We (actually my husband-I supervised..lol) set up this refugium in June 2001. I would have preferred to have an above tank refugium, but being that I already need a stepladder to maintain the tank, decided to set it up on the side.
It's a ten gallon tank with a hangon overflow. A Hagen 802 pumps water from the sump to the refugium and then back to the sump. It's lit by a Lights of America light. So far, it has worked fine and the caulerpa has grown well. But, after 7 months I can see a definate shift in spectrum. We installed a fan in the refugium canopy to ensure it stayed cool, as LOA are notorious for overheating and blowing out.
My reason for wanting to add the refugium was to help battle a turf algae, as well as valonia, outbreak. It took a few months to see any real improvement, but now the turf algae is starting to recede. I can only attribute this to the ref. I have also had an explosion in the pod population in my tank. |
