I'm thinking to add a refugium to my sump for the main purpose of lighting it off-cycle to the display tank and hope to help with the typical PH swings. I realize that it will be hard to offset the much larger display tank with a small refugium but will a refugium with just live rock and rubble work at all in the case? Or does the refugium need to be planted with macro algae for this effect on PH?
Refugium question
- Thread starter dolfan
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Not a 100% sure but I believe it can work but more than likely you will just end up with hair algae in your sump. So probably only a little bit till the hair algae kicks in.
There are a lot of advantages to setting up a refugium and one of them is to help with pH swings. Like @wake125122 said, it'll be more effective as it matures but it'll still help when it's new. What are your current nutrient levels? I'm asking because myself and a few others have recently been dealing with super low nitrates and phosphates and that can create it's own set of issues. If you nutrients are already on the low side, I'd be hesitant to add a refugium because, as it matures, the algae will start to take up both nitrates and phosphates. What kind of pH swings are you getting? I've always figured some variation is acceptable and doesn't seem to do much harm to tank inhabitants.
My nitrates have been pretty low usually running < 5.0 and Phospate is also low roughly averages 1.0 or lower. I currently run a biopellets for help with nitrate and GFO for phosphate.
As far as my swing, I use my Apex and my target is to run PH at 8.24, during the day with the lighting it will rise to about 8.28 by about 6pm or so, then it will fall to about 8.14 if I do nothing in the evening. I have a kalwasser system setup that feeds kalk every 1/2 hour for 4 minutes when the PH is lower than 8.24. This is working fine, but I use about 1g of kalk a day so my kalk system needs refreshed every four days. I was thinking if I got the swing to be less then my kalk system could make it longer between refreshes, especially thinking about week vacations in the future.
I also us Fusion 1 & 2 as needed but that is not automated. I make small adjustments periodically as needed but so far with the kalk system it is maintained well.
As far as my swing, I use my Apex and my target is to run PH at 8.24, during the day with the lighting it will rise to about 8.28 by about 6pm or so, then it will fall to about 8.14 if I do nothing in the evening. I have a kalwasser system setup that feeds kalk every 1/2 hour for 4 minutes when the PH is lower than 8.24. This is working fine, but I use about 1g of kalk a day so my kalk system needs refreshed every four days. I was thinking if I got the swing to be less then my kalk system could make it longer between refreshes, especially thinking about week vacations in the future.
I also us Fusion 1 & 2 as needed but that is not automated. I make small adjustments periodically as needed but so far with the kalk system it is maintained well.
To address your question directly; not exactly ‘macroalgae’, but any algae or other similar organisms. So unfortunately yes, you are on the right track.
Short explanation: The reason why algae is required is that it will photosynthesize and help stabilize CO2 levels in the water (and therefor also the pH).
all that said, a refugium without algae will still provide multiple other benefits. Plus algae will grow naturally if there’s light, and nothing there to graze it.
Some people use a refugium reactor. So that you dont have to make any changes to your current setup.
Here is one example.
Or even an Algae scrubber.
This. Quite a few folks noted how washed out my corals looked. Now, I’m pretty certain that the oversized skimmer is more to blame, but certainly the tiny fuge I have isn’t helping. I pull a softball size of cheato out every month or so, but I’m also now dosing nitrate/phosphate.
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