If you're going to grow vegetation in your refugium (for additional nutrient export) then lighting will be necessary. The lighting doesn't have to be anything fancy, but you need enough to keep your macros alive and growing. For example, I use a 65 watt PC work light (the "Lights of America" one - do a search on the board) for this that works fine and was only about $25. It's been running for well over a year now with no issues. Replacement lamps are like $9.
Mace Windu":2ssyowdl said:
Also if a fuge is used for cultivating a natural food source etc, what mtype of food is it and what does it feed?
If you seed the fuge with some copepods, amphipods, etc. it will eventually be swarming with life. There will be no predation of these animals in the refugium, so they keep multiplying. Some of these animals end-up in the main display tank where they become food for your corals and fish.
if you choose to use macro-algae in your setup, you should only use one type in my opinion....macro's tend to 'fight' each other chemically and can release toxins for that purpose which in turn reduces the macro's energy that could have been used for health and vigor...i tend to avoid any caulerpas....perhaps some gracilaria...usually the red macro algaes are pretty 'passive'
