refugium contents

[Dpaulmann]

Hello all, I have a 29 gallon refugium feeding a 65 reef tank that I set up a few weeks back. The systems been running for about 3 weeks now and I've worked all the kinks out of it, made a few mods and it's running quite well. I'm ready to add substrate to it but I'm unsure of what and how deep. I've read differing opinions Mud or no mud how deep should the sand be how much live rock to buy what kind of Macroalgae to get how much etc. Anyone have any advice?
Thanks!

 

[David S]

It also depends on how your fuge is setup,is it high or low flow,this will determine mud or sand.personally i would go with a 3-4" sand bed and some macro algae.I've used miracle mud and didn't think it was any better then sand and cheato.

 

[Dpaulmann]

Hi Thanks for the advice. I would say it's probably a higher flow because when I set it up I took my bakpak skimmer and my eheim wet dry cannister and set it on the 29 gallon fuge. The idea was to get all the stuff out from under the main tank. I have the fuge flowing into a return 10gallon tank at about 196GPh. All I have in there right now is a couple pieces of Live rock, 1 piece of cheato and a little caulerpa. I just started it so I can remove and refine it pretty easy.

 

[David S]

just add sand and the macro you have,but you'll need a light over it

 

[Gti_Leo]

i've seen some people pack mud on the bottom and sand on top, i don't know what benifits you'd get from that but having chaeto in there and LR rubble is all you really need

 

[Dpaulmann]

Great advice, Thanks!

 

[johnmaloney]

If the sand bed is deep enough to act as a remote deep sand bed that would help to reduce nitrates. It would have to be fairly deep to create an anaerobic environment. I think it is easier to just keep chaeto in there though too, with bare bottom. Very easy to clean out that way, skip anything in there that would trap debris like rocks and the like. For the few extra pounds you add in the the refugium it wont make much difference comparatively to the amount you have in the display. Use the room to maximize your area for chaeto growth. A 29 long isn't too deep and the whole area can be devoted to chaeto growing.

 

[Dpaulmann]

Thats exactly what I concluded from everyones advice and what I'll do. Thanks very much! I love this forum.

 

[Ausfish]

Bear in mind you need a good lighting system on the sump so the macro algae can do it's magic!

 

[David S]

Bear in mind you need a good lighting system on the sump so the macro algae can do it's magic!

Just a cheap light will do for macro's