I love the idea of a display refugium. I'm starting to turn my frag tank into one, and I'm amazed at all the awesome colorful macros out there. I've been looking on UA-cam and hardly anyone seems to have a display fuge
Thank you for your consistently enjoyable, well-produced, well-researched, and well-scripted videos! They really are of a very high quality and have helped me with my plans to get back into the hobby! Some of the videos are as good as any salt-water photography that exists! You have an incredible talent!
Thanks again!!! This is a big help because it's almost exactly what we're planning. Our main refugium will be in a separate 30 gal tank that will be for display as well as functionality.
I like your channel better than Mr. Saltwater Tank TV. You seem to have more scientific based explanations than the anecdotal self righteous ego fueled hobbyists of the internet.
Haha glad I'm not the only guy that thinks Mr. Saltwater is full of himself... XD I ordered some corals from Tidal Gardens and had a question about them when they arrived, so I called them up. I was surprised as hell when Than answered...
at 0:38 there looks like a build up of dust on the bottom of the sump. is it beneficial to remove that? I see it in my sump as well as in my barebottom display tank ( I remove it from display when doing water changes).
I think I am going to take some inspiration from this video and do an all out decorative refugium on my new display tank build. I think it would be cool especially considering from in the filtration room you cant see the display. Why not have something awsome to look at while doing maintenace.
Great video! I'm still doing research on the way I want to set up my tank. You have definitely inspired me to look at setting up the refugium as another display tank! The reversed lighting cycle might be more difficult to pull off though.
Have you seen any examples of people linking multiple tanks together to create a multi refugium system? I ask because I have a number of spare tanks available for something like this.
Love it. Great info and opinion on refugiums. I started out with marine pure cubes and chaeto. Slowly I added rock and now from old frag disc I have four diff algae’s and tons of little critters. I put snails and hermis in there and thinking of adding anemones and fish and stronger light(flora kessil 80 now).
Than. I'm confused slightly how a larger refugium vs the display would work. Would the pump over flow the display. Can you recommend a fuge size and pump model for a 20 gallon display?
I’m trying to grow pods in my tank with arefugium my tank is a 32 gallon all in one by chora Life. Many people have set up one in the third chamber in the back which is all the way to the left this chamber contains a return pump The filter and skimmer are in the chamber all the way to the right and the filtration basket is in the middle this is how the tank came set up from the manufacture my question is how can I protect my macro algae from being sucked in and shoot up by the return pump? I know that this has been done in this specific tank before I just can’t seem to get a good description of the set up The tank glass was even left clear in this basket for this purpose and I have a fixed A light specifically for this purpose with red and blue LEDs any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance
I have one big refugium and one small one I'm sump tank. It works well to keep pH and check throughout the whole 24 hours my refugium shut off lights and turn back on. At three different times I do have one question I have these little red dots on a lot of my microalgae and on the glass they look like some kind of pod or egg. Does anyone know what they are
Than, what is your opinion on Miracle Mud and the other refugium muds that are out there? There are plenty of videos out there that show tanks without a skimmer and only using macro algae and the mud.
Great video Than! I was wondering if you would do a video on coral comparability? I recently had a chalice touch a monti and the monti was left with nasty little white spot. My question is can corals of the same genius touch without issue?
I read that some people test there water right after the lights go on I don't do that. What do you think about that and what is the best time to do a water test I know the PH changes at different time's of the day. You doing a wonderful job with your channel and thanks for sharing.
How tall can some of these plants grow to? And have you considered building a drop off tank beside the stairs. Marine plants have such a diversity but the market is pretty limited, if the demand for those plants goes up you might be able to actully utilize your green house as a green house lol.
The bright orange one is a 'Harlequin Tusk Wrasse' and im not sure about the other one but im sure it is a tang of some sort almost looks like a yellow eye tang just without the yellow eye
awesome. I'm a refugium beginner with a 20 x 20x 16 crystal trigger sump feeding into a 60 gal cube display tank. I'm all all for a beautiful refugium. Interested in knowing what light (maybe T5 on a budget) and how you avoid the light spilling over to other areas of sump causing algae growth. Any ideas would be great. Beautiful looking micro algae. Thanks
rapid led -- check them out. Look up: 2 x Solderless CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED Driver Jumper Solderless LED Plug 0-10V Dimmable Nano Driver with Potentiometer 4 x Solderless CREE XP-E Photo Red (660nm) LED For less than $60 you can get all you need to make a pretty good led that dims. Search for the King of DIY - algae scrubber -- he makes a great light for algaeI ended up making that light, but building a waterfall-type scrubber.
Than what is your experience in shipping macro algae? In particular, what are the maximum allowable transit times for shipping? I am in Guam and have access to many varieties of macro algae. I thought I might try and ship some stateside and see how they hold up on the other end...
+Rod White Whenever I ship macro algae I send it overnight with a coral order, so I don't have too much experience with shipping that takes longer than 24 hours.
