The Refugium

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To Set Up Your Refugium, You will need:

1 Drop-In Refugium Kit

1 Air Pump and Hose *

1 pkg. (5 lb.) CaribSea ArubaShell *

1 pkg. (5 lb.) Washed Oyster Shell *

1 Information packet

1 8 oz Bottle of Biotrace

You can aquascape the Refugium any way you like. It is recommended that you place the sand such that it slopes from just above the bottom of the window, in the front, to a bit over 2.5" in the rear. The dry sand(s) should be used to hold the finer oolitic sand in place. By completing this task outside the aquarium, you minimize the clouding effect of installing the fine oolitic sand.

JMK Displays

JMK Displays custom builds sumps and refugium units to fit in the exact space you need. Also, unlike off the shelf or in stock filtration systems of this type, we can add your baffles and bulkhead hole were you need them for special filtration equipment and location (pumps, filters, eggcrate,etc). All of our refugium tanks are produced from 3/16" thick on smaller 5-10 gallons, and 1/4" thick material on 11-30 gallon units.

Refugiums, small aquariums that either sit next to or hang onto an existing saltwater or reef aquarium, are used by a growing number of aquarists to continually cycle water into and out of the existing tank. Typically containing aragonite live rock, macroalgae (plants), and a deep sand or mud bed, refugiums:

Provide existing aquarium inhabitants with natural food sources such as phytoplankton and zooplankton

Filter water naturally (dramatically lowering nitrate and phosphate levels)

Stabilize water conditions (especially oxygen level and pH)

Help control algae growth in the existing aquarium

Add trace elements back into existing aquarium water

Serve as temporary acclimation tanks for new inhabitants

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A refugium can provide a number of benefits to your tank:
1. It can provide an area of shelter for fauna and flora that would otherwise become food for the inhabitants of your main tank. Copepods, amphipods, Mysid shrimp and other critters can reproduce without predation. If you build an overhead refugium with a gravity return, some of the critters will eventually flow to the main tank and provide an additional food source for your inhabitants.
2. It can provide a place to grow macroalgaes to export nutrients from your main tank. Caulerpa and other macroalgaes consume ammonia/nitrates and phosphates that accumulate due to overstocking or overfeeding. Placing these in your refugium will allow them to grow without predation by herbivorous inhabitants.
3. If can assist in maintaining pH levels. If you run your refugium on a reverse photoperiod from your main tank, you won't get the pH fluctuations that occur during the light/dark cycle.
4. It can be used for equipment that you don't want hanging from your display tank such as a UV sterilizer.
5. It can increase your water volume.
DIY Refugium for the Seahorse System
By Donna Malter

After years of deliberation, I decided it was time to expand the limits of my aquarium. I've studied up on Wet/Dry systems, Sumps and Refugiums. Following the advice of others, I investigated those various types of systems, and determined that a sump/refugium would be suited best for my current tank conditions.
The benefit of adding a sump to my tank is that it allows me to add more volume (of water) to my existing set up. This dilutes the potential situation more, giving me a little more leeway as things progress a little slower. Toxicity can't rise as quickly and water conditions should remain stable longer. Another benefit is it allows me to move things out of the tank, such as the heater.

THERE IS A CONSTANT FLOW OF NITRATE-HIGH WATER FLOWING THROUGH THE REFUGIUM, AND SINCE PRIMARLY MACRO ALGAE IS IN THERE, SPACE GENERALLY ISN'T A BIG CONCERN.
YOU SHOULD HAVE GOOD LIGHTING ON YOUR REFUGIUM, SO YOUR ALGAE DOES WELL, (I.E. PC LIGHTING, MH, VHO.
YOU SHOULD STOCK YOUR REFUGIUM WITH MACRO ALGAE (LOOKS LIKE SEAWEED) LIKE CAULERPA. AND A VERY DEEP SAND BED 3-4 IN.
AND I WOULD RECOMMEND GETTING LIVE SAND OR LIVE SAND ACTIVATOR.
ADD A FEW PIECES OF LIVE ROCK AS WELL.
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Walt Smith's Refugium Fiji Mud

