display refugium questions

[fishlover1478]

I have a bunch of questions

so I really don't want a skimmer because of skimmate
so what i want to do is replace my 30 gallon sump with a 40b display refugium
that has filter feeding worms, photosynthetic sponges(idk how hard these are), macroalgae, clams?(i know they need strong light/flow) a couple Brightwell xport bricks(5-10), sand, live rock?(or normal moani rock)

so the questions are

.what lighting should I use i'm looking at 2 kessil h80?(which one the reef, freshwater, or normal refugium)

.should I add a powerhead for the or will the water coming from the tank be okay?(its a 75 gallon with a 1 inch durso drain)

.anything mobile I could add that wouldn't increase the by a lot bioload(preferably something that won't eat pods I want a pair of biota spotted mandarin)?

.will i need to feed the refugium or will "stuff"(food, deitrus, poop) from the display be fine

thanks for the help

edit: forgot to mention there will be a piece of glass maybe 14inchs tall separating the refugium and return

 

[fishlover1478]

#reefsquad

 

[ThePurple12]

I'd say any of those lights would work. For a display refugium, the freshwater light would look the best due to the white light spectrum it provides, which is the spectrum macroalgae looks the best and most natural in.

FWIW, I'm just using $10 100w LED bulbs from Walmart. They work great for macroalgae, but I have no idea about clams.

You don't need a powerhead.

Mobile that doesn't eat pods is a tough one. Pretty much all fish eat pods (well, maybe not so much tangs, but they're a no go in a 40 g), but fish like clowns and damsels aren't voracious pod eaters.

For food, you can add phytoplankton or spirulina powder to feed the pods, which will really boost their population.

 

[ReefEco]

If your aiming to get clams, 2 H80's might not be enough light - not sure - you might have to mount them pretty close to the water. If this is in fact a display fuge, I'd go with the tuna blue H80 simply because your clams and other colorful critters will look much better. #thepurple12 is right though that the tuna sun h80 will be much whiter and macro algae will look greener and more natural. Your clams and any other corals you put down there (let's face it, you WILL put corals down there at some point! : ) will look better with the tuna blues. Check out IPSF.com (Indo Pacific Sea Farms) for some great critter kits for the fuge, as well as algeas. Any young clams may need phytoplankton initially, which will boost your pod population in the fuge as well. You could start with just the tank flow, but you'll probably quickly see where all the detritus settles with only one flow pattern, so another small powerhead might be useful. Or, having all the detritus in one place to siphon out is advantageous to some....

 

[fishlover1478]

I'd say any of those lights would work. For a display refugium, the freshwater light would look the best due to the white light spectrum it provides, which is the spectrum macroalgae looks the best and most natural in.

FWIW, I'm just using $10 100w LED bulbs from Walmart. They work great for macroalgae, but I have no idea about clams.

You don't need a powerhead.

Mobile that doesn't eat pods is a tough one. Pretty much all fish eat pods (well, maybe not so much tangs, but they're a no go in a 40 g), but fish like clowns and damsels aren't voracious pod eaters.

For food, you can add phytoplankton or spirulina powder to feed the pods, which will really boost their population.

okay so I will probably go with a pair of clowns then

for the light could I do one brighter reef light for the clam(s) and the 100w Walmart leds on the side so i could have 2-3 clams as a centerpiece in the middle and macros and other inverts around the clam

the reason I think I need a powerhead is for the clam(s)

If your aiming to get clams, 2 H80's might not be enough light - not sure - you might have to mount them pretty close to the water. If this is in fact a display fuge, I'd go with the tuna blue H80 simply because your clams and other colorful critters will look much better. #thepurple12 is right though that the tuna sun h80 will be much whiter and macro algae will look greener and more natural. Your clams and any other corals you put down there (let's face it, you WILL put corals down there at some point! : ) will look better with the tuna blues. Check out IPSF.com (Indo Pacific Sea Farms) for some great critter kits for the fuge, as well as algeas. Any young clams may need phytoplankton initially, which will boost your pod population in the fuge as well. You could start with just the tank flow, but you'll probably quickly see where all the detritus settles with only one flow pattern, so another small powerhead might be useful. Or, having all the detritus in one place to siphon out is advantageous to some....

how would i end up with one spot for detritus would I need to do something or will it just happen on it own?

 

[ReefEco]

how would i end up with one spot for detritus would I need to do something or will it just happen on it own?

Usually if there is a static, single flow pattern - and if that flow is not enough to keep everything in suspension, there will be a dead spot or two where there is little or less flow - that is where the detritus will accumulate. Harder to see with sand and if you have critters who will process/eat it - much easier to see in a bare bottom system...

I'm sure you could get away with many different lighting systems that would work - if you really want it to be a "display" fuge that looks nice, I'd go with lighting that would be homogenous - i.e. that would look good throughout the tank. It would look odd to my eye at least to have one side of the tank be one light color temperature for macro algea, and the other side of the tank be more blue for clams/corals. But, that is just me being subjective - if that doesn't bother you, that's cool.

 

[fishlover1478]

what would macros look like under reef lighting?

 

[ReefEco]

Google image search for freshwater planted tanks - that is the look you'll get with whiter lighting. Fuge with regular reef lighting (not purple/red fuge lighting) will still look good, but skew more toward blue - so green macros will be less bright green for instance. What you like better is pretty subjective, if you don't necessarily care about marginally better growth in algae using more white lighting (tuna sun) vs. reef lighting (tuna blue). A little less growth might actually be better for a display fuge, rather than one just trying to export nutrients and grow macro as quickly as possible...

 

[piranhaman00]

I use a finnex freshwater light and T5 bulbs.

 

[fishlover1478]

Google image search for freshwater planted tanks - that is the look you'll get with whiter lighting. Fuge with regular reef lighting (not purple/red fuge lighting) will still look good, but skew more toward blue - so green macros will be less bright green for instance. What you like better is pretty subjective, if you don't necessarily care about marginally better growth in algae using more white lighting (tuna sun) vs. reef lighting (tuna blue). A little less growth might actually be better for a display fuge, rather than one just trying to export nutrients and grow macro as quickly as possible...

I am trying to export nutrients just not necessarily through macros. i will probably run a tunze mar for some additional nutrient export and to help with ph at night
where can i find pictures of macros under reef lighting?

 

[Subsea]

I am trying to export nutrients just not necessarily through macros. i will probably run a tunze mar for some additional nutrient export and to help with ph at night
where can i find pictures of macros under reef lighting?

when your tanks are mature, exporting nutrients is of less importance because as things grow, they use up nutrients (nutrient recycling). If nutrient export is important, than frag and cell coral, instead of

Under blue reef lighting: greens, yellows, and reds are washed out. I run 10K lighting on all of my mixed gardens