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View Full Version : **Refugium?** What are people going with these days?


60gal reef guy
01/27/2014, 02:17 PM
I'm about ready to fill my 125gal with a 40gal breeder sump/fuge. I'm wondering what people are going with these days? Never had one before and have been out of the hobby for about 5 years. Think I def want to run some cheato but wasn't sure if people are just running a couple pieces of live rock with a bare bottom or a deep sand bed. Heard with the sand bed you have to change it out every so often and of it's not at least 4" it doesn't do much?

Sugar Magnolia
01/27/2014, 02:34 PM
It's easier to maintain/suck up detritus if the sump is bare bottom. Plus you can run the flow stronger through it without the risk of a sand storm. Chaeto is what most folks use for nutrient export. You could use some caulerpa but you run the risk of it going sexual and turning the tank into pea soup.

pledosophy
01/27/2014, 02:40 PM
I am still a fan of the cheato barebottom refugium IME

mx51
01/27/2014, 02:43 PM
Why do you have to change the sand bed?

60gal reef guy
01/27/2014, 02:59 PM
I have heard after a period of time the sand bed can hold all kinds of detritus

60gal reef guy
01/27/2014, 02:59 PM
I think I am just gonna go with bare bottom with some live rock and cheato. Sound good?

maddmaxx
01/27/2014, 03:03 PM
I have heard after a period of time the sand bed can hold all kinds of detritus

yea but thats with any sand bed, even in your display. so not like you would avoid sand in your display cause it traps detritus...DSB is where the real potential problems come..

maddmaxx
01/27/2014, 03:04 PM
I think I am just gonna go with bare bottom with some live rock and cheato. Sound good?

that will work just fine, look for a bulb that is 65k to grow the chaeto

slgcmg
01/27/2014, 03:04 PM
bare bottom, live rock and lots of cheato

kdumph
01/27/2014, 03:52 PM
Good info here, I was confused if I should put sand in mine also. Seems like the going idea is bare bottom with cheato.

mx51
01/27/2014, 04:36 PM
What benefit do you get from having sand in the refugium?

davocean
01/27/2014, 05:32 PM
Some small live rock/rubble and chaeto is all I use.
I don't like sand close to pumps.

mx51
01/27/2014, 07:37 PM
Without the sand do you still generate the copopods? I know I didn't spell that right. Lol

davocean
01/27/2014, 07:39 PM
Without the sand do you still generate the copopods? I know I didn't spell that right. Lol

I have tons of pods just using rubble and chaeto.
Mated pair of mandarins for 5 years now super fat and happy!

DSPs
01/27/2014, 07:43 PM
I would just store more liverock in the fuge area with a powerhead blasting it, no sand or anything, Macro algea could help but it probally won't help very much at all, You really need pretty big refugium for it to make a big difference imo, But macro algea would be good for different critters to hang out in if your wanting more critters in your system

johnike
01/27/2014, 07:48 PM
Not pretty, but real efficient.
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p361/john_eichwedel/011-7.jpg (http://s345.photobucket.com/user/john_eichwedel/media/011-7.jpg.html)

jwoyshnar
01/27/2014, 08:46 PM
It's easier to maintain/suck up detritus if the sump is bare bottom. Plus you can run the flow stronger through it without the risk of a sand storm. Chaeto is what most folks use for nutrient export. You could use some caulerpa but you run the risk of it going sexual and turning the tank into pea soup.

I see a lot of people writing this about caulerpa but never seen anyone complain about it happening. I've been using it for over six years now. No issues.

60gal reef guy
01/27/2014, 08:51 PM
I believe I will have enough flow through my system that I won't need a seperate power head to tumble my cheato.

erickcooper
01/27/2014, 08:58 PM
I have been reading everything about refugiums lately because I'm going to finally try one with my upgrade from my 75g to my 125g. There are so many opinions, but I've decided to go with a shallow sandbed with rubble and shells and one large rock loeaded with halimeda algae (it's currently in my tank). We'll see how that goes and see what that does.

captjab
01/27/2014, 09:04 PM
The Halimeda will use up more Calcium and Alk than nutrients. It's a nice looking macro, but IMO it is not a good plant for nutrient export.

davocean
01/27/2014, 09:27 PM
I see a lot of people writing this about caulerpa but never seen anyone complain about it happening.

