small refugium.. what to go in it?

[asylumdown]

I just received an Aquafuge 2 refugium from CPR Aquatic (the small size from J&L) and I'm wondering what sort of macroalgae I should put in it? My 20 gallon nano has a problem with grape caulerpa that I think would quickly gum up the insides with it's snaky vines, so I'm hoping to grow something that can out compete it.

It's a softy tank and I don't dose any calcium or alk, so I don't wan anything that will require additives.

ETA: I've never used a fuge before, I've also go the lights that come with it and am not sure if I should leave them on 24/7 or if I should have them on opposite the main tank lights. Do different macros require different light cycles?

[Aquaria]

Anyone else can chime in on where I'm wrong but I think it should be on opposite of your tank so your ph don't swing at night and also because even algae needs rest. Also I hear cheato is the easiest to grow but I'm no expert

[hound96]

+1 cheato

[Jewel]

+2 For the Cheato, as far as your lighting schedule 24/7 is ok, I'd put some rock rubble in there as well

[asylumdown]

sweet, anyone know where to get some chaeto?

[FishyFishy!]

I have a tonne I can give you. Give me a holler if you want some.

I personally love doing a deep sand bed, then live rock rubble, then cheato. Works like a charm. I had a aquaclear 110 fuge mod on 2 10 gallon nanos, and they were amazing.

[Myka]

What is the purpose of your refugium? Reduce nutrients, increase pods, decorative, ??

[asylumdown]

reduce nutrients. The live rock has been growing a thick bed of a rather unattractive macro-algae that is competing with my zoas and requires nearly an hour of manual removal once every two weeks, plus I accidentally brought in a very aggressive species of grape caulerpa that snakes it's way through all my frags and rips them apart when I pull it out. I can never seem to get all of it.

For the longest time the tank only had two tail spot blennies, but in breaking down my big tank I had to add a pygmy angel, two cleaner shrimp and several snails that I really wanted to keep. I'm now feeding 3X more than what I was previously feeding. The algae was annoying before (though, thankfully not brown slime or cyano), but now it's exploding. The pygmy angel won't touch the nastiest of the macro algae, nor will the snails or blennies. The fuge will be between the wall and the tank so I'll have to be looking on purpose to see it (don't much care if it's pretty)

[asylumdown]

I have a tonne I can give you. Give me a holler if you want some.

I personally love doing a deep sand bed, then live rock rubble, then cheato. Works like a charm. I had a aquaclear 110 fuge mod on 2 10 gallon nanos, and they were amazing.

I'll take you up on that I think. I should have kept more rock rubbles from my 90!

[asylumdown]

I took this pic last night, you can see how much macro algae is on the rocks. 4 days ago I spent over an hour re-arranging the rocks and shaving all the algae down to size. In another 10 days, the darker coloured algae will be 2 inches long. It's really firm, and very well attached. When it 'matures' it develops lighter grey/purple balls at the tips of it's branches that have really fine hairs all over them, makes it look like they have a halo. While the description might make it sound pretty, trust me, it's not.

It's been in the tank since day one, and even the lawn mower blenny I used to keep in there wouldn't eat it. I'm sure if I had a tang in there it would be gone in an hour - just in time for the tang police to bust down my door and read me my rights. I think the fuge is the better option.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g411/asylumdown/IMG_1023.jpg

[Myka]

reduce nutrients.

Then imo, the only thing you should have in there is a ball of chaeto and a strong light. For this purpose, I would suggest you move the refugium to hang on your sump instead of the back of the tank so that light leak from the fuge won't bother your tank. Lights on chaeto can be run up to 18 hours a day, and reverse cycle as the tank is would help increase overall daily pH. The ball of chaeto should be allowed to freely roll in the fuge, and should be trimmed regularly to prevent it from overgrowing. The chaeto sucks up the nutrients, and when you trim the chaeto and remove a portion you are removing those bound up nutrients from the tank.

Imo, a DSB in that small of a tank would not be helpful for reducing nutrients.

[asylumdown]

Thanks Myka, I think I'll do just that.