What do I really need for a refugium

[Joshua Agostoni]

So I'm setting up a refugium and I was going to go with the medium starter pack from algae barn. However it a 150 and I'm wondering if I can set one up for less. I already have my kessil light.

Now I know I need cheato, pods, and some type of live or nonlive rock..

Can any one with successful refugium tell me exactly what they have in it. I'm trying to stay away from miracle mud and sand

 

[Crabs McJones]

So I'm setting up a refugium and I was going to go with the medium starter pack from algae barn. However it a 150 and I'm wondering if I can set one up for less. I already have my kessil light.

Now I know I need cheato, pods, and some type of live or nonlive rock..

Can any one with successful refugium tell me exactly what they have in it. I'm trying to stay away from miracle mud and sand

I have literally a bare refugium. Just a ball of chaeto and my kessil light. I was able to get my chaeto to tumble so I don't put rock or sand or anything in the fuge chamber for it to get caught on.

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

I kinda wanted to put pods in it as well

 

[mtraylor]

In your refugium. I would suggest the following:

1. Live sand
-buy a bag of live sand and then seed one cup of live sand from a friend. You do not need to bother to buy pods and all that stuff. The free seed of sand will do it for you. $20
2. Live Rock Rubble.
-buy yourself some nice live rock rubble from LFS. If will have pods and stuff you need as well. $20
3. Get a ball of chaeto for your refuge. $5 or free if you have a buddy.

Not Needed but allot of people purchase:
Fiji Mud to mix in sand.

 

[B's Reef]

I have a pretty successful refugium, its been running for a year now. All I had for the longest time in it was chaeto. Over the last few months I have added a maxi jet pump to get more flow to the chaeto and began adding marine pure spheres. Id go with marine pure over live rock. I would suggest seeding it once you get up and running, with pods.

Refugiums are a pretty simple, yet highly effective component in a reef tank.

 

[NS Mike D]

lets take a step back. what do you want your refugium to accomplish? that would help decide what you NEED and what you define as SUCCESSFUL

One of my favorite videos is Julien Sprung's MACNA presentation on the subject. fwiw i have two, a classic cheato well lit pods growing with some rubble rock to be nutrient export and pods source for my madarin. set up a second unlit rubble rock for cryptic sponges, filter feeds and pods with a ats

i'll add a third, a small diy acrylic box with holes to house some cheato and pods inside the tank for the madarin since he faces a lot of competition for the pods that make it into the tank. my first fuge was set up simply because that is what we do - which isn't a bad thing.

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

I want it to get rid of nitrate and phosphate to help lower the amount of water changes needed

 

[NS Mike D]

I want it to get rid of nitrate and phosphate to help lower the amount of water changes needed

what are your current nitrate and phosphate numbers.

chaeto and a good light (kessil being a very good light) should uptake them and you harvest to remove. KISS, you can always add other stuff later. pods should naturally show up as a side benefit.

sand beds, mud, rubble rocks etc all have good purposes but also come with their own headaches.

just my two cents

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

I normally water change when my nitrate hits 20ppm and I don't have a phosphate checker.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I kinda wanted to put pods in it as well

Your pods will take refuge in your chaeto

 

[NS Mike D]

I normally water change when my nitrate hits 20ppm and I don't have a phosphate checker.

if you are doing 10% water changes, theoretically you would only reduce your nitrates to 18ppm. While I don't know what 20ppm means in terms of frequency, keep in mind water changes also replace compounds and elements that are used up. There is a theory that more frequent less volume minimizes water chemistry swings.

IMO, phosphates are one of the trickiest compounds that are usually the culprit of unwanted algae and cyano outbreaks. if you are seeking to export them with your fuge, seems logical to know what your target is. Get a good phosphate test kit. API, IMO, are not sensitive enough for the reef hobby.


acceptable levels of NO3 and PO4 is debatable. keep reading up on the subject. Randy Holmes Farley has very good articles on the subject and i think red sea has very good videos on the subject (and general coral nutrition) for that are easy to understand.


choose target numbers you think are best for your livestock, have a method to monitor (test) them, and and a method to maintain them at stable methods. a fuge with cheato and a water change program is a great start

 

[madweazl]

29 June 2016
I used a "refugium starter pack" with an additional 3lb of coral rubble/live sand (5lb total if I recall correctly). The graciliara died off pretty quickly and there were only a couple strands of chaeto in the starter pack (I dont remember ordering any but the current starter pack shows it's included). The caulerpa paspaloides, sertulariodes, and prolifera that were included all grew pretty well.

For at least six month, the prolifera was the dominant species. About six months later, the sertulariodes took off and never looked back. It snuffed out the paspaloids initially and then the prolifera (think there is still a small amount of this buried down there.

Today, the few strands of chaeto that made it's way into the starter pack have begun to take over and is snuffing out the sertulariodes. It has been really interesting to see how the refugium has evolved over the last 18 months. The lone bristleworm that I knew was in the tank, made its way into the refugium and I tossed a hermit crab in there about 10 months ago (was always climbing on to the monti cap and bugging it). The starter pack came with some pods and I added another bag of pods about six months later. Now it's a veritable metropolis of little creepy crawlies of all manner of life.

Edit to add: This refugium is just over 10% of the system volume (73-74g total volume and an eight gallon (actual volume) refugium. Nitrates are generally undetectable; I was dosing to 5ppm for about a month but didn't observe any difference so I stopped doing it. Phosphates range anywhere from 0 (Triton analysis) to .04 (also Triton analysis) with .02 being typical. I feed LRS Reef and Herbivore Frenzy very generously twice a day with occasional algae strips (Julian Sprungs Sea Veggies) for the rest of the hippy fish to graze on.

Flow is somewhere between 5-10x (was 10x but my overflow was too noisy so I cut it back a bit). I don't run filter socks and the refugium compartment is where all the detritus accumulates; I make no effort to remove it and find its presence to have no negative effects on the system.

 

[Livinlocal]

If you are trying to export nutrients, I would not put sand in your refugium because over time it will trap detritus and other organics. With a refugium, you want a ton of flow in there, and I wouldn’t worry about adding pods because they will come with the macroalgae. I have a 60g refugium ties into my main system that keeps my po4 at 0 and my nitrate at .25 . I have 2 mp10s, live rock, and 5 different types of macro algae. You will definitely want a variety of macroalgae because each one takes of a different nutrients at a different rate. Having a wide variety of macroalgae, will uptake a wide variety of nutrients, along with heavy metals as well.

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

I have the emerald trigger 26 sump I think my refugium area is about 2.5 to 5 gallons total. I don't expect my nitrates to go to zero but i do want them to go down.. my job makes it hard to do 10 percent water changes every couple days ANF it be honest I don't wanna have to do that.. I don't have coral so I'm hoping to get the refugium so my nitrates stay stable for about a month so every month I can do a 30gallon change.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Why are you concerned about nitrates if you don’t have coral.

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

Why are you concerned about nitrates if you don’t have coral.

Because nitrates can kill your fish.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Because nitrates can kill your fish.

The levels have to be extremely high. Extremely.

If you are looking for a lower maint method , carbon dosing or marine pure blocks would be a lot more effective.
I’m assuming you have a skimmer

 

[NS Mike D]

Because nitrates can kill your fish.

more so for fresh water. salt water fish have much higher levels of tolerance, like at the 300+ level . for salt water, nitrates are more of a concern for corals

 

[Joshua Agostoni]

Well ether way I would rather not have them if I can and bulk reef did a marine pure block text and found they really don't remove nitrates to kuch

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Some chato and a grow light should work for you then.