Refugium

[Anonymous]

Does everyone else love their refugium as much as I love mine? Or am I just weird? I love to feed it and watch the 'pods fight over the food - tough little buggers. Tonight, I turned on the light and fed it a little frozen plankton. The bristle worms came out and chowed down - that was neat. They have big mouths and I watched a lagre piece of food work its way the worms body like it would in a snake.

I have this weird anemone down there. It's not aptasia, it's completely transparent and about an inch in diameter. Its tentacles have white on the tips - the only way I found him. There's all kinds of neat stuff down there - and quite a bit of it came from PA - their rock pool sludge stuff.

 

[Anonymous]

I am thinking of making the refugium into the tank and vice versa.

 

[lil_ol_me]

Ging

There are a few reasons for a refugium: 1. To grow critters(pods, worms, baby shrimp, etc.) for a natural food source. 2. To help remove nitrates through macroalgaes. 3. To increase water volume(like a sump). 4. To provide you with countless hours of amusement.

I'm sure there are more reasons, but that gives you an idea.

Dave

 

[scavdog]

I just finished my 50 gallon refugium. I will be adding my 2 coral banded shrimp to the tank for more action per gallon.

 

[reeferguy1]

I love our refugium,we are even growing xenia and a few diff. polyps and things in ours.In one of our ecosystems we even had mangroves in it.Besides the aboved mentioned benifits of the refugium it will also help with night time Ph fluctuations.I highly recommend them.
Respect
reeferguy

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Anemone of the State:
<STRONG>I am thinking of making the refugium into the tank and vice versa.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was thinking the same thing. If this damn hair algae keeps up...

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: tangirl ]

 

[Anonymous]

That cute little anemone is not an anemone,but a corallimorphian. It is commonly called the "white ball anemone". It's Latin name is Pseudocorynactis sp.. It usually only extends at night,but will extend during daylight under adequate shade. There is also a Caribbean form which has orange balls. They,like mushroom anemones,seem to be very hardy.

I too have this little guy. I now shade him so he opens up during the day time.

GL

Dan

 

[fishtalk]

Yes, I agree, I set up a refugium and it's the neatest thing. I have all sorts of critters in there.

 

[ging]

I am new to reef tanks, have had mine about 5 mths. Please excuse me if this is a dumb question

I have read about refugim's and dont really understand why you would want one and what they are used for. Could someone enlighten me

 

[cerreta]

Ging, I concur with the above benfits, but wanted to stress the importance of pH fluctuations. I added a refugium to my 16gal sump and run a 65watt PC 50/50 bulb during the night, when the main tank lights are off. Typically, pH will drop during night time hours which can have negative effects on some very picky corals. This is caused by a stop in photosynthesizing zooanthenelle which live in the tissues of the corals and macro algae. As a result, CO2 (respiration of fish) is no longer being consumed by the zooanthenelle and is acidic in nature, causing the pH to drop. This lighted refugium will allow macroalgaes to consume CO2 and keep the pH stable. Hope this is simple enough of an answer. I also wanted to add another benefit: Macroalgaes in the refugium are big consumers of CO2 and other fuels for photosynthesis. In other words, the bad hair algaes and other slime algaes, etc must compete for these nutients, and usually lose, thus your main tank will have less of the bad stuff.
Cheers,
Scott

 

[endymion]

oh well I just killed what I though was some form of aptasia....It was open at night and was clear as glass.

And forgot to add... My refugium lets me have a lots of green plants like a FW plant tank without it impacting my main tank.
http://home.austin.rr.com/endymion/refugium.html

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: endymion ]