Looking for Refugium Advice

[Cuso]

Looking for some advice on how to set up my refugium - I have a RSR 350v3 so I do have the front sump chamber ready to roll and fully intend to use it for this purpose - a fairly generous area at that. Had some questions around substrate and setting it up and had originally been leaning towards a base of the CaribSea Mineral Mud but also maybe some bioballs/cubes/whatever as an added layer on top maybe?

I had typically only utilized Chaeto so don't know much about other macros or what could be cool to keep. I'm running a Tunze fuge light in the chamber. This is my first go with a sump and true refugium so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[timeconsumer]

The thing about refugiums is there's really almost no wrong way to do it. If you want a substrate add a substrate. I've done refugiums with mud/sand/rubble bottoms and I've done bare bottom refugiums, as long as the chaeto is growing the task is being accomplished. All that being said I think a bare bottom refugium is probably the easiest to not screw up.

For nutrient export chaeto is pretty much the best option. If you want to add in some other macros for fun you could do something like ulva if you want to feed your tangs or maybe a brown macro like a sargassum to have a little diversity.

 

[Cook]

I have a small amount of live rock rubble and bio media in my refugium section. Be careful with your refugium lighting, in my sump I get unwanted spillover into other chambers that creates more maintenance.

 

[jcook54]

What are you wanting a refugium to accomplish for you? I always shoot for the lowest maintenance possible. For nutrient export and pod housing, a light and some cheato work really well. It's simple and easy to maintain; just pull out cheato when it gets to be too much.

I need to make a confession: I did not read @timeconsumer post before I wrote the above sentences. If I would have, I would have seen that I'm basically saying the same thing. And now @Cook just posted some more good info that I would be repeating. Man, these guys are good!

 

[Cuso]

All great advice and much appreciated. I never had the real estate to fit much else coming from a tiny HOB stuffed with some rubble and a wad of chaeto so was just feeling overwhelmed with the choices to build something up.

I like the idea of putting some biogical media around the sump just because I'm going a little light on rock (about 60lbs of liferock) and like the balance it brings to the ecosystem with everything working in sync.

My biggest holdup is whether or not to introduce the mud since I have no experience with it, but am all for it if it creates a nice little haven for the critters and doesnt have any real downside.

 

[asunshine]

I really don't see a strong reason to add mud to the bottom of the refugium. If low maintenance is what we are all after, a bare bottom is probably the best. Only thing to watch is a small bump in phosphate can occur when you remove a large bolus of your cheato.