Amount of live sand for refugium...

[sdaccord03]

Hey whats up everybody!

I am building a refugium for my 55 gallon tank and I was wondering a few things.

My planned compartment for live sand is 5"x5"x12" (300 square inches). Is this a big enough live sand compartment?

Does calerpa need to be submerged to grow? I thought I noticed a lot of it had grown out of the water when I saw one for the first time.

Thanks for any advice, particularly about the size of the live sand compartment. It's not too late (but it would be costly) to make it 6"x5"x12".

Jim

[BillyZ]

I'm going to assume its 5 inches long, 5 inches wide and 12 inches tall, is that correct? (thats 300 cubic inches, BTW. only 25 inches square of surface area)
That seems a little small. Even if you made that 6 inches wide, by 5 by 12 tall it's still pretty small. You want a little more surface area with the sand to make it more efficient.

Caulerpa does need to be submerged, AFAIK. It will also need light, obviously. So be sure to plan for placing some lighting over your fuge.

[sdaccord03]

Yea, about that (lighting). Will a simple, single-flourescent wide spectrum bulb suffice?

JimW

[sdaccord03]

OH wait, no. It's 12" long x 5" wide x 5" deep. So the surface area for the water to flow over the sand will be 12"x5". That's 60 square inches exposed directly to water in the refugium. Also, what about lighting? Is a single bulb ok?

JimW