+dsegundo which is why some people put the refugium after the pump and let gravity do its work....from what i understand refugiums benefit from low flow so simply using a valve to divert a small amount of water to refugium then letting gravity siphon off the excess back into main tank would allow for safe travel of almost anything.
I run my refugium as clean as possible with no sand, plenty of Liverock, and mushrrom corals. I have chaeto as well as razorblade caulerpa that grows faster than the chaeto.
Love all your videos man . I have a question that is a bit off topic, i want to start a saltwater tank but where i am from we dont get any products for saltwater. If i need anything i willhave to order wich is costly . however i do live near the ocean can i use straight ocean water to start. Thanks
That's a great idea, unfortunately it's a bit of a coin toss whether this will work or not. The water will be fine, the problem is that you might introduce some parasite or pest that harms your fish. So I wouldn't bet a multi thousand dollar system on unfiltered natural ocean water. However if you have an empty tank and want to experiment a bit it's perfectly fine. You'll discover plenty of tiny animals that you might have never seen before. Try to keep a hermit crab or something alive for a few months, then grow from there. Good luck.
***** I'm no botanist, but it looks like it could be a Scinaia species. I haven't seen any photos of Scinaia with spots, though. Whatever it is, it's pretty. :)
Will tangs eat macroalgae or can I keep one in my refugium, I want to set up a 100G display refugium with a deep sandbed, lots of live rock and macroalgae to help with filtration and to produce Copepods and phytoplankton, can I keep a tang or a butterfly fish in there or will it eat the macro?
I had been meaning to watch this for awhile then was laughing to see many clips from when Than came by my office tank (my serpent star is a UA-cam star now apparently!). I tore down that massive double refugium system 100gal + 20 gal 100lbs live rock and miracle mud) with a smaller, 40gal cleaner sump system and UV BEFORE the refugium (also old system clip shown in video of what not to do) It looks beautiful now but it’s taken 2 years to get the performace back up to what it was... long story short there is something to be said for a large refugium and the first rule of biology - addressing surface area relative to tank size.
I have kept refugiums since I started in the hobby 18 years ago. I love them! I think you're 100% correct in saying it's a great opportunity to create a completly seperate artistic habitat. Currently I'm running a small CPR hang on back refugium on my 15 gallon column tank. I'm upgrading this week to a 20 gallon cube and bought CPRs medium refugium too. I'm so excited to set this one up! There's lots more room than my current fuge. I'm researching species of Macro to figure out which I want to keep. I have Chaeto, Red Dragons Breath and 2 Mangroves now. I'm using Brightwell Aquatics Koral Lagoon Substrat which is more of a crushed coral substrate but I'm thinking about switching to some refugium mud. Any thoughts? I dose Brightwell Ferrion and have a Chaeto Max growlight over it. The Chaeto is a beautiful shade of dark green and I'm loaded with pods and just saw a family of zooplankton in the Chaeto the other night. Great video man!
I have my reef tank without any calcium reactor or even dosing in different chemicals. I used boiled garlic reach in calcium or egg shell.for magnesium boiled beans or leafy vegetables reach nutrients need for your corals plants need nutrients as corals do.perfect combination is necessary magnesium,copper,calcium,iron,zinc,found in plants
why not try lighting the refugium 24/7? unlike higher plants, common in freshwater, algae dont have a metabolic rhythm and can photosynthesize constantly. (algae refugiums aren't very common in freshwater aquaristics, but just like algae farms they are usually lit all the time)
Tank pH changes during the day as display tank corals and organisms use photosynthesis. Algae could grow 24/7 but that may make pH swing even more if the algae don't stop when your display organisms are doing work. Unless you're trying to grow them for a small profit, lighting the refugium all day might be counterproductive should their uptake compete with your corals. If pH moderation doesn't matter to you, I don't know of any real downsides.
Hey man love your videos, just a little thing, around 1:30 you said mysis shrimp, mysis are freshwater shrimp, should be brine shrimp. Otherwise great video.
When I ran my refugium I had the lights on 24/7. I had to remove half the macro algae every two weeks as it would entirely fill the space. I understand the idea to help balance ph by using inverse photo periods, but is there any appreciable difference just running the lights 24/7 instead? And just thinking back... I remember learning all about bristle worms the hard way cutting the chaeto out. Apparently six inch long worms don't like to get cut in half.
people do not do this because macro and corals need entirely different water. if you get a hair algae outbreak, there is nothing that will clean the hair algae for you. a member at MARSHreef in houston had a beautiful 90g macro tank. I got some macro to use in my fuge from her. Many are slow growing. people use chaeto because nothing eats it, it does not anchor to anything, and it grows ridiculously fast. I have seen people do what you are talking about, but they abondon it because it is so hard to keep pest algae in check, as they outcompete the ornamental algae.
I've never had that problem I have three refugium hooked up to my tank. But different microalgae cheese and different time settings for whites. If you do have a hair algae Breakout. You could buy a sea hare and put him in the tank delete everything in a week. Then you'll have to put them in different tanks with algae to eat or sell him or give him back to the pet store
I appreciate all companies that share information but especially the companies that can do it with a calm soft spoken narrator. Lol.
