Friday Topic: Refugium!

[polarbear]

I have a 55 gallon refugium. I use to have sand in it but realized that there was not enough in there to do good and it was trapping a lot of gunk. So I removed it and now just have rock and macro in there. It’s a lot easier to clean when it needs it. I just use my shop vac (for tank use only) to suck all the gunk out. I love having a refugium for my tank. It helps to grow pods and allows me to house fish and inverts in there if needed for a short period of time. I have my 2 brittle stars in there now. I’m waiting to redo my sand bed and rock work before I add them to the display. It easier to remove them and find them while in the refugium.

[allan]

I have a large one with rocks and sandbed in it.

I want to pull all the rubble rock out of my first chamber, suspend a light, and put the chaeto in there.

The big portion I want to raise the razor culerpra. In the sand bed. Maybe put in some small shrimps or grass fish to live down there.


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[Zen Reef]

I currently drain into a Xenia fuge then a fuge with cheato. I have a dsb in the cheato fuge that's about 6" deep. I'm hearing a lot about the "usefulness" of a dsb in the fuge so I'm wondering if I should even keep it anymore. Thoughts?

[koa25]

I have a 40b under my 40b that has a large refugium with a DSB, lots of rock and cheato and dragons breath and a ton of critters. I want to yank my DSB and toss some of that miracle mud in there. I have been reading a lot of reviews on it. Sounds legit. Other than replacing 50% every so often. I will wait until i have to move anyways. Going to have to break it down. No use tearing up the sand band until then anyways.

[rrasco]

I currently drain into a Xenia fuge then a fuge with cheato. I have a dsb in the cheato fuge that's about 6" deep. I'm hearing a lot about the "usefulness" of a dsb in the fuge so I'm wondering if I should even keep it anymore. Thoughts?

From what I have gathered, this is based on the fact that a small fuge area doesn't offer the benefits of a DSB. I believe the surface area of the sand (and maybe volume) has a direct relation to the nutrients. Essentially, I believe most fuge DSBs are too small of an area to be effective. Having said that, I have about 4 inches of sand in my fuge. It's about 10"x14".

[Zen Reef]

How deep should you go with miracle mud?

[Zen Reef]

My fuge is 12x17. I want to try miracle mud as well depending on how deep it needs to be. The stuff is expensive!

[koa25]

What i've been reading is you can go as thin as an inch cause it does not work the same way as a DSB. It will be used up more frequently. But allows more top space for macro. Appreantly people get explosions in their pod populations. Both Cope and Amphipods. The mud releases perfect planktonic foods for them and also is a more suitable substrate for them to live and reproduce in.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Mine is koool.

[RayAllen]

I am running a sump with a large fuge area. Fuge alone probably holds 15-20gallons. Thats a large fuge considering the display itself is 40gs.

I have Caulerpa that grows fast, full of feather dusters, sponges, worms and pods. Just removed the rock yesterday and it will stay this way.
I've always ran my fuges this way and am going to stick with the Macro only with no sand. Have great results.