Refugium recommendations

[rerr001]

In the refugium, what do you have... sand/mud etc.. in the bottom with rubble and macro algae or without the sand/mud. What ya' got?

 

[ecordova14]

I'm running an eshopps sump fuge. I've got a few pieces of live rock, Fiji mud, and live sand layer on top of the mud. I tried putting mangroves in there but don't seem to be thriving. And I have chaeto. Pods are thriving like crazy and I have a couple of feather dusters in there. I just love looking at all the organisms in there.

 

[rerr001]

I have a 30 sump with a refugium section with LR, and chaeto, but it always get dirty with algae growing on the glass and on the baffle that overflow into the return section on the sump. I clean the section walls about once a month. Is this normal?

 

[ecordova14]

Yeah the light and low flow will cause the algae. Just clean it but try and clean it without spreading to your system. Maybe turn off ur return before cleaning

 

[rerr001]

yeah I shut everything down during a water change and give it a good cleaning.

 

[BR549]

I have a refugium section with lr. I don't worry about chaeto it will grow hair algae which does the same thing. I have it rigged to where I can pull the whole thing out every six months and scrub it out. I plan on adding a hob someday to help keep the pod population up when I clean the sump. Then I'll consider getting a mandarin. If your considering a sump/fuge I strongly recommend rigging it up where you can remove it. Makes life so much easier. You can maintain a nutrient rich tank without worrying about things getting away from you. Just my 2 cents.