Refugium?

[spedly]

I was wondering the same thing a few weeks ago. In the end I decided not to go with it for a couple of reasons:

- The refugium space in my 36g sump wasn't large enough for adequate nutrient export in my 150g display

- Only pod larva would be small enough to survive a trip through a return pump. Seemed better for them to have their own system if I wanted to raise pods as a source of food

- Additional expense in terms of new hardware, etc.

I think refugiums are a neat concept but not super practical in the grand scheme of things. It would probably be better to set up an inexpensive 10 gallon tank and use it as a refugium.

[FishyFishy!]

In my opinion, unless the refugium is of adequate size, It will have minimal benefits.

Running cheato is a good way of keeping phosphates under control. I run large refugiums on my systems, and I stopped running GFO about 2 years ago.

[brisco]

I guess that the bigger the better as far as refugiums go but what would the minium size required to make a difference for my 100 gal display? I would just probably run Chaeto.

[brisco]

Would it be that hard for pods to make it into the display through the return pump? because if that is the case then 1 of my reasons for the fuge is shot already.

[rsisvixen]

Most pods we see in our systems are benthic pod species, meaning they tend to live on the substrate, rocks, walls etc and aren't free swimming, and the larvael forms that are free swimming will tend to stay in your refugium because of the ideal enviroment there and those that do go on the trip through the return will only see a 20%-30% survival as they are pretty fragile at that stage and the turbulance of the return pump will kill off most. Thus the pods making it into your display will be minimal at best.

Best is to breed pods in a separate area and add to your tank as needed.

[brisco]

so manual scooping pods out of a refugium area is the only reliable way to ensure a continuous pod population in my DT? Would anybody recommend just adding a light to the skimmer chamber are of my sump with some chaeto and use that as a refugium area?