What's in your refugium?

[Europhyllia]

I am picking up my new sump tomorrow and will have quite a bit of room to play with. (Thanks Ace -can't wait to see it! :bighug:)

Right now I have a little fuge in my sump and another little HOB fuge.
Basically one is sand and cheato and the other is rock rubble and chaeto.
:blushing:
Not super exciting. I got some red mangrove shoots today and I still have a little bit of red gracillaria. I am thinking of what else I could add to the new big refugium/sump.

[txmaverickmh]

I did a mix of miracle mud and LS in my fuge with a load of live rock and rubble, and chaluerpa. It works great and I take alot of pride in cleaning it and keeping it fresh!

MH

[allan]

I have sand, rubble rock, live rock, chaeto, razer, and grape. Just added a peppermint shrimp and have started growing zenia in there. Three sections, the rubble rock is cryptic, the main chaeto is bare bottom, and the sand has a mixture of all three to include a sand bed.

I like keeping it clean too. The fuge can be a very interesting part of your system.

[Big_Pun]

i have just cheato,chaluerpa, 8 red mangroves( they just started sprotting leaves) and 4 black mangroves, bare bottom, just some filter floss on intake side goes across the divider before spill over to fuge section

[Ping]

How big is the fuge and what do you want from it? Do you need nitrate reduction or plankton production? It is hard to do both with a refugeum. A shallow sandbed with a macro algae will provide plankton and minor water polishing. This is what is needed for most systems.

Order of nutrient removal: caulerpa's on a 24 hour light cycle, chaetomorpha or gracilaria on a 12 hour cycle, followed by dragons breath or other decorative macro's

Miracle mud is a great product, but costly. For it to work properly, the guidelines for setup and quantitiy required on their website is what we should follow.

[Europhyllia]

Ping,

I was actually thinking of keeping the HOB for zoo plankton production (gentle flow into the DT from slightly above).
I am not sure a lot of zoo plankton would survive the impeller of the return pump from the sump up into the DT so the big refugium in teh sump will be for nutrient export and to countract nightly pH swing.
From your info it sounds like what I have (chaeto and gracillaria) on a 12 hour cycle opposite to DT will be the way to go.

[Ping]

Alot more pods survive the pump shear than previously thought. If your going to put macro's in the fuge, go with a shallow oolitic sand bed about one inch deep. More surface area for bacteria as well as a higher copepod population due to the small grain size.

RDP is always helpful, but not necessary. If the nightime lighting does not bother you, it does help lesson the minor pH swings.

[los.tejanos83]

I have a small amount of sand and LR, along with chaeto and some grape. I have 2 mangrove shoots which have done well, not sure whether they're black or red--the leaves are green of course :-)

What is meant by nutrient removal and 24/12 hr cycle?

[Ping]

Refugium lights on for 24 hours a day or 12 hours a day. Caulerpa’s need to be lit for 24 hours so they do not go sexual; as in releasing their green pigmentation and turning your water green.

[Mr Cob]

I have a large HOB refugium with 5"+ sand bed a little bit of live rock and various macro algae with lighting on 24hrs.

I also have a sump with the first two chambers filled with a lot of Chaeto and live rock (no sand bed) on a reverse lighting system, when the display lights go out these come on. The next chamber is my skimmer and return pump.

I do not use Caulerpa....it grows way to fast for my liking. The chaeto does too but it is much easier to give away.

[firecoral3msd]

I have cheato, razor kelp, red grape, 4" mixture of miricle mud/live sand, live rock. Live critters are bristle worms, mysis shrimp, copepods, amphipods cerith snails and mini brittle stars.

[dirtysumpguy]

about 4 types of algae, one a very cool red algae that I've never seen before or sold anywhere on line!