What do you keep in your refuge?

[dirty_south87]

I have put my 2 urchins in my refuge due to them harming a couple of my smaller fishes at night. Just wondering what all anyone puts in their refuge?

 

[lapin]

My sump/ fuge is not lit. It has a few sponges I put in a basket with some rock. 6 years later they are still there along with a bizillion tube worms and a lot of green bacterial growth like you might see in the deep ocean bottom.

 

[dirty_south87]

My sump/ fuge is not lit. It has a few sponges I put in a basket with some rock. 6 years later they are still there along with a bizillion tube worms and a lot of green bacterial growth like you might see in the deep ocean bottom.

I have some rocks and feather duster in mine with a light. I think I have tube worms popping up in mine as well

 

[flashsmith]

Pom Pom macro algae. Hermits,various snails and a peppermint shrimp. And it doubles as an occasional correctional facility for bad citizens.

 

[dirty_south87]

Pom Pom macro algae. Hermits,various snails and a peppermint shrimp. And it doubles as an occasional correctional facility for bad citizens.

Is there benefits to keeping hermits and snails in their outside algae control?

 

[flashsmith]

Is there benefits to keeping hermits and snails in their outside algae control?

They definitely help with algae growing from the fuge light and the hermits do good job of detritus cleanup that my socks miss. The peppermint I have in there to get any aiptasia that pop up. Definitely plenty for them to eat down there.

 

[shakacuz]

chaeto, astrea, trochus, cerith, and blue legged hermit crabs are in my sump. i have a small red royal urchin in there too. once it’s big enough i’ll put it in my DT.

 

[dirty_south87]

They definitely help with algae growing from the fuge light and the hermits do good job of detritus cleanup that my socks miss. The peppermint I have in there to get any aiptasia that pop up. Definitely plenty for them to eat down there.

Would any of those hurt the population of copepods?

 

[flashsmith]

Nope

 

[dirty_south87]

chaeto, astrea, trochus, cerith, and blue legged hermit crabs are in my sump. i have a small red royal urchin in there too. once it’s big enough i’ll put it in my DT.

I have a rock urchin and a pincushion urchin living in mine. At night they would not leave my small fishes alone. I believe the pincushion is the culprit of killing one

 

[shakacuz]

I have a rock urchin and a pincushion urchin living in mine. At night they would not leave my small fishes alone. I believe the pincushion is the culprit of killing one

mine is a tuxedo.

 

[dirty_south87]

mine is a tuxedo.

I don’t think I’ve seen those, to my knowledge at least. My lfs only carry a select few

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I have live sand, rock rubble, chaeto, and tons of copepods.

 

[dirty_south87]

I have live sand, rock rubble, chaeto, and tons of copepods.

Next weekend I’m gonna dump a bottle of copepods in mine to see if I can go that route instead of dumping a bottle a week in my display

 

[KStatefan]

I have a rock, some bio media and a few snails.

 

[dirty_south87]

I have a rock, some bio media and a few snails.

I have considered putting snails in mine

 

[Tcook]

I have rock, sand, chaeto, astrea and nassarius snails, mushrooms, and 2 maximas.

 

[dirty_south87]

I have rock, sand, chaeto, astrea and nassarius snails, mushrooms, and 2 maximas.

I’ve seen the sand a few times. What are the benefits of using it?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I have mine so I can seed new aquarium if needed, a place for all of the my little copepods and other critters to hang out. It's also additional home for bacteria

 

[Tcook]

I’ve seen the sand a few times. What are the benefits of using it?

Home for the nassarius while they eat the detritus. Makes it look nicer like a mini reef. It only 1" thick.