[framerguy]

There has been some interest in refugiums lately so I would like to revive this thread. I would like to see photos of your fuge! What has worked for you, what hasn't? What do you "think" would work?

In my humble opinion I think a properly maintained refugium is the absolute key to keeping many of the heretofore "difficult" corals. An even better scenario would be several different refugiums linked together to try and reproduce each microcosm (if that is the right word) in the ocean.

My current refugium is a 55g undrilled tank with a DIY overflow, about 360gph turnover, two additional 125g powerheads for flow, attached algal turf scrubber, Lighting: Three 100W spotlights on alternate cycle from DT. Inhabitants: (algaes):Cheato, Caulerpa prolifera, Botryocladia, Halimeda, Coraline, and some that are unidentified, (inverts): two serpent starfish, 6 blueleg hermits, 6 scarlet leg hermits, 4 bumble bee snails, and many many stomatellas, cocepods and amphipods by the hundreds (or thousands?). Substrate: 5" DSB sugar fine sand

Water enters one end and is drained from the other into the sump for return to DT.

Since I can't get far enough away to take a FTS I will do it in an upper and lower shot. This is the upper part:


Now for the lower:


Here is one of the blue legs foraging about!


As you can see the water enters the fuge via the algal turf scrubber which just sits on the lip of the tank and has a spotlight on it.

I really think my refugium is a big part of the success I am having with some of my corals (in particular the Elegance) and feather duster.

My thoughts and beliefs on Refugiums:
1:They DO need a Deep sand bed to help with nitrate reduction. (many dissagree on that)
2:They DO NOT need a plenum (I think we all agree on that)
3: They DO need a clean up crew consisting of hermit crabs, serpent starfish, and snails (more on this later)
4:They DO need good lighting
5:They DO need additional flow supplied by powerheads
6:They need a turnover rate of 2.5 to 5 times. Some say up to 10, I don't know if that much is necessary, but it may be. It really depends on what you are keeping or want to keep.

I think a good clean up crew does more than just clean up. In their foraging habits they are munching on algae and such and as they clip, munch, scrape, break off, what have you, they are creating microplankton for the filter feeders in the DT.

Light cycle: I run my lights on an alternate cycle from my DT. I don't do it for the pH but more to provide a dark time for the serpent starfish and the cocepods to be more comfortable foraging as they are somewhat nocturnal.

I think a refugium is an ABSOLUTE necessity for many difficult animals to be kept successfully, including but certainly not limited to Catalaphyllia (elegance coral), Goniopora (flowerpot coral), All species of Feather duster worms.

About my algae turf scrubber: I read about it in Delbeek and Sprungs latest book "The Reef Aquarium". Dentoid inspired me to implement it (whether he knew it or not). I built a 1" deep tray out of 1/4' lexan with a 1"wide lip so it sits on the rim of the refugium. Water flows over the flat surface and fuels the algaes growing there. I have not identified them, there seems to be four different species. I think a verticle scrubber would be a better option. In fact, I think an acrylic "box" that is rather tall, and say 6 to 8" square, where the water enters the bottom of the box and then is broken up by LR rubble, then spills over the top to trickle down the sides would be the best method. I didn't have the luxury of vertical space in my current fuge or would have built it that way.

OK, now you know what I have. Show us what you have (with pics of course). What are your thoughts on what I have and what would make it work better. What are some other microcosms we could create for a more effective system? Thanks!!!