Is a tiny refugium worth doing?

[Scooter21]

I'm working on building a sump for my 36 gallon tank. It's going to fit under 1 side of the stand. The whole sump is going to be 10x12. I think I'll have 4 5x6 chambers. I was thinking of making one of the chambers be a refugium with chaeto. Would a 5"x6" chamber be a waste of time and effort?

I feel like a refugium does more to the health of a tank than just nutrient export. Like a place for Copapods. Someone was telling me that if my goal was copapod breeding, I'd be better off filling the chamber with small rubble rock

 

[GoM_reefs]

I'd say go for it. Depending on what you grow out you'd be really surprised at how much nutrient export you can get out of macros. Beyond that, it's great for pods like you said.

Did you have a stocking list? Whenever I've had herbivores I tended to grow out a bit of macro to feed them, and to shake out in the DT every so often for pods.

 

[Saltyreef]

I'm working on building a sump for my 36 gallon tank. It's going to fit under 1 side of the stand. The whole sump is going to be 10x12. I think I'll have 4 5x6 chambers. I was thinking of making one of the chambers be a refugium with chaeto. Would a 5"x6" chamber be a waste of time and effort?

I feel like a refugium does more to the health of a tank than just nutrient export. Like a place for Copapods. Someone was telling me that if my goal was copapod breeding, I'd be better off filling the chamber with small rubble rock

From a tank health standpoint i always favor a refugium. As long as the chaeto is growing and not bottoming out nutrients (sometimes an issue with larger fuges) then you should be fine.

As far as the pods go....if you just want to add an extra area for them, the rubble on bottom with chaeto could be a good compramise.

 

[Scooter21]

I'd say go for it. Depending on what you grow out you'd be really surprised at how much nutrient export you can get out of macros. Beyond that, it's great for pods like you said.

Did you have a stocking list? Whenever I've had herbivores I tended to grow out a bit of macro to feed them, and to shake out in the DT every so often for pods.

The tank is already up and running. I'm was already planning to empty the tank to redo the rockscape, I figured I'd take it out and drill it while I'm doing that



Current inhabitants:

2 clownfish
1 bicolor blenny
3 pajama cardinal
1 doamon watchman goby
1 firefish
1 cleaner shrimp
2 Peppermint shrimp
1 emerald crab
2 hermits
1 Nasarius snail
1 bumblebee snail
2 cerith snails
2 trochus snails

 

[Subsea]

You don’t need lights to have a pod refugium. Biofilm grows in the dark and is a home to pods. After 20 years of algae refugiums, 5 years ago I switched to cryptic refugiums to bring cryptic sponges into third segment of biochemistry in reef tank: algae, bacteria and sponges.

Just add live rock rubble to your sump. Also, allow detritus to collect and feed the microbial loop. See what @Paul B says about MULM:

"Mulm" in a reef tank

I think one of the most important, and least understood or mentioned things in a reef tank is "mulm". That stuff that grows in the dark portions of a tank if it is set up long enough. "Mulm" is a combination of algae, sponges, bacteria, pods, worms, detritus, poop and any thing else that can be p...

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