Does anyone use a refugium?

[AydenLincoln]

I have a 20 gallon nano tank and I’ve been looking into a hang on refugium/HOB to create more pristine/higher water quality as opposed to dosing chemicals due to my starfish and to get rid of some of the algae and lower my phosphates/nitrates. Does anyone have one on a nano or AIO tank? Or just in general…tips and best practices?

 

[eqbal9947]

I'm incredibly new so don't take my word as bible but I'm using my refugium because I used waaaay too much reef roids and my phosphate was OVER 2.5PPM.
It was steadily decreasing about 0.10PPM per day when I had my fuge light on 24/7 (with GFO and Phosguard)
When i thought that the phosphate was steadily going down, I turned off my fuge light during the day and the steady decrease went from like .010ppm per day to like 0.2 ppm per day.
So works very well IMO

 

[SchrutesReefs]

I used the InTank fuge on my Nuvo 20. Wasn’t a fan, seemed to create more problems than it solved. Maybe it was user error though.

 

[ReefnFamilyMan]

I have a 20 gallon nano tank and I’ve been looking into a hang on refugium to create more pristine/higher water quality as opposed to dosing chemicals due to my starfish and to get rid of some of the algae and lower my phosphates/nitrates. Does anyone have one on a nano or AIO tank? Or just in general…tips and best practices?

I haven't seen many hob's on a AIO tank so I say go for it. Which one do you have in mind? They are definitely beneficial if ran properly.

 

[areefer01]

I have a 20 gallon nano tank and I’ve been looking into a hang on refugium to create more pristine/higher water quality

I believe you are going to get conflicting answers here including from me but to be honest you may be mixing up your terms. A refugium is a refuge. A place for micro fauna and small animals to live without fear of being eaten. Pods, small bits of macro algae, corals, and what not. In theory they make their way from there to the display and then they become food source provided it is designed for migration between the two. If that makes sense. In this sense of the term and use you will not get pristine or higher clarity of water.

On the other hand you could use the same HOB container and put in some macro algae that with proper lighting can grow and export nutrients. It will also allow some area for pods and mini starts potentially. Since its primary role is nutrient export a high quality macro algae should be used. Again since we are talking about 20 gallons I'm not sure this is going to add clarity to your display.

In either case not sure this is going to do what you want. Macro algae removes nutrients when properly grown and harvested. Export of nutrients does yield water quality so maybe I'm tripping up on the pristine part.

 

[Dkmoo]

The stands of many 20G can fit a 10G petco tank in it. Thats what I did when I had my 20G

Bought a few pieces of glass from home depot and cut them into the right size then silicone (using reef silicone) them in as baffles.

Glass cutting may sound daunting but is quite easy once you do it. You can youtube how.

Whole thing cost me around 30-40 dollars and IMO is a lot better than a HOB simply due to the increased volume and flexibility to make it with the right chamber size for what you need

 

[AydenLincoln]

I haven't seen many hob's on a AIO tank so I say go for it. Which one do you have in mind? They are definitely beneficial if ran properly.

I believe you are going to get conflicting answers here including from me but to be honest you may be mixing up your terms. A refugium is a refuge. A place for micro fauna and small animals to live without fear of being eaten. Pods, small bits of macro algae, corals, and what not. In theory they make their way from there to the display and then they become food source provided it is designed for migration between the two. If that makes sense. In this sense of the term and use you will not get pristine or higher clarity of water.

On the other hand you could use the same HOB container and put in some macro algae that with proper lighting can grow and export nutrients. It will also allow some area for pods and mini starts potentially. Since its primary role is nutrient export a high quality macro algae should be used. Again since we are talking about 20 gallons I'm not sure this is going to add clarity to your display.

In either case not sure this is going to do what you want. Macro algae removes nutrients when properly grown and harvested. Export of nutrients does yield water quality so maybe I'm tripping up on the pristine part.

Oh yes an HOB.

 

[AydenLincoln]

The stands of many 20G can fit a 10G petco tank in it. Thats what I did when I had my 20G

Bought a few pieces of glass from home depot and cut them into the right size then silicone (using reef silicone) them in as baffles.

Glass cutting may sound daunting but is quite easy once you do it. You can youtube how.

Whole thing cost me around 30-40 dollars and IMO is a lot better than a HOB simply due to the increased volume and flexibility to make it with the right chamber size for what you need

I have one already!

 

[SPS2020]

I forgot which HOB model I had, but it was not a worthwhile effort, IMO. They are just too small for the ROI.

Update: This is the model I had. However, I had it hanging off of my sump (at the time) which had no room for a refugium. I had a Kessel H80 Tuna lighting it.

AquaFuge2