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1AaronTravels

The Refugium

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Whats the overall consensus on cleaning the walls of a refugium??? While my tank is a little over 3 months old, I have some alga growing on the walls and over the divider into the center return section. I saw pix of Marc's refugium per the review of the Refugium LED Lighting system and it's crystal clear.

on mine, I've noticed that in amoungst the algae thats growing on the sides, are pods and little creatures. Am I inviting trouble in scraping the sides down and clearing out the pods as well????

Also, Is there any specific amount/level of sand that should be in a fuge??? I've about an inch and a half worth.


Thoughts and opinions?


Thanks,
Aaron
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Comments

  1. matt_longview's Avatar
    My personal opinion... which is my personal opinion because I read a lot of wetwebmedia... is less than 1 inch or more than 4 inches of sand. I chose less than 1... because as much as I love clams, why not let them look beautiful pulling nitrates out instead of a DSB (I know the answer to that question, but I also do 2 5% waterchanges a week and one large one a month)? I feed my tank like it's a horse, and still stay at 0 nitrates with clams and chaeto (which I keep lit 24 hrs a day).

    As far as algae in the fuge... I would leave it be. If you want a nice looking fuge, clean it up slowly. Wipe down a small section and then wait awhile. Then the next time keep that small section clean and wipe down a little more. I will admit that Marc's fuge looks just as nice as many tanks! :-)
  2. melev's Avatar
    I like keeping the refugium clean. The pods can live on the walls until I clean it up, or they can live on the macro algae. Their choice. Adding snails can help do this for you, but a bunch of film algae obscures my view.
  3. 1AaronTravels's Avatar
    Thanks All, I added some snails and will sit back and watch them work..... lol... like watching grass grow, but the opposite.... They clean where they want, wont stay in there assigned areas and often take breaks....