Display refugium... inhabitant ideas?

[cr500_af]

My new build is including a refugium that will be completely visible. The tank it will be in is a 45g "low breeder"... 48 long, 16 wide 12 tall or very close to that, with T5 lighting. It will be a 5-6" deep sand bed, and will probably have macroalgae as well.

I'd like to have a couple of small reef animals in it, but don't know what to pick. I don't want anything that will eat all of the pods that breed, but also don't want to have to feed the refugium very much.

Any interesting ideas?

 

[merkywater]

Well that rules out my idea of Seahorses....lol

 

[cr500_af]

merkywater;724119 wrote: Well that rules out my idea of Seahorses....lol

Never kept them, but I've always kind of wanted to. What rules them out, the pods or the feeding much?

I also have a 29g that I can use for macro (so flow can be low in the fuge).

Edit: Nevermind, I went and grabbed a reference book so I wouldn't have to ask. The desire for low feeding was out of laziness, not necessity... I have WAY enough skimmer and water capacity so that feeding them heavily is not an issue. I might be willing to be a little less lazy for something that cool. This will require a little more thought. I like that idea.

 

[merkywater]

cr500_af;724121 wrote: Never kept them, but I've always kind of wanted to. What rules them out, the pods or the feeding much?

I also have a 29g that I can use for macro (so flow can be low in the fuge).

Edit: Nevermind, I went and grabbed a reference book so I wouldn't have to ask. The desire for low feeding was out of laziness, not necessity... I have WAY enough skimmer and water capacity so that feeding them heavily is not an issue. I might be willing to be a little less lazy for something that cool. This will require a little more thought. I like that idea.

I would say the pods....I have always wanted to keep them as well and thought why not in the refugium. Flow should be perfect for them.

 

[basscyn]

Im kind of doing the same thing...but I am tieing in a dedicated macro tank. I have also wondered about what fishes to add. I figured a small puffer or file fish of somekind (also have a damsel I will be imprisoning).

I too was hoping to raise mass amounts of pods. Are there any fish that dont eat pods?

 

[cr500_af]

My reference says live or enriched Mysis, but at least 3 substantial feedings a day. Nothing mentioned about pods... though as slow as 'horses are, and fast as pods are, I'd think that even if they are eating them they wouldn't decimate the population.

Edit:

BASSCYN;724127 wrote: Im kind of doing the same thing...but I am tieing in a dedicated macro tank. I have also wondered about what fishes to add. I figured a small puffer or file fish of somekind (also have a damsel I will be imprisoning).

I too was hoping to raise mass amounts of pods. Are there any fish that dont eat pods?

Plenty (assuming they aren't forced to by lack of food)... stay away from dragonets and wrasses though. If the fuge was big enough, something like a small (Kole, Tomini) tang would be cool. Maybe "plenty" was a poor choice of words, but there are a good number.

 

[merkywater]

cr500_af;724129 wrote: My reference says live or enriched Mysis, but at least 3 substantial feedings a day. Nothing mentioned about pods... though as slow as 'horses are, and fast as pods are, I'd think that even if they are eating them they wouldn't decimate the population.

I'm not a seahorse expert so can't say I do know they eat pods though....But wouldn't it be cool Barry....Go breed some seahorses.

 

[cr500_af]

Since I have time, I may just plan for that. Mark (FlyingArmy), who got me into the hobby, had a seahorse tank... that thing was great.

 

[merkywater]

Awesome!

 

[stacy22]

I used to have a 40B macro algae tank that was plumbed into my main system. I had a variety of species of macros and seagrasses in it. The animal inhabitants included a pair of clowns with their RBTA, several small green banded gobies and crab/snail CUC. I plan on eventually adding something similar to my current set-up.

 

[cr500_af]

stacy22;724142 wrote: I used to have a 40B macro algae tank that was plumbed into my main system. I had a variety of species of macros and seagrasses in it. The animal inhabitants included a pair of clowns with their RBTA, several small green banded gobies and crab/snail CUC. I plan on eventually adding something similar to my current set-up.

I tried for literally six months to find a store that could get me a Green Banded Goby for my daughter's Aquapod. You'd think they'd gone extinct.

 

[jamescook]

jawfish would like that set-up, but I thought seahorses wanted more vertical tank space.
I've got a pair of jaws and of course a pair of clowns in my 20l fuge doing great

 

[elfloyd]

A bit of caution if you go the seahorse route. They do better at temps lower than you want in a reef tank, so one will suffer for the other to thrive.

 

[thanh386]

If you have it section off, get some unique gobies. Ie flaming prawn, yasha hasa , white caps, etc