I think because most of us ditched it, or it became illegal in our area due to it's ability to take over and choke out.
I've seen plenty of complaints over the years, but not once have I seen anyone complain about chaeto getting out of control.
Hopefully you never have a power failure that results in a lights out period.

davocean
01/27/2014, 09:28 PM
The Halimeda will use up more Calcium and Alk than nutrients. It's a nice looking macro, but IMO it is not a good plant for nutrient export.

Totally agree.

erickcooper
01/27/2014, 09:31 PM
The Halimeda will use up more Calcium and Alk than nutrients. It's a nice looking macro, but IMO it is not a good plant for nutrient export.

Rats.

DSPs
01/27/2014, 09:54 PM
rats.

+1

MAGNUMDIVER
01/27/2014, 09:55 PM
I have grape caulerpa in mine with some live rock. I was thinking of putting an egg crate divider and putting cheato on one side with a powerhead to tumble it.

nlgill13
01/27/2014, 10:23 PM
the chaeto in my system doesn't tumble but grows just fine...I just flip it every couple days

tmz
01/29/2014, 02:40 AM
It's easier to maintain/suck up detritus if the sump is bare bottom. Plus you can run the flow stronger through it without the risk of a sand storm. Chaeto is what most folks use for nutrient export. You could use some caulerpa but you run the risk of it going sexual and turning the tank into pea soup.

I agree.

BTW,
The caheto doesn't need to tumble .Sand under algae in fuge gets messy,ime. Algal exudates don't breakdown and do clog up the sand bed in time .Caulerpa is a single cell,if it dies or sporulates it all goes at once leaing a milky toxic mess. Chaetomorpha is mulit celled and will not crash in the same way.

reefer roman
01/29/2014, 03:17 AM
I have been using a algae scrubber for over a year now for nutrient export and it works really well. bed No sand bed in sump.Was thinking on trying a hang on back refugium and some different types of ornamental algae with different colors.

goldmaniac
01/29/2014, 11:18 AM
I've had a refugium for about 11 years, and i've tried various types of caulerpa, and I also went with Chaeto w/ barebottom for a while. I wasn't impressed with Chaeto.

The very best i've ever experienced, and I've gone back to it within the last 12 months, is Caulerpa prolifera, with a 1/2" - to 1-inch sand bed. Sand was taken from Florida beaches during a vacation, but it's worked with bio-substrate, as well. The sand is necessary for Caulerpa prolifera, I have found, and it just takes off once it's roots find the sand.

my $.02

discocarp
01/29/2014, 11:24 AM
I see a lot of people writing this about caulerpa but never seen anyone complain about it happening. I've been using it for over six years now. No issues.

I lost an entire tank of seahorses from it going sexual. It does happen. If you aren't around when it does to react quickly it can be a tank killer.

fmuakkassa
01/29/2014, 01:11 PM
I have a refugium with Miracle Mud and algae with a couple of rocks. Based on my readings on the forum and inability to control nitrate I removed the Miracle Mud (about 60 pounds of it that has been there for years) and I am watching what happened with my nitrates. I also ordered live rock from TampaBay for my main tank and waiting for it's arrival.

D-Nak
01/29/2014, 02:10 PM
I have Chaeto in my fuge, with a decent amount of flow but it does not tumble. I found it to be the best algae because there is no chance of it going sexual (and Caulerpa is illegal here in CA) and it grow quickly so I know its pulling out nutrients. Also, I recently discovered a trick that keeps my Chaeto happy. I moved some big Mexican turbo snails that were knocking over frags in my DT into the fuge. They ate all the nuisance algae (meaning it's not pretty) in the fuge, including all traces of the red cotton candy algae that was choking the Chaeto. I couldn't give it away because it looked bad. Now, my Chaeto is a nice, dark green and is very healthy, and there are no traces of other algae. I know that most recommend a variety of algae if possible, but IME one algae typically overpowers the others.

tmz
01/29/2014, 04:48 PM
The cotron candy rhodophyta will outcompete the chaeto,wiped mine out once, caulerpa will too, ime. I stopped keeping caulerpa after one "turn the tank to milk event" years ago. Some prefer it to caheto and sem to hve succeswith it; I didn't. Some caulerpa will also invade the tank at some point but tangs will eat it.

maddmaxx
01/29/2014, 05:46 PM
cotton candy algae is very very invasive. it exploded into my main display and cover 50% of my rocks in my display very quickly. i got it when i recieved some chaeto from someone else. didnt even see it with the chaeto. but soon grow over the chaeto and killed it then went to display... it out competed chaeto like the chaeto wasnt even there. cotton candy = horrible algae