YOU SUCCESSFUL with Refugium's ? EXPLAIN !

[cnseekatz]

I don't know if you're still interested in this topic or not, but I think my fuge is pretty "successful." I keep lots of xenia, kenya trees, and macroalgae in mine. There are no fish, shrimp, or crabs in the fuge. There are tons of brittle stars, stomatella snails, bristle worms, fan worms, etc., and of course, a ton of pods. My display is a mixed reef with a little bit of everything, and a very heavy bio-load.

 

My sump is 35 gallons, and has three chambers, beneath a 45g display. The fuge (about 10g) is in the middle section of my sump.

 

The overflow drains into the skimmer section, then runs through the fuge, then into the third chamber where the return pump is. I keep a Hydor Koralia Nano (240 gph) running in the first chamber, aimed from one corner to the other to increase circulation, which prevents crap from settling. My heater is in this chamber as well.

 

My fuge is in the second (middle) chamber. I've got about an inch of sand, and a bunch of live rock as a base. I also keep an Eheim Skim350 (80 gph) Surface Skimmer running in my fuge to increase circulation, and to prevent surface scum from accumulating. I've got a PAR38 bulb mounted about 6" above the surface of the water. I have pom-pom xenia, kenya trees, a couple of leather corals, and a bunch of halymenia (dragon's breath) and red grape calurpa. The goal here was to create a visually pleasing space full of macro algae, corals and inverts that could pull nutrients out of the water, as well as grow/protect pods as a food source for my display.

 

Water then flows into the third chamber where I currently have nothing other than my return pump. This space is reserved for media reactors if/when I need them. So far, I haven't had any reason to install one.

 

My tank is 6 months old, and is thriving. I have a lot of fish and corals in the display and I feed quite a bit. I've never had any problems with algae (knock on wood!). I hope this helps! Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.

 

[righttirefire]

I want to jump into this conversation.

Here is my sump refugium, it's the 20 tall my reef started in, but I "upgraded" to a 20 long. The first chamber is 4.5" inside dimension. It'll have a filter sock and my heater. The trap is .75" inside dimension. The refugium is about 13.75" and will have 40lbs of Bahamas oolite. About 4.75" DSB. I'll have some live rock and chaeto. It'll run reverse light cycle with a "reef" led. And double as a frag tank. The final chamber houses a ehiem 1250 with will pump about 200gph at the return nozzle and chemipure elite. This weekend it'll be wet. I'm going to separately cycle it. Once cycled i'll start water swaps between the 2 systems so it's not a shock when I tie the system in.

 

So is it successful? I hope so. My goal is to remove the 2 ac50s running on the back of my tank, my heater, and the hydro 240gph will be changed out for an mp10qd. One ac50 is refugium and a safe haven for pods. The other runs a filter sponge and chemipure elite. That's my plan from the research I've done. Is it right? Who knows. Every tank and system are different and people run successful tanks every way imaginable

[Chefcito83]

Main reason for mine was the canister filter became a headache. I do like the cleaner look that my tank has now , since my heater and skimmer are in the fuge. I also like the fact that I have extra water volume since my tank is only 29 gallons.(10gal fuge)

 

I run a thin layer of miricle mud , little love rock , and and cheateo in my tank.i usually run the lights at night for my fuge. I have noticed a lot of growth in my tank but that is due to many upgrades in the past months( such as lighting , ro/DI system, and fuge)

 

If I had to do it again I wouldn't hesitate to build another fuge.

[righttirefire]

I got mine cycling... really no cycle. Filter sponge out of my display tank. Live sand and rock. And half my Chaeto

 

[bpb]

1- Why did you want one ?

I wanted a refugium mainly as a pod factory. I know it's been hotly debated, and largely proven, that unless a refugium is close in size to the display, it's not going to be ultra effective at removing large levels of inorganic waste in the tank, so that was not my goal, though it is moderately effective.

 

2-DIY custom or did you buy a manufactured system and from where ?

