Refugiums: Yay or Nay?

[spedly]

I don't really have a reason for a refugium. I guess what's driving it more than anything is, "hey, I have a section in my sump for a refugium. maybe I should put something in there."

I like the sounds of "nutrient export" but I'm not sure if the section is big enough to have much of an impact. It's a 12.5"x14.5" section on a 150g display. Moreover that's probably not big enough to grow a sufficient amount of critters to feed a feed a mandarin.

I think I'm answering my own question as to whether or not I should get one going.

[coolhandgoose]

I'm in the same boat, I have a section of my sump that's been empty since the start of the tank. I can't decide what I want to do with it. I don't have a light either so if I want to grow cheato I'd have to get that as well.

Question : for feeding a mandarin do you guys take the pods out of the fuge or just let the return pump shoot them up should they fall in the return section?

[spedly]

Regarding the pods, my understanding is that only the larva will go through the return pump and into the display. However fish eat the adults - and they're too big to go through the return pump, so they need to be fished out manually.

The larva will grow in the display tank and eventually become tasty morsels if they have the required nutrients in a safe place inside display tank.

The more I went down the pod/refugium wormhole yesterday the more I realized that the easiest way to get enough stock is to have a tank dedicated for them. I don't think I want to do that right now.

[Trigger Man]

I liked the idea of a refugium and tried it with the trigger system Elite sump that has the built in fuge. In the end I could never get it to work out properly and ended up shutting it down and leaving it running just water. I try to put some LPS into my tank where possible as my extra filter cleaning. I was talking to a few guys that swear that using xenia's in the fuge area does more.