Refugium help - need info and ideas

[Twinn]

I'm building a 40 gal tank and thinking of adding a refugium to produce pods for a mandarin but, I got a bunch of questions.

What do I put in the refugium sand or no sand, live rock, cheato?

If I use a filter sock will it catch all the pods making the refugium pointless?

Should I just run Np pellets to up my pod production?

[Coleus]

You can put deep sand bed in refugium and some live rock if you want to grow some pods, Then you can throw in some cheato, mangroves for nitrate reducer.

Most ppl prefer not to put filter sock before water going into refugium tho because they want some food from tank to go into refugium to feed the pods.

Running np pellets won't up your pod production, only bacterial mulm which may help to feed your coral and invert (not sure about mandarin will eat them)

[Twinn]

thanks for the reply I've heard that a by product of the biopellets is an increase in pods can anyone that uses biopellets chime in on this one?

[kien]

i've never heard that biopellets will increase pod population. Mind you, it is difficult to count pods I run a lot of pellets and can't say that I've notice any difference in my pod population. If you run a 'fuge I would recommend running a direct line from your display tank to your 'fuge if possible. I use filter socks and I only pull out two or three pods each time I clean the sock.

[mark]

just regurgitating what I read on the internet, but understand to keep enough pods for a Mandarin (if it's only eating live food), fuge needs to be big, then there's getting the pods to wash into the display.

[Twinn]

My fuge would be about 5 gal so around 10% of the display. Don't know if could plumb it so DT water goes directly into the display. Either way if I just want the fuge to build a pod population what should I put in the fuge sand or no sand? If sand than how much sand? I plan to have about 1 1/2 inch of sand in the DT.

[reefwars]

IF your still in the planning stages you could buy a rubbermaid and plumb it directly in to your tank and sump just for pods with some liverock. Every so Often swap out some rocks and take out a scoop of sand
mandarins can be high maintance and most don't know their starving untill it's too late

[Twinn]

thanks for all the info. I am still in the planning state but space is limited and I need to fit everything under the stand as I have small kids who think its bath/play time when they can access the tank so the rubbermaid think will not work. I under stand the whole madarins starving thing hense the planning of a smal fuge. Again thanks for all the info.

[paddyob]

I had a mandarin living in my 20 gallon for 2.5 years.

It eventually took frozen so was good for me.... and I never ran any type of fuge.

On a side note.... let the tank mature for 6 months minimum to allow a build up of your pod population and avoid adding anything else that may feed on pods. Pod eaters are common in tanks... such as sand sifters, so choose fish wisely.

[Twinn]

I was planning to let the tank mature and I know lots of people that have had success with mandarins in 40 gal tanks so I'm not worried about a mandarin cleaning out all the pods.

Still looking for advice on sand or no sand in a fuge area.