IS REFUGIUM GOOD OR BAD???

[EMeyer]

Hey, so I'm still pretty new to the hobby. I currently have a nano reef tank, and I'm about to set up an 80-gallon system. It will be including a sump, and I really wanted to do a refugium. I've been hearing a lot of stuff about them, including both positive and negative opinions. Can someone tell me if refugium will be a good choice for reducing algae growth?

I've run tanks with and without refugiums. I'm firmly in the "always include a refugium" camp.

I'm convinced that in an aquarium with adequate light and nutrients, algae is gonna grow. If you have some good grazers (both fish and inverts) in the DT, they can keep it under control to some extent. But grazers are picky. There are plenty of photosynthetic things they dont like to eat, and I've found that systems without algal refugiums often struggle with blooms of those things. Things like dinos or cyanobacteria.

So I dont like relying just on grazers. I include an algal refugium in each system. Some will discourage you, saying it needs to be big to make any difference. I say, ramp up the flow and turn your refugium into effectively an algal reactor.

Even a small, well light, high flow refugium can lower your NO3 to a level where you'll be thinking about feeding more to maintain detectable NO3. Refugiums all the way IMO.

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Refugia can be used for many things, they make active management of the nutrient content possible. A refugium can be used as a biofilter or and a vivarium. On may cultivate and show organisms that are considered not reef safe or and cultivate live food which can be fed or and harvested to control nutrient reserves. They can be used to provide competition. If used as an algae filter one may control nutrient levels by feeding the algae for the target nutrient modified F2 media. Having algae growth is a good thing, controlling algae growth is another thing. It all starts with what is added and then how it may be removed again. A refuge may help in both.

 

[Old Reefer]

Hey, so I'm still pretty new to the hobby. I currently have a nano reef tank, and I'm about to set up an 80-gallon system. It will be including a sump, and I really wanted to do a refugium. I've been hearing a lot of stuff about them, including both positive and negative opinions. Can someone tell me if refugium will be a good choice for reducing algae growth?
Refugiums are the cats meow.

 

[Fishbird]

I have a HOB refugium and I love it so far. My goals for my fuge were/are
1. Provide a place for copepods to breed so that my blennies have a constant supply of live food.
2. Grow macros that my urchins and snails will love so that I can supplement their diet with healthy food that they’d eat were they living in the wild.
3. Assist with nutrient export. BRS has done a series of videos on their tests that show pretty clearly that if lit well enough, a fuge can indeed be a powerful tool for nutrient export. Of course, it is not the only option for nutrient export and not all lights will have the same results. My light is not a fancy one so I’ll see how it goes and upgrade down the line if I need to.

 

[KJones90s]

Any of you guys kept cool pets in your fuge?
Like a mantis shrimp or something?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Great discussion so far!

 

[Reefr]

- macro algae need & use trace elements.
- I dose trace elements based on alk & Ca uptake by corals.
--> I prefer not to use macro algae as it would become more difficult to control traces (this is basically what the Triton method is about: dosing traces a specific way in order to counter balance macro algae effect on these very traces).
I think using a skimmer, bacteria and a good carbon source is enough to control N and P and it gives more control vs macro algae

 

[Paul B]

It seems to me that if it is growing anywhere in your tank, it's spores or fragments, or whatever method it uses to propagate itself are going to circulate throughout the whole system, and grow anywhere the conditions are right. In fact, it would make more sense to me that if you are encouraging/growing it in one area (scrubber), you would be MORE likely to see it in other areas.

Am I reading this wrong?

This is not exactly correct. (Sorry) A refugium does absolutely nothing depending on how you set it up. If you have a 125 gallon tank and add a 25 gallon refugium, it's exactly as if you have a 150 gallon tank.

It's just a place to put heaters, skimmers, extra rock etc.
A lighted refugium is a different story and would be beneficial.
Algae is actually a good thing and we want to encourage it's growth. Healthy tanks, and the sea all grow algae, but we want it growing where we want it and not on our corals.

Algae is also self limiting which means only so much algae can grow on a certain amount of nutrients.

If it grows in our refugium, or properly sized algae scrubber (as I use) it can't grow anywhere else.

I personally never used a refugium and my tank is very old. But I do grow algae in an algae scrubber which is only a lighted mesh that water runs down to grow algae.
(algae grows better if exposed to air so a scrubber is more efficient than a submerged refugium)

People also say a refugium is a place to grow pods, and it is. But in a properly set up tank, you should have enough rock to have pods all over the place.

