Refugium help

I am in the process of setting up a 150g tank with 50 g sump/refugium. The question I have is, what do i put in the fuge (middle) section? What substrate(if any), live rock, cheato, etc... what does everyone else do?

I had no sand, 2 small pieces of live rock and 2 kinds of macro algae in mine. I am going to try using Miracle Mud in the next build though. 

I have no sand and lots of pieces of live rock rubble and only cheato.  The pods are thriving in there.  Plus I can use the live rock rubble pieces to attach frags to, and when I do that I just add more dry pieces of live rock rubble to the sump.  I use cheato because there is virtually no risk that it will go assexual.

I run lights 24/7 on the fuge. I have about an inch of coarse crushed coral and then cheato and caulerpa. My first chamber is packed with rubble and a skimmer.

Seems there are many ways to set up a refugium. I prefer a couple inches of sand and macro with no rubble or live rock. I don't mind rubble or rock short term but I don't keep it there long term to avoid trapping detritus.

Mike, do you use a fine sand or course sand?

Scott B wrote: Mike, do you use a fine sand or course sand?

Scott B wrote: Ok, so no fine sand for sure... i will start out with rock rubble and chaeto. I have a basic clip on light with a led 5k light (from lowes), will that work fine, and do i light that 24/7 or just at nighttime?

Aloha,

Here is what I do to take advantage of every bit of the biology and chemistry technology of which I'm aware:

1. 1/2 -2 inches of Oolitic sand on the bottom - excellent for buffering and bacteria growth. (Oolitic sand has more surface area per volume, so it grows more bacteria than larger particle sand. This is especially effective for the final step of changing Nitrate into Nitrogen gas and H2O. The more area of our system we can use for that the healthier things will be.)
2. On top of the Oolitic, 1/2 - 1" of larger particle sand or crushed coral sand and a small space for rubble. (The advantages were already mentioned.)
3. The entire remaining water area is for Cheatomorpha and as many other kinds of Macroalgae as can grow there. I place the Chaeto downstream from the other Macro otherwise it will eat all the nutrients leaving little for the other Macros.
4. A few Snails and maybe a Hermit or two. (These keep nuisance algae somewhat controlled in the Refugium, but any small controlled amount growing there is not really a problem. That helps ensure it won't grow in the display so long as there are ample Snails in the display.)

Plants/algae don't like continuous lighting anymore than we do. They need a time to sleep. I use 24/7 lighting only when needed to eat up extra pollution like when something dies. This helps keep Cyano and other nuisance algae from starting up.

I don't use much LR permanently in the Refugium because the space is better used for Macroalgae.

Have fun,
Mark


Edited by Mark Peterson - October 04 2013 at 10:26pm

Thx mark.. good info