What do I need to do to have a successful refugium?

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've had a refugium setup on both tanks i've had, but i've never had the typical successful refugium setup. My chaeto just doesnt grow. I've tried MH T5 and incandescent. I've tried low flow, I've tried high flow. I've tried iron supplementation. Tried sandbed, tried BB. I've tried every type of algae other than caulerpa, even mangroves. None grow, they just slowly die. On my last tank I wrote it off to too efficient/clean of a tank, and no nutrients to grow. In my new setup, I've got nitrates and phosphates that won't go away. Same thing happens, chaeto just stagnates, slowly decays. I never see mysids or copepods running around. Gammarus shrimp and mini brittles, but that's about it. The refugium on both setups has been a 30g breeder.

What am I doing differently than everyone else? What can I do to have a normal successful refugium like everyone else?

Here is the current incarnation, it's been redone 1000 times. Shallow sand bed, some algae strewn about, live rock. 2x 39w T5s and a "melev bulb". About 5-10x turnover from sump, and a small powerhead in there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/LobsterOfJustice/1-16-09refugium.jpg

[OneReef]

perhaps your lighting is too strong? I only use a little 13w Finnex PC refugium light over my fuge and my chaeto grows. It is 7100K daylight PC bulb. That may have nothing to do with it but it was just a thought.

How long are you running the sumps lights?

[asonitez]

Same thing here. My fuges always seem to get over-run with cyano and i use a 36 watt PC bulb 6500k. Chaeto and Culerpa Die off. My mangrove has grown and i was about to build a Mangrove scrubber but I was told that they would use all the magnesium. I didnt know if this was positive or not.

[LobsterOfJustice]

Right now I'm running 12 hours during the day. I've tried reverse daylight in the past. Can't remember if I've done 24h.

[MattAndKim]

I would put a lot more live rock in there for pods to hide around, I completely covered the floor of mine and built up one side, and they are always crawling on the glass and visible in the macro and on the rocks. I think you should also start with larger patches of macro to start out with. The powerhead might not really be doing a lot for you in there. My refugium is a 15g with 4" of SB and covered with live rock on the bottom and a wall, with a 96w PC. I use half chaeto and half a species that I haven't been able to identify, but it grows much faster and is easy to remove when the fuge fills with macro (it has circular "leaves" like lily pads). If you really want to seed this thing, I would get a good starter "culture" of maybe GARF grunge or some stuff from an established fuge and some good patches of macro and start driving the food chain in there with plankton, I always saw explosions of pods when I added a liter of phyto to mine. I did this for a while every couple days until the fuge was always filled with pods; after that they seemed to do fine with the remnants of food that made their way in from the main tank(no mechanical filtration).

[Wgluther]

I've been running a 15w, 7100K CP ,24/7 with great results. I have to trim back my Chaetomorpha at the very least every other week.

[mrabolli]

If those Brown mangrove leaves fall into the water they will release nitrates back into the tank. Not sure if that is adding to your nitrate reading?

[LobsterOfJustice]

Nah, just added the mangroves maybe 2 weeks ago.

[choypogi07]

hello.. i'm hew here.. just want to share what i have on my sump/chaeto.. my chaeto receives a smooth flow (it's on a shallow tray) and is lighted by a 24w 6500k spiral on reverse-photo.. i've tried the 24/7 lighting approach, tumble approach, high and low flow, but my chaeto grew on my current setup.. it's now on 12hr reverse photo since when i ran it 24/7, i was harvesting it every 5days.. the reverse photo somehow slowed its growth.. HTH

[whyamisofly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14278310#post14278310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by asonitez
Same thing here. My fuges always seem to get over-run with cyano and i use a 36 watt PC bulb 6500k. Chaeto and Culerpa Die off. My mangrove has grown and i was about to build a Mangrove scrubber but I was told that they would use all the magnesium. I didnt know if this was positive or not.


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