Refugium Growth

[daveb]

Exactly how long does it take to start seeing the Pod's alive and proliferating in a new refugium?
Mine has been up for 12 days and no sight of anything alive yet...
Thanks,
Dave

 

[coxy101]

Did you "seed" the sandbed in the fuge with live sand from another tank or your LFS?
If so, you should start seeing them soon. Sometimes it's easiest to see them with a flashlight once the lights are off.
I found that if you put some rubble rock in your fuge, the pods seem to reproduce faster.

 

[squidd]

12 days... and you haven't seen Pods Yet ???...
Did you put any in there to start with...?? :thinking:

 

[daveb]

I added to the Refugium, a plenum, 20 lbs of sand, 20 lbs of live sand on top of that, and 6 lbs of GARFGRUNGE, and some live rock out of my display tank, a peice of maybe 4lbs..
The refugium is 29 gallons, with a flow rate of 165 gallons per hour..pumped from the main tank to the refugium with a drain back to the main tank thru a drilled hole in the side of the tank with a bulkhead...
I have not yet ordered any Cheato for the refugium, which I intend to do...
Maybe I am just impatient...
I have a 50-50 10k and Actinic 30 watt that lights the Refugium at night, off during the day when the main tank is lit...
Thanks, Dave

 

[daveb]

Here are a few pics of the setup...

 

[daveb]

pics

 

[daveb]

pic

 

[rangermonroe]

Do you want bugs?
Go to the LFS and ask for a pound or two of the crushed coral substrate in the "rock tank".
Bzillionss of bugs, and probably some worms.
All for about $10

 

[coxy101]

I got a couple of pounds of sand from my LFS from their fuge for free with purchase when I started my tank. It really doesn't take much for the "bugs" to start multiplying. Putting chaeto or some other macro algae really helps with reproducing - they like to hang out in it.

 

[hariii2]

Got a question. Not sure if this is the right place, but you mentioned your refuge light on when your main tank light is off. I have read that many places, something about pH? :notsure: I thought that pH is a measure of [OH] ions in the water? So how does light effect that??

 

[squidd]

Conversion of CO2 to O2 by plants through photosynthsis opposite Main tank production...

 

[coxy101]

When you turn your lights on your fuge off, photosynethis (by your macro algae) stops. So your pH decreases because dissolved CO2 is not being eaten up by the photosynthesis (plants). So the CO2 turns into carbonic acid, lowering pH.
If you wanted to have a more stable pH, you would either want to do reverse lighting (main tank on - fuge off, then fuge on - main tank off OR you would want to have your lights on 24/7, which I do).
Hope that makes sense...