Let's talk Refugiums
- Thread starter SchnitzelReef
- Start date
The bigger the better when running a true refugium most hobbiest do not run a refugium they run a catch all.
What is a refugium? A safe place where life can flourish without preadation...the end! You can have many different kinds of refugiums so knowing what you want your refugium to do, will determined the size needed.
If you want it to help with supplying your DT with snacks thru out the day/night and as a nutrient up take then minimum 25% of system volume. I would go larger and use a stemmed/rooting macro algae with sand and some open rock structure's with as little rock touching sand as possible. And use high flow thru your refugium or the snacks will never reach your DT on their own. And also the algae doesn't care if it high flow it will still remove nutrient's those who say different just like slow flow thru their fuge nothing else. Lots of light with the algae I ran a 250 watt pendant w/6500k over each fruit ben with harvesting about 1/3 to 1/2 of a five gallon bucket out of each per month/month and a half. I know you will be using LEDs so some trial and error will be needed in this area.
Last we spend $ 1000s on lights, DTs, pumps, skimmers and pennies on a refugium so when spending pennies compared to how much we spend on other equipment do you really think it works...it doesn't FYI
There is only two way's to tell if your refugium is working and in balance with the rest of your system when used as outlined above. One is the quality and amount of algae harvested each month and the other is...................................
What is a refugium? A safe place where life can flourish without preadation...the end! You can have many different kinds of refugiums so knowing what you want your refugium to do, will determined the size needed.
If you want it to help with supplying your DT with snacks thru out the day/night and as a nutrient up take then minimum 25% of system volume. I would go larger and use a stemmed/rooting macro algae with sand and some open rock structure's with as little rock touching sand as possible. And use high flow thru your refugium or the snacks will never reach your DT on their own. And also the algae doesn't care if it high flow it will still remove nutrient's those who say different just like slow flow thru their fuge nothing else. Lots of light with the algae I ran a 250 watt pendant w/6500k over each fruit ben with harvesting about 1/3 to 1/2 of a five gallon bucket out of each per month/month and a half. I know you will be using LEDs so some trial and error will be needed in this area.
Last we spend $ 1000s on lights, DTs, pumps, skimmers and pennies on a refugium so when spending pennies compared to how much we spend on other equipment do you really think it works...it doesn't FYI
There is only two way's to tell if your refugium is working and in balance with the rest of your system when used as outlined above. One is the quality and amount of algae harvested each month and the other is...................................
Go big and buy powered valves. When power goes out they close 
. Do you have a battery back up set up yet? And you have solar. Your **** can't go down!!! If you purchased the solar you should throw a couple batteries into the mix and make that your back up
. Do you have a battery back up set up yet? And you have solar. Your **** can't go down!!! If you purchased the solar you should throw a couple batteries into the mix and make that your back up
Hahahaha
Back to my original post. Is it worth it? lol
The bigger the better when running a true refugium most hobbiest do not run a refugium they run a catch all.
What is a refugium? A safe place where life can flourish without preadation...the end! You can have many different kinds of refugiums so knowing what you want your refugium to do, will determined the size needed.
If you want it to help with supplying your DT with snacks thru out the day/night and as a nutrient up take then minimum 25% of system volume. I would go larger and use a stemmed/rooting macro algae with sand and some open rock structure's with as little rock touching sand as possible. And use high flow thru your refugium or the snacks will never reach your DT on their own. And also the algae doesn't care if it high flow it will still remove nutrient's those who say different just like slow flow thru their fuge nothing else. Lots of light with the algae I ran a 250 watt pendant w/6500k over each fruit ben with harvesting about 1/3 to 1/2 of a five gallon bucket out of each per month/month and a half. I know you will be using LEDs so some trial and error will be needed in this area.
Last we spend $ 1000s on lights, DTs, pumps, skimmers and pennies on a refugium so when spending pennies compared to how much we spend on other equipment do you really think it works...it doesn't FYI There is only two way's to tell if your refugium is working and in balance with the rest of your system when used as outlined above. One is the quality and amount of algae harvested each month and the other is...................................
What is a refugium? A safe place where life can flourish without preadation...the end! You can have many different kinds of refugiums so knowing what you want your refugium to do, will determined the size needed.
If you want it to help with supplying your DT with snacks thru out the day/night and as a nutrient up take then minimum 25% of system volume. I would go larger and use a stemmed/rooting macro algae with sand and some open rock structure's with as little rock touching sand as possible. And use high flow thru your refugium or the snacks will never reach your DT on their own. And also the algae doesn't care if it high flow it will still remove nutrient's those who say different just like slow flow thru their fuge nothing else. Lots of light with the algae I ran a 250 watt pendant w/6500k over each fruit ben with harvesting about 1/3 to 1/2 of a five gallon bucket out of each per month/month and a half. I know you will be using LEDs so some trial and error will be needed in this area.
Last we spend $ 1000s on lights, DTs, pumps, skimmers and pennies on a refugium so when spending pennies compared to how much we spend on other equipment do you really think it works...it doesn't FYI
There is only two way's to tell if your refugium is working and in balance with the rest of your system when used as outlined above. One is the quality and amount of algae harvested each month and the other is...................................