Natural ocean mud is stocked with essential minerals and nutrients to feed reef aquariums

Refugium Mineral Mud

The ideal substrate for refugiums, it supplies trace elements, iodine, minerals, and nutrients, helping create a beneficial environment for aquarium food such as copepods, burrowing worms, decapods, and other sump organisms. It can also help boost your refugium's filtration, as it supports many types of nitrifying bacteria. Similar to varied sand in texture, its layers include marine bacteria, organic rich clay, iodine and chelated-element rich substrate, and super-fine aragonite organic acids.

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GARF HAS FOUND A SOURSE OF GREAT

FLORIDA AQUACULTURE LIVE ROCK

garf.org/news

One of the most important things that you need when you are growing tank raised Aquaculture rock is a source of invertebrates, coralline algae, and beneficial macro algae. In 1994 when we were setting up the original GARF growout tanks we were fortunate enough to be able to purchase Florida live rock. Unlike the stripped and washed versionof live rock that comes from many Pacific nations Florida live rock is full of life.

When we first visited the rock farmers in Florida in 1994 we were able to visit Dale Barger as he was starting to stock his aquaculture rock farm with premium honeycomb limestone from the Bahamas. We visited several of thelive rock collectors who were harvesting Florida rock at that time and we were most impressed with Dale Barger'srock because of the heavy growth of sponges and other invertebrates. Dale was planting his rock farm at the sametime our friend Tom Frakes was planting his farm in Florida. Much of this aquaculture rock is now over five years oldand it is beautiful.

When we are stocking Aragocrete Glue Reefs we want to introduce hardy, fast growing, brightly colored invertebrates. The coralline algae and invertebrates from the West Coast of Florida are able to thrive in many different water temperatures. We have been growing this batch of aquaculture rock for about two months in a 30 gallon tank with 1 - 18 in. fluorescent light bulb and two power heads. There is no skimmer on this tank and as you can see from these pictures, the rocks are covered with brilliantly colored interesting invertebrates.

Several years ago when Tom Frakes was in Florida harvesting some of his rock we were able to get several batchesand many of the corals and invertebrates are still alive on this rock. Our experiments have shown us that this is thevery best type of rock to use to start a captive reef especially when you can purchase the rock directly from the collector.

It is very easy to understand why rock that was grown by Dale Barger, collected by Dale Barger, and shipped by Dale Barger will arrive in much better shape than rock that has been sitting in a cardboard box for about a week :)

Florida Aquaculture Rock always has many surprisingly beautiful macro algae and sponges a growing on it. The most interesting macro algae on this piece of rock is a beautiful red Proto-Caulerpa that is proving to be very hardy in captivity.

Live rocks from this part of the Gulf of Mexico often have many species of Coralline algae growing on the same rock. On this piece of rock you can see many types of branching Coralline algae that would have surely been scrubbed off of any rock imported from the Pacific.

To the left of the Red macro algae there is a nice colony of live coral that is very hardy in captivity. These corals often live for years.

One of the best things about Florida Aquaculture rock is all the beautiful types of feather duster worms that grow so well in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of these feather duster worms reproduce in captivity.

In the years since we started testing Florida aquaculture rock we have noticed many different types of feather duster worms and interesting sponges growing on our Aragocrete live rock. It is very exciting to sit down with a magnifying glass and study the Florida Aquaculture rock when it comes in because it often has barnacles and small live corals.

One of the other benefits to using Florida aquaculture rock to seed your live reef is the fact that this rock started out as road fill. By carefully choosing the right area to plant this rock Dale Barger has created a great ecologically sound way for you have beautiful live rock.

Aquaculture Rock. what we have used this combination in tanks before we have noticed that the animals from the aquaculture live rock soon to migrate to the Aragocret, and it is always fun to watch the Aragocrete Sculptures take on the purple and pink colors of coralline algae.

Dale offers a 10% discount to all club members

when they use their passwords.

FRESHWATER SET UP