Ok, I am in the process of fixing all the things wrong with my aquarium.

I have temperature up to 77 and I have permission to install a reverse osmosis unit in my apartment. I found a good spot to order refractometers and they even had digital read out pH monitors.

My pH dropped really fast when I started taking out mass amounts of algae and keeping the lights off so I might have to re-evaluate the algaes removal. Thats when I started looking at refugiums.

My question though is about refugiums. Are refugiums necessary or do they offer marked improvements in water quality?

I am running out of room on the back of my aquarium and don't know if I can even place a refugium on my aquarium. I have two large filters and a UV steralizer on the back of my 50 gallon aquarium.

I would love to upgrade the size of my aquarium but when I get transferred to my next duty station my 50 gallon is going to be problem enough as it is so upgrading might be a very bad idea.