I still don't understand refugiums...!

JT101

JT101

Member
Sorry gang, but here I go again...!

To this day I still don't understand how a refugium can sort of "force" all the microalgae and macroalgae growth to grow inside IT, and magically keep the display tank clear.

I mean, how does the tank "know" not to allow any HA to grow in the display tank - just because it's growing in the fuge? The way I look at it, if you had HA, for example but no fuge, and then one day you ADDED a fuge, and HA started to grow in it, why wouldn't it CONTINUE TO DO SO in the display?

Is this sort of like the "sacrificial anode" that is used inside some water tanks, wherein the anode will rot away while the rest of the water tank remains free of corrosion?

Thanks for any help clarifying this for me...!

John
 
Eric

Eric

Google Warrior
PREMIUM
Basically the cheato or other macros suck nutrients out of the water column, in doing this there are no excess nutrients for algae to feed on.
 
G

Gfoot2000

Member
when you leave your refugium light on 24/7, your micro and macro algae continues to eat up phosphate and nitrate, this way phosphate and nitrate doesnts accumlate, so when in the morning when you turn on your light in your display tank, the algae in your display tank wouldnt have anything to eat to grow, because your refugium ate up everything. youll still have alittle algae growth in your display tank but not as much as you would without a refugium. your refugium will be the one turning ugly with algae
 
smokinjoe2122

smokinjoe2122

Member
Out of curiosity, you leave fuge lights on 24/7? I'm going to turn my middle chamber on my jbj hqi into a fuge when it's setup. Doesn't that cost a lot of $ to run lights like that?
 
PIMPALA

PIMPALA

Well-Known Member
a fuge light that comes with moon lights? what for? if the fuge is just parked under your stand, hidden... then no need to buy an expensive fixture.
 
G

Gfoot2000

Member
i run a 23w florecent spiral bulb on my refugium almost 24/7, i knew plants go through respiratory also so i turn it off once in a while, but i make sure i leave the refugium light on for awhile b4 i turn my display tank on. i get alot of algae in my dt when i leave my ref light off
 
Uslanja

Uslanja

Active Member
Our fuge is open to view and although we purposely grow certain macro algae in there, we also use it as a place for hitch hikers or other critters that need a rest or a place to be safely kept while we find a new home for them. So we enjoy our fuge as much as our display. We will use all three compartments to hold things in. Our critter list is constantly changing in the fuge. The display tank livestock is kept more consistent.

We run our fuge lights opposite from our display. We use 50/50 Coralife bulbs to light the fuge. We do get algae growth in out DT but allot less then before the fuge.
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
JT101 said:
I mean, how does the tank "know" not to allow any HA to grow in the display tank - just because it's growing in the fuge? The way I look at it, if you had HA, for example but no fuge, and then one day you ADDED a fuge, and HA started to grow in it, why wouldn't it CONTINUE TO DO SO in the display?
Click to expand...

You're thinking right, which is always good in this hobby :D

What makes the algae grow in the refugium instead of the DT is that the refugium is a more beneficial environment for the algae than your display. Without a fuge, the only place algae has to grow is in the DT. This environment works, but the high K temperature bulbs we use are not the best for algae. They are full spectrum, so they will be sufficient for algae, but they are not ideal.. algae prefers lower temp bulbs with more red and less blue. The beauty of a fuge, on the other hand, is you can go to Walmart and get a high powered standard CFL bulb. These bulbs are high powered and have a low color temp, usually around 6,500k. These bulbs give off a yellow light, but in a fuge it doesn't really matter because the fuge is out of the way and you're not trying to make corals look good. So basically, when you hook up the fuge and put cheato or other macros in it, they are given a much better environment to grow in than algae in the display tank. The high K color temp makes the macroalgae grow quickly and it starts to suck up all the nutrients. Soon, there is not much left for the HA in the display. If all goes according to plan, the HA will begin to starve.

What gfoot2000 said is absolutely true. There is simply no food left for the nuisance algae with the use of a fuge because the fuge allows you to create a very controlled, VERY algae friendly environment.
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
One more way to say it:

Algae use mostly nitrates and phosphates to grow. If you remove the nitrates and phosphates algae starve. Macro algae also uses nitrates and phosphates to grow. So the macro algae (cheato) use up the food because they have a better environment for vegetation, and leave very little food for the algae in the display. It's similar to removing the nitrates and phosphates with removers, with the food gone the algae can't grow. Your just removing the food in a different way.

Or think of it as survival of the fittest. In the fight for food the macro algae in the fuge are more fit and get the food while the weaker algae in the DT starve.
 
G

Gfoot2000

Member
Aside from that, the refugium's main purpose is a haven for animals and plants to grow without predation and being grazed, you can use it like a farm and harvest the chaeto for your grazers and copepods and others to get blown into the dt
 
Skyreefer

Skyreefer

Member
With the use of my refugium and consistent testing I've noticed that different types of algae thrives in the refugium and barely grows in the DT. I have seen major HA blooms in the sump but haven't seen one strand in the DT. Even when I clean the sump, HA gets pumped back into the DT, lands on the rock, but doesn't reproduce. I used to run a tank with no sump or fuge and I had crazy algae problems. So I guess the conclusion is running a refugium with macro and nuisance algae keeps your display tank pretty. I do have to scrub the glass once a week, but it's not too bad.

Question: I have mangroves and chaeto in my fuge. I was considering getting a phosban reactor. Will that be overkill?
 
GlassMunky

GlassMunky

Active Member
I actually have one of those rio mini suns. I used it on my pico 1G when it was up and running. it was def strong enough to grow algea in there, but i'm not sure about a full size fuge.
 
smokinjoe2122

smokinjoe2122

Member
I was going to use it on the back of my JBJ 28 HQI in the middle chamber. I don't know the volume of the chamber, since I haven't actually opened the box yet. I don't think it would be more than 2-3 gallons. All I want is Chaeto and LR rubble in it
 
H

Happyrc

New Member
I added a CPR hang on refugium and added the wrong light (blue) instead of yellow so my chaeto algae started dying but even so, it sucked up the nitrate and my display tank's algae issue is gone in a week (sand and glass are clean!). Last week, I swapped the blue actinic bulb for a yellow one. Yesterday, I siphoned dead algae at the bottom of the refugium (this is why you want to keep the refugium bottom's empty so you can siphon dead stuff which cause nitrate) and I'll test again in a week to see if the dead chaeto at the bottom of my refugium is what caused my nitrate to increase from 10 to 20 in 1 week.

My tank: YouTube - wide 100 gallons saltwater FOWLR aquarium with emperor angelfish and tangs
 
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