I use the middle chamber of my sump, PM RS36

 

3-How you created one ?

Tossed in as wide of a variety of stuff as I could get my hands on!

 

4-What size display tank do you have ?

90 gallon standard

 

5- All in one sump/refugium or separate systems ?

All in one

 

6- Size of sump ?

PM R36 = 36 gallons.

 

7- Size of refugium, the other stages and baffles ?

Refugium is center chamber which is around 10 gallons: 14" x 14" x 9"

 

8- How old is yours ?

One year

 

9-What plants ?

Halimeda, Chaeto, Grape Caulerpa, Red Turf Algae, and more Coraline than I'm able to control

 

10- What critters are in yours ?

8" wide rock flower anemone, and unmeasurable amount (alot) of tube worms, feather duster, sponges, dozens of different snail types, chitons, bristleworms, amphipods, tunicates, several swarms of different sized copepods, maybe a few aiptasia. The biodiversity is too wide to list everything. I think the most effective use of a refugium is to make it as much of a low flow, high nutrient lagoon type setup as possible

 

10- Did you use mud, sand or other and why ?

No substrate, but there is about 1/2 cm of fine detritus/mulm that is comprised of dead algae, bug waste, fish waste, and is constantly being eaten and re expelled. I stir it up on occasion to let the return pump carry some of it to the display once every couple few weeks or so. This keeps my mandarin fat, and the corals love it when I do this and the feeding response is tremendous. I don't siphon it out because the amount of pods it manages to sustain is the main purpose of my refugium.

 

11- How your plumbing works ?

Standard plumbing, Overflow goes to drain chamber with protein skimmer, spills over into the fuge, which spills to the return chamber, no funny stuff.

 

12- What for lighting ?

20 something watt 6500k spiral CFL in a clip on aluminum reflector shop light style. Cheap and effective

 

13- Flow of your pump ?

I run a fairly low flow sump, around 350-400 gph for my 90 gallon + 36 gallon sump

 

14- Acrylic or glass ?

Acrylic. I cannot see through the acrylic though as it is 100% completed caked and covered in coraline and sponges in all 3 chambers, For me to see in the sump I have to stick my head in the stand and look top down.

 

Another note on the refugium. I also employ alot of live rock in my sump. Alot of people have super clean, dark sumps which they scrap and vaccum weekly so every time they photograph it, it appears brand new, as if they're test running a new sump and skimmer with rodi or something. Mine is the total opposite. Cannot see in becasue so much stuff grows on the sides, and I also have all 3 chambers as well as the baffles completely filled to the brim with rock. My skimmer and return pump literally are just sitting there nestled amongst rock and rubble. No empty space at all. I probably have about 1/2 as much liverock in my sump as I do in my entire display, which is also very rock heavy. I have a little red turf in the display but otherwise not really much of a nuisance algae issue, and I have to feed feed feed ultra heavy to avoid pale and shrunken corals. I believe having such an abundant amount of rock surface area, as well as inverts and filter feeders is essential to allowing me to have massive amounts of organic nutrients in, and high export at the same time of inorganic nutrients.

[ScubaJ]

While I don't think a refugium makes or breaks a tank, and I doubt whichever substrate or media you put in it has a negligible impact one way or the other.

 

I have always had standard sand/rock/cheato fuges. This build, I want to try something new... so I am going Miracle Mud and cheato. Do I think it is going to give me better results than sand/rock/cheato? No. Do I think sand/rock/cheato would give me better results? No.

 

I just simply want to mix things up this time.

[HarryPotter]

Is an area just w. Chaeto considered a refugium?

 

I have a NanoCube that I DIY'd a sump to. I did it originally for my skimmer, but added a refugium as well. BOY- that Chaeto grows like a weed!

 

Did notice recognizable drop in phosphates and GHA over time.

 

I ordered the InTank refugium basket for my all-in-one RL-45. I'll let you know how that goes in terms of growth