Advice on HOB Refugium for 55 gallon

[Ryand63]

So my 55 gallon FOWLR has been up and running for 1.5 years now and is doing great. The one fish I've always wanted is a Blue Mandarin and finally feel it may be time to get one. I have 60 pounds of LR, 2 inch LS bed and nice coraline algae everywhere. The only thing is, I do not have a sump and or a refugium so I know that the pods in there that I can see, will not sustain a mandarin for long at all. Any suggestions on cheaper but nice HOB refugiums? what size should I be looking for, enough to grow some chaeto and breed some pods back there?

[jweintraub]

I've got the Reef Octopus 18" HOB refugium. It's a good size for my 48" 50g tank and definitely has room for good chaeto growth and to maintain a good population of pods.

The biggest disadvantage of it is the light that mounts to the top of it, as I can't run an opposite light schedule from my tank because there's too much bleeding of light, even with the back of the tank painted black.

[Ryand63]

So do you run the light the same time as your DT lights? Does the chaeto still grow nicely?

[jweintraub]

I run it a little bit longer than the actual display lights. The chaeto has completely filled the refugium several times to where I have to pull out huge chunks to allow for future growth.