New Refugium, Help with setup

[TheChad]

Hey All,

I just placed an order for a new custome Refugium. Its a 34" x 15" x 15" sump/refugium with a 14" refugium area and a 12" sump area.

What do ya'll suggest to put into the refugium area? Sand? Mud? Nothing? It's got stand off's on the bottom, I assume I should put a couple of chuncks of LR?!

I plan to have a light that will run at night durning the hours my main lights are off in the tank, From what i've read that is the prefered way to do it? Any input on how much / what type of light to put down there?

Do you put any crabs/snails in the fuge? What else should I put in there?

The only reason I got a fuge was because I needed a new/larger sump since I upgreaded to a 90g tank, my old sump was small and was for my 55g tank. So I figured while I was doing it, I mgiht as well get a Fuge too. I don't have any nitrates or phosphates, I NEVER have any.

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[GhostKnife]

Huh. I dont know about the fuge as I do not have one for my tank. I have heard that sump/fuge shared you need to block light from one to the other. It is a good idea. If conjoined the sump part with all of your pumps and hardware will grow algae and other light growing algae in it and clog your equipment. There is a sort of tape I am not sure what it is but you can block the light source to just your fuge if you do it right.

 

[melosu58]

I would not put any livestock in your fuge because later on some day you might have to banish something in your tank to it when it misbehaves. I have miracle mud covered by a couple inches of sand in my fuge.

 

[TheChad]

I would not put any livestock in your fuge because later on some day you might have to banish something in your tank to it when it misbehaves. I have miracle mud covered by a couple inches of sand in my fuge.

What purpose does it serve to have the sand ontop of the mud? or the mud under the sand? Is one better than the other?

Do you have anything else in your fuge?

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[melosu58]

You want the sand on top or your water will have a muddy dirty look. You cant have the mud on top.

 

[TheChad]

What is the purpose of the mud? Why not just use sand? Do you have any plants in there?

-TheChad

 

[melosu58]

I was just telling you what I have. If I had to do it all over I probably would not get the MM. Sand only will be good.

 

[TheChad]

I was just telling you what I have. If I had to do it all over I probably would not get the MM. Sand only will be good.

ok, so you don't like the mud? I'm just asking because I don't know anything about fuge's, it's all new to me..

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[ezy33]

I have live plants, sand, and LR. The plants like Chaetomorpha Algae or Mangrove will absorb nutrients from the water in order to grow, and help lower nitrates and phosphates in the aquarium.

 

[madlynb]

I am having difficulty understanding the concept of the refugium. I have mud, rubble rock and a handful of caulerpa in mine. Water is being fed into the refugium via a tee off of the return pump piping with a ball valve to control the flow. Do I just allow the refugium to fill up with water, flow over the divider into the return pump area and then it goes into main tank that way?

 

[ezy33]

Sounds right.

 

[Ziggy953]

Sounds correct to me as well.

BTW, I only have sand and rock in my fuge, along with the caulerpa and cheato. No MM for me.

 

[TheChad]

How deep do you guys have the mud and/or sand?

I ended up putting in 1bottle of MM which gave me about 3/4" on the bottom, then put 15lbs of black sand on top, so I have about 3" total.

-TheChad

 

[melosu58]

I think I`m the same. About 1" of MM and a couple inches of white sand.

 

[Justin1989]

I am having difficulty understanding the concept of the refugium. I have mud, rubble rock and a handful of caulerpa in mine. Water is being fed into the refugium via a tee off of the return pump piping with a ball valve to control the flow. Do I just allow the refugium to fill up with water, flow over the divider into the return pump area and then it goes into main tank that way?

A picture would be more useful. however if I am understanding correctly yes that it what you do.

Calpera algae and cause problems in the long run. Chaeto in my opinon is a much better solution for macro algae.

 

[TheChad]

ok, So I got my sump/fuge up and running, I placed 3 fist size rocks in the fuge. 1 from the tank (Fully Cured), and 2 virgin base rocks.

What's the next step? What type of plants should I put in the fuge? I don't know much about the diffent types or what they do.

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[Justin1989]

I You said your using rock. Do you have any sand? and I wouldn't know anyone using plants in their fuge unless they consider macro algae such as chaeto plants. My advice would be to have sand, rock, and chaeto in the fuge.

 

[TheChad]

I You said your using rock. Do you have any sand? and I wouldn't know anyone using plants in their fuge unless they consider macro algae such as chaeto plants. My advice would be to have sand, rock, and chaeto in the fuge.

Yeah, we discussed the sand/mud thing above....

I have about 3/4"-1" of MM and ~3" of Black sand. (I went with black because white sand gets pretty nasty looking)

-TheChad

 

[thincat]

What is the purpose of the mud? Why not just use sand? Do you have any plants in there?

-TheChad

The mud is suppose to have all the trace elements of a coral reef. A great selling point for more "stuff". I think that sand and LR rubble is all you need with some macro algae.

 

[thincat]

Sounds right.

I have a green wing Macaw. She is 28 years old...
TC