Questions on starting a refugium

[tima]

I just set upa 90 gallon tank w/ about 90-100 lbs of LR and Im thinking I should build a refug. to keep my mandarin happy and maintain some quality water for corals. I have a eheim pro II and hang on berlin skimmer. Can I start a refug. w/ these or do I need other filtration options? also how many gallons would be sufficient, and do i just simply pump it in to the aquarium? Also, what would you recommend to put in it to start -- I saw starter refug. kits online and such that looked good but i really am unsure. --- Thanks for your replies!!

 

[jasenhicks]

You can do a fuge on anything, thats my opinion. You just need to have a tank.sump.rubbermaid container, somthing under the tank (or above) to let water slowly flow to, and then have it get back to the display tank. A fuge is essentially another filtration type.. biological. I have one and it has about 10 lbs of reef rubble, KATO macroalgea, and some various red/green macro that looks like teacup and somthing else.
No matter how large or small the fuge, its going to be beneficial.

 

[thomas712]

For a pod breeding fuge you only need sand and chaetomorpha algea, you don't need rocks but you can.
I have a 90 gallon and use a 55 gallon filtration tank or refugium right behind the main tank. The chaeto provides the pods with plenty of places to live, breed and play. Mine happens to be gravity feed to the fuge and gravity feed to the sump, then the return pump sends it back to the main.
Thomas

 

[jasonj75]

i have a 90 also, the fuge is a 3 compartmented with acrylic 29 gallon tank. the drain goes into the left side of the fuge which is filled with bio balls, basically used to diffuse bubbles. the second middle area is filled appx 4 inches of sand. the third area has to baffles separating from the 2nd compartment. the third is going to be home from my skimmer... this also is drilled out and the bulkhead leads to my pump. these are some pics the night i set it all up.

 

[m000240]

Originally Posted by JasenHicks
You can do a fuge on anything, thats my opinion. You just need to have a tank.sump.rubbermaid container, somthing under the tank (or above) to let water slowly flow to, and then have it get back to the display tank. A fuge is essentially another filtration type.. biological. I have one and it has about 10 lbs of reef rubble, KATO macroalgea, and some various red/green macro that looks like teacup and somthing else.
No matter how large or small the fuge, its going to be beneficial.

So where do you get the macroalgea? May be a dumb question, but I had to ask.

 

[jasonj75]

Originally Posted by m000240
So where do you get the macroalgea? May be a dumb question, but I had to ask.
you get macro from your LFS... very inexpensive

 

[tima]

Thanks for all of the replies and the picutures guys. I am going to try to get a plan of attack and materials and I'll be back with probably more questions.