I'm almost through with the first cycle on my first saltwater setup. I got a bee in my proverbial bonnet and ordered a small refugium and some macro algae and mangroves on eBay. I've also asked my LFS to order some refugium mud for me. Any advice for setup?
Refugium Setup
- Thread starter spryandspringy
- Start date
Hello? Is this thing on? Testing... 1... 2... 3...
C'mon! Someone here must have set up a refugium and have some advice for us!
C'mon! Someone here must have set up a refugium and have some advice for us!
a refugium requires some forum of cleaning and mainence there for i never had one but il ask my friend that should know about it.
They are a great source of filtration!
They grow alot of beneficial organisms, such as decopods that will help keep things well in your tank. I don't know alot about reef tanks, but the local SW expert here says Refugiums are great for alot of reasons. It also helps eat nitrates with the vegetation you can grow in it. I have seen people make a modification on an AQ110 filter, into a mini-refigium. It was awesome.
They grow alot of beneficial organisms, such as decopods that will help keep things well in your tank. I don't know alot about reef tanks, but the local SW expert here says Refugiums are great for alot of reasons. It also helps eat nitrates with the vegetation you can grow in it. I have seen people make a modification on an AQ110 filter, into a mini-refigium. It was awesome.
The nitrate reduction is what I'm really hoping for. The mangroves and macroalgae should help to starve out "bad algae" too. I'm also interested in all of the creepy crawlies you can keep in them. It seems like it would be a good spot to raise small feeder shrimp and such, so I'd always have a supply on hand. One specific question that I haven't been able to get an answer on is lighting: Should the refugium have constant lighting?
I have never run a refugarium but it would seem to be similar to the plant tubs I have used for smaller fw ponds, I used a poly watering troughs that had the filter outflow pumped to it's bottom so that the water flowed up through a thick layer of pottery shards and around potted cattaails or pygmy japanese lotus and a bunch of floating plants (usually water hyacinth but sometimes water lettuce). I would throw in killies, gambusia, or guppies for mosquito control and fairy shrimp and crayfish as well, they bred enough to make a source of occasional fish snacks. This set up was gravity fed through a screened tray back into the pond over a splash tray. It seems that continuos lighting would cause an algae bloom.