REFUGIUM Question....

[ebaybrad]

I would like to set up a refugium in a 5.5 gallon plumbed tank to sit above my 20 gallon sump for my 65aga. this is for a fish only tank... i was wondering what the best macroalgae would be for it as i heard that caleurpa has a high die off rate...i plan to put say a double 9 watt daytime/atinic on it...also, should irun the lights 24/7 or cycle them?

 

[reefmutt1]

I use feather calupera because it has greater surfac area and most important seems to be less toxic than the other types....Be very carefull in which kind you choose I had a freind kill off his entire 220 gal reef tank becauase he choose the wrong type. Als prunig is important to keep this toxic process from occurring...

 

[ebaybrad]

what toxic process are you referring to?

 

[Clearblue303]

I just work on the same thing and have the same questions.
Plus,I'm planning to have a live sand substrate.Good,or bad idea?
FM

 

[DRT]

Think of a Refugia as a filter, what we are trying to mimic is a close to shore, lagoon type environment. So I’ve set mine up using the same DSB as the main tank (6&#8221

. I’ve tossed excess LR in and seeded it with grape calupera. Interestingly it went through the same cycle as a regular tank, first diatoms then some cyano then stable. At first the calupera exploded and the 10-gallon tank was packed with the stuff. The calupera is pulling nutrients out of the water and what you don’t want to happen is for them to peak out and then die off, this is the toxic reference. So you have to harvest it periodically, I pull it out and take it to the LFS and trade for some snails. The last couple of months the growth has slowed dramatically, I imagine most of the initial nutrients have been pulled out and the main tank has never looked better.