refugium ideas and questions

[dutchman]

Okay right know im putting togetheir the money to purchase a 20L tank. This is my idea, seperate the tank into one 5 gallon section and one 15 gallon sections using a piece a glass. Drill many 1/4 inch holes in the glass. Put a weak powerhead in the 5 gallon pointing towards the 15 gallon section and a strong powerhead in the 15 gallon section pointing towards the 5 gallon section. The 5 gallon section will be a refugium.

 

here are my questions

 

1. what types of algae are the best to keep in a refugium

(Im considering either cactus of maidens hair algae)

 

2. can i keep something besides rock, sand, algae in the refugium that will not completly destroy the pod populations

 

here are some ideas (I would just keep 1 of these suggestions)

 

1 a pair of peppermint shrimp (theyll breed to make food)

2. coral banded shrimp

3. red dwarf lobster

4. orange purple spiny lobster

5. saron shrimp

6. anemone hermit crab

7. blue tuxedo urchin

8. feather duster

9. flame scallop

10. camel shrimp (breed to make food)

11. chocolate chip starfish

12. decorater crab

 

also dont recommend snails because i hate them

[dutchman]

anybody?

[joh]

I have feather duster (1), hermit crabs (2), green stripe shroom (1), hairy shroom (2) and 2 big aptacia (spell?) and bunch of small one that I take out of my tank every once in while (but no plan to take the big one out).

 

Ha, no I am not crazy of putting the anemoni in there, it's look cool to me, as long as I can control it (and they just in the sand with some plastic grill blocking them from spread through the tank)... not recommended to anyone though..

 

I am thinking about putting some shrimp in, as well as urchin, but I don't know if my tank is big enough so I haven't put any in there.

 

I think as long as they don't eat ton of pods, it should be find to put in, but remember, alge algae growing real fast and will take most of water space for anything to moving around (and I don't trim my till there are real tight (like 2-3 weeks).

 

So, big moving stuff may be not good idea, depending on how much sand and stuff you have in there too, i have my sand bed pretty deep (and now can't really take any out).

[anthony812]

YES list: 1, 3 , 4, 6, 8.

 

NO list: 2, 5, 7, 11.

 

HELL NO list: 9, 10, 12

 

[dutchman]

thank you for telling me exactly what i wanted to know

[The Unit]

y not just buy a tank divider for about 5 bucks... it already has about a thousand little whole in it.......

[printerdown01]

The set-up will work perfectly! One suggestion: you might consider only using one powerhead... Drill 2 or 3 holes (I say 3 because you might want to drill one on the top and one on the bottom to help with theroclines (temp differences between the top and bottom of your tank) this can also be avoided by adding an additional heater to your refugium... The 1 powerhead would be used to push water into the fuge, the hole in the fuge would then automatically be turned into a second powerhead. Ok: if you push 5 gallons/hr into the fuge, the exit hole would then push 5 gallons/hr out of the fuge... the water level on the fuge and tank side WILL remain equal (trust me on this one!). In terms of putting critters in your fuge: I'm cool with adding dusters and some shrimp! In fact you will find that peppermint shimp and cleaner (not coralbanded cleaners!) will make EXELLENT additions to your fuge!!! Some public aquariums actually use tanks filled with shrimp pairs to boost the natural food population in the main show tanks!! If you think rabits produce a lot of babies you haven't seen ANYTHING like a shrimp!!

*ooh, major oversite! Don't drill a hole in the bottom of the fuge! Perhaps top and midway holes? Here is why: fuges are great ditritus traps - and this is a good thing! Your pods and plants will use the ditritus as food to boost their populations, not to mention that it looks bad in your main tank anyway. Other notes: you might want to consider using a black peice of plastic to seperate your tank and fuge. This way you can leave the lights on 24/7 or alternate the the day/night cycle between your main tank and your fuge. -this will keep algae from releasing a ton of spores at once (going "A-sexual" on you, and poluting the tank)... You plan sounds great!! oh and I too like cactus calurupa (spelling)... If you live in the SD area I would be more than happy to give you some when I get down there!!