. I have not made any other changes to my tank recently, so I believe the refugium is responsible for my increased values. What is a little disconcerting to me is the fact that my swing everyday is now around .3, as I thought one of the main benefits of having a refugium on a reverse light cycle was to limit this swing.

I just order a Cad Lights Nano skimmer that I will be customizing to fit into my tank in the next couple of weeks, so I am interested as to how it will effect my pH as well.

 

[Reefing4eva]

My friend had a small CPR aqua fuge with the built in skimmer (hang on back) refugium set up on his nuvo 20 and loved it.

 

[esolo16]

Another update:

My ph began to settle. I believe the increase in pH I was seeing previously may have been attributed to my alk rising slightly. Now that I have leveled it out, the refugium only seems to slightly affect my pH. My range before was 7.8-8.0. Now, it is around 7.9 - 8.05. So overall, I say it is improvement.

One surprise I am seeing is, what I consider, a crazy amount of growth from the chaeto. I have always measured between 0.00 and 0.03 ppm in phosphates using a Hanna ULR checker, so I did not think the chaeto would grow too quickly. But the growth has been quite incredible. I had a very slight algae problem before the refugium, which has now disappeared as well. I know people say you cannot rely on a refugium this size lowering phosphates or nitrates, but judging by the amount of chaeto I am removing I would think its definitely is having an effect.

 

[Joe Hansen]

Solid logic. Thanks for sticking with the feed. I'm going to be adding a refugium to my new waterbox 40.2 AIO, I'll also have a hydor skimmer as well.