Yes it's worth it. Larger volume of water as well as complete nutrient export. Would be fun to add a couple angels in there too for kicks
large water volume is nice but it also takes a lot to get it back to shape if it ever get out of whack imagine 50 gallon water change every day of the week to get the tank back to normal. = $25/ bucket of salt x 7 = 150$ not including water cost. big or small something is better then nothing.
each and every tidbit you put in your tank helps some.
skimmer does the best it ca, carbon, gfo, fuge. every part does a little put it together and it makes a difference if you want to eliminate one then yeah look at steve tyree he ran skimmerless for a very long time. but he had a huge cryptic zone that had stuff growing in there.
my current build i did not incorporate a fuge i wish i did i still can but my next build i am going to have a 40 gallon fuge and it will gravity feed to the sump. my tank is 150 40 gallon fuge and 50 gallon sump. to me this seem to work best.
each and every tidbit you put in your tank helps some.
skimmer does the best it ca, carbon, gfo, fuge. every part does a little put it together and it makes a difference if you want to eliminate one then yeah look at steve tyree he ran skimmerless for a very long time. but he had a huge cryptic zone that had stuff growing in there.
my current build i did not incorporate a fuge i wish i did i still can but my next build i am going to have a 40 gallon fuge and it will gravity feed to the sump. my tank is 150 40 gallon fuge and 50 gallon sump. to me this seem to work best.
Back in the day when I brought refugiums to our hobby my design's were meant to be an extension of our DT. So a hobbiest would have a nice DT filled with fish, corals, and other marine life and below the refugium would be full of macro algae and macro/micro fauna. Both fun to watch and learn from....mates if you will But like a lot of things today, refugiums have become water down from intended and has become something every hobbiest redesigns without first understanding the process.
The second way you can tell if a refugium is working and to me the most important.......watch your fish they will show you by building their homes or sleep areas and playing when awake around your DT inlets. If you don't see your fish dart back and fourth around inlets your refugium is not working as designed.
But like a lot of things today, refugiums have become water down from intended and has become something every hobbiest redesigns without first understanding the process. The second way you can tell if a refugium is working and to me the most important.......watch your fish they will show you by building their homes or sleep areas and playing when awake around your DT inlets. If you don't see your fish dart back and fourth around inlets your refugium is not working as designed.
Man, everyone loves to hate you, not sure why. I have an upflow ATS on my tank. I've got a 180 with a 100g sump. My ATS is 12"x12"x8"tall with a diy led. It's super quiet and grows a ton of GHA. I'm thinking of reducing the height, and making it bigger. It sits on top of my sump, is fed with my return pump, and drains into the return section of my sump. There's a little salt creep, not much.
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Man, everyone loves to hate you, not sure why. I have an upflow ATS on my tank. I've got a 180 with a 100g sump. My ATS is 12"x12"x8"tall with a diy led. It's super quiet and grows a ton of GHA. I'm thinking of reducing the height, and making it bigger. It sits on top of my sump, is fed with my return pump, and drains into the return section of my sump. There's a little salt creep, not much.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just read carefully what spinner wrote & do it.
You are mixing things up. Stick to definitions:
Refugium is where living thing take refuge to survive & grow. Primary goal would be to be a constant food source for fish & coral.
Nutrient bioexport can be done be done in a fuge with macroalgae. But that could also grow in the DT. The most efficient form of algae nutrient export is the ats.
Deep sand bed? Cryptic Zone? Seagrass? Mangroves? These can be done in separate tanks better. It takes skill & experience to put them together.
How do you know your tank / system is doing well ? Params good, huge volume, giant skimmer pulling out 10 gallons of motor oil? - nope. It all comes together, eveything in the DTgrows, few die. For me, my best fuge put out more diversity of small living things that i could see at night, fish chased during the day, coral polyps trapped. Teeming with life, not a sterile place. I had that feeling of wonder. That is all.
You are mixing things up. Stick to definitions:
Refugium is where living thing take refuge to survive & grow. Primary goal would be to be a constant food source for fish & coral.
Nutrient bioexport can be done be done in a fuge with macroalgae. But that could also grow in the DT. The most efficient form of algae nutrient export is the ats.
Deep sand bed? Cryptic Zone? Seagrass? Mangroves? These can be done in separate tanks better. It takes skill & experience to put them together.
How do you know your tank / system is doing well ? Params good, huge volume, giant skimmer pulling out 10 gallons of motor oil? - nope. It all comes together, eveything in the DTgrows, few die. For me, my best fuge put out more diversity of small living things that i could see at night, fish chased during the day, coral polyps trapped. Teeming with life, not a sterile place. I had that feeling of wonder. That is all.
Back in the day when I brought refugiums to our hobby my design's were meant to be an extension of our DT. So a hobbiest would have a nice DT filled with fish, corals, and other marine life and below the refugium would be full of macro algae and macro/micro fauna. Both fun to watch and learn from....mates if you will But like a lot of things today, refugiums have become water down from intended and has become something every hobbiest redesigns without first understanding the process.
The second way you can tell if a refugium is working and to me the most important.......watch your fish they will show you by building their homes or sleep areas and playing when awake around your DT inlets. If you don't see your fish dart back and fourth around inlets your refugium is not working as designed.
But like a lot of things today, refugiums have become water down from intended and has become something every hobbiest redesigns without first understanding the process. The second way you can tell if a refugium is working and to me the most important.......watch your fish they will show you by building their homes or sleep areas and playing when awake around your DT inlets. If you don't see your fish dart back and fourth around inlets your refugium is not working as designed.
