Refugium Question

[timmay42]

Hello there, I am new to the hobby (at least any kind of serious fish/reef-keeping). I have a ~33gal bowfront which I would like to deck out as a reef system with some fish (nothing intense of course) and I would like to fit it with a refugium. I've been hearing from folks that they're a good thing to use and (for the moment), I had two questions:

1. For my ~30 gal tank, would a 10-gal all-glass aquarium with a simple flourescent hood be sufficient? Could I transform one into an efficient refugium?

2. If I were to have enough flow and a skimmer, coupled with sufficient live rock, would it be necessary for me to employ mechanical/checmical filtration in the form of a canister or hang-on-back or similar type of filtration?

Thank you - I appreciate the help very much; there is a wealth of information out there and it can be somewhat confusing when you're getting started, so it's nice to be able to just ask more experienced folks.

Thanks again!

---
Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Greetings Tim,
:welcome:

1: Yes, a 10g would be fine for a 30g fuge.
2: Avoid cannisters or any other mechanical filtration on a regular basis.

Mechanical filtration to remove accumulated detritus on the sandbed or whatever is fine, but regular mechanical filtration lends itself to becoming a "nitrate factory". - This is especially true of cannister filters.

Essentially, what happens is they develop bacterial colonies that are very efficient at reducing ammonia to nitrites and nitrites to nitrates but then fall flat at processing the nitrates back to nitrogen gas and releasing it from the water column.

You wind up with high nitrate levels and your animals begin to suffer. (Invertebrates first usually..)

If you already have a cannister, thats fine, they work great for occasional carbon or like I said, an occasional vaccuuming. - Otherwise, they're usually frowned upon, just like trickle filters.

Hope that helps,
Norm

 

[timmay42]

What about lighting for the refugium? Do I need anything fancy or could I use a simple flourescent bulb in a hood?

Thanks!

--
Tim

 

[Anonymous]

Nope, don't need 'nuthin fancy to grow (most) algaes.

Maybe replace the original bulb (when it goes) with a "triton" bulb if you like.. I think I grew a little more algae with those waaaay back in the day.. :lol:

 

[dhoch]

Tim,

While the flourscent bulb might work, something a little brighter will probably give you better algae growth in your fuge...

Dave