A refugium certainly won't hurt and it can be a great place to provide more water for your system and hide some things. Many people also use it to raise fish or put things that may eat their fish.

Don't fall into the trap by believing algae is bad. It grows on every healthy reef in the sea. We don't normally see it because of all the creatures that depend on it and eat it as soon as it grows. The sea is full of tangs, urchins, snails etc, and that is what they are eating.

I took these off an Island in Hawaii.




Algae is good and it's everywhere.

 

[Cabinetman]

I’m a firm believer in having a fuge for all the same reasons mentioned but one that isn’t mentioned is when you have a refugium If anything were to die you have something in place to consume any amonia that may be released. Also new systems will be way safer for fish with one until the rock matures. I always tell Anyone who is starting a tank that the most important thing they could do is to get a well lit refugium going And pound the light to it to get the algae growing. Most times when people set up a tank they try to stock it too fast and if there’s not Some sort of algae filtration they will get ammonia spikes and ammonia kills fish faster than anything in my opinion.

 

[schuby]

Be aware. If you decide to run chaeto, it also requires iron. If your tank runs out of this trace element, then the chaeto will die and release all the phosphate and nitrate it used to grow back into your tank. It's not a pleasant experience and it extremely easy to prevent. Grey/white chaeto is something you don't want in your refugium.

 

[Mkus]

Be aware. If you decide to run chaeto, it also requires iron. If your tank runs out of this trace element, then the chaeto will die and release all the phosphate and nitrate it used to grow back into your tank. It's not a pleasant experience and it extremely easy to prevent. Grey/white chaeto is something you don't want in your refugium.

Yep I keep mine sparse being a small reef

 

[rknott]

I am new to the fuge with Chaeto only having a 75G for about 1.5 years, but I can say for sure I really like it and my Nitrates are lower now than they were in the 14G I had for 7 years. I bought a skimmer, but never put it in because I don't need it. Seems to me running a skimmer would be more maintenance than taking out Chaeto. So then I put a light and a little chaeto in the back of my 14G and nitrates went down to near 0 immediately after hovering around 20 or so for 7 years. No other changes. I am sold! There is one problem. The algae blenny I put in my tank died after about 9 months. In hindsight I don't thing I had enough algae for him and didn't realize it :-( He lived off the initial tank algae for that long. Worth mentioning, I am running my BRIGHT fuge light for 12 hours and display tank light for 8 (opposite cycles).

 

[Streetdoc77]

There have been so many articles and opinions on refugiums it’s hard to decide if you would like to add one to your system or not .. there are certainly pros and cons ...people who swear by them and others who will never consider them and people who have had bad experiences with them ... You do not need a refugium to have a stunning reef tank at all period it’s like adding a shed to your house it can be helpful but you don’t need it . Proper maintenance practices are the key to a thriving reef . That being said I love having a refugium it benefits my needs and I have the space plus the added water volume . Mr. Saltwater Tank did a video years ago on refugiums and made some good points about size and impact on the system as a whole , it has to be sized appropriately bigger is better they say lol .


I have always looked at refugiums a couple of different ways nutrient control , export and a place for the small critters to thrive and it turns out the one sized big enough can be a fish nursery ! My Bangaii cardinals have been spawning for about a year and five of the fry have grown into adult specimens with little effort from me . I would assume that I could breed different species in this environment as I watch them feed on larval copapods . The biodiversity and ecosystem of the refugium contribute to the overall health of the system , it does supply a constant and abundant source of food for the different fish species .

I did not realize how much of a impact it had until a year into being setup that I will never have to buy anymore snails ever with several different species after my initial clean up crew populated the refugium ,I can cherry pick from the refugium into the main tank ... this is something I never anticipated.

I have a 75 gallon deep blue cube as my refugium plumbed into my 125 , it’s planted with ulva and caulurpa prolifria has never gone sexual to this point . I run a six bulb t5 fixture over it on the same schedule as the main tank with a tunze wave box for flow . The substrate is mixed with miracle mud 2-1 ratio sand to mud . The Main tank is algae free and No3 and Po4 are stable . I attribute the tank Being algae free due to proper maintenance practices and not a from the refugium but having it certainly helps plus it’s SUPER COOL