I love the idea of a display refugium. I'm starting to turn my frag tank into one, and I'm amazed at all the awesome colorful macros out there. I've been looking on UA-cam and hardly anyone seems to have a display fuge
Thank you for your consistently enjoyable, well-produced, well-researched, and well-scripted videos! They really are of a very high quality and have helped me with my plans to get back into the hobby! Some of the videos are as good as any salt-water photography that exists! You have an incredible talent!
Thanks again!!! This is a big help because it's almost exactly what we're planning. Our main refugium will be in a separate 30 gal tank that will be for display as well as functionality.
I would love to see the rest of the build
Hey Than ,great video as usual, I visit Captive Reefs and one of the Tanks of the Month was a macro algea display tank and it look really cool!
Amazing info in this vid, great summary with really useful tips 💞
I like your channel better than Mr. Saltwater Tank TV. You seem to have more scientific based explanations than the anecdotal self righteous ego fueled hobbyists of the internet.
+shechshire i like em both....science is awesome but sometimes you just want someone to tell you what doesnt work based on their extensive experience.
+TheMirelyght This guy has both.
Haha glad I'm not the only guy that thinks Mr. Saltwater is full of himself... XD
I ordered some corals from Tidal Gardens and had a question about them when they arrived, so I called them up. I was surprised as hell when Than answered...
Thanks. Great video. Your voice is just fine. Rather calming actually.
Yea I know what your saying
at 0:38 there looks like a build up of dust on the bottom of the sump. is it beneficial to remove that? I see it in my sump as well as in my barebottom display tank ( I remove it from display when doing water changes).
I think I am going to take some inspiration from this video and do an all out decorative refugium on my new display tank build. I think it would be cool especially considering from in the filtration room you cant see the display. Why not have something awsome to look at while doing maintenace.
I'm thinking of a large refugium deticated to macroalgae and stony corals
you should plug those freshwater tanks, did you say they were done by "Amono"? (5:53)
He said "Amano" :) here a link ua-cam.com/video/NP0Qk4DnLis/v-deo.html
Great video! I'm still doing research on the way I want to set up my tank. You have definitely inspired me to look at setting up the refugium as another display tank! The reversed lighting cycle might be more difficult to pull off though.
Have you seen any examples of people linking multiple tanks together to create a multi refugium system? I ask because I have a number of spare tanks available for something like this.
Can you also feature how to grow mangroves in a refugium please
Hey Than. Great video. I keep Codium in my main display. It grows well and looks great
Don’t ever get the algae 6:36.
I broke my system down because of this algae. Could not get rid of it in the display tank
Which algae are that at 4:27 and 4:36?
Love it. Great info and opinion on refugiums. I started out with marine pure cubes and chaeto. Slowly I added rock and now from old frag disc I have four diff algae’s and tons of little critters. I put snails and hermis in there and thinking of adding anemones and fish and stronger light(flora kessil 80 now).
Where do you get those square refugium tanks?
I have a small fuge with chaeto and lights are on 24hrs/day for now. Is it wrong or this way too the pH is stabilized ? Thanks.
Thanks for the videos, really informative. Voice - I really like it, calm and price - just enforce that you know what you are talking about !
Than. I'm confused slightly how a larger refugium vs the display would work. Would the pump over flow the display. Can you recommend a fuge size and pump model for a 20 gallon display?
So I don't have a sump for another display but for nutrient export what are the best macroalgae besides cheato
I’m trying to grow pods in my tank with arefugium my tank is a 32 gallon all in one by chora Life. Many people have set up one in the third chamber in the back which is all the way to the left this chamber contains a return pump The filter and skimmer are in the chamber all the way to the right and the filtration basket is in the middle this is how the tank came set up from the manufacture my question is how can I protect my macro algae from being sucked in and shoot up by the return pump? I know that this has been done in this specific tank before I just can’t seem to get a good description of the set up The tank glass was even left clear in this basket for this purpose and I have a fixed A light specifically for this purpose with red and blue LEDs any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance
Easy question, what are the green tipped corals that are surrounding the rhodactis around the :50 sec mark?
rhodactis indosinensis
I have one big refugium and one small one I'm sump tank. It works well to keep pH and check throughout the whole 24 hours my refugium shut off lights and turn back on. At three different times
I do have one question I have these little red dots on a lot of my microalgae and on the glass they look like some kind of pod or egg. Does anyone know what they are
if you haven't already, it would be nice to make a video of you making a refugium into a showtank with some of the algae you talked about :)
Than, what is your opinion on Miracle Mud and the other refugium muds that are out there? There are plenty of videos out there that show tanks without a skimmer and only using macro algae and the mud.
Great video Than! I was wondering if you would do a video on coral comparability? I recently had a chalice touch a monti and the monti was left with nasty little white spot. My question is can corals of the same genius touch without issue?
I read that some people test there water right after the lights go on I don't do that. What do you think about that and what is the best time to do a water test I know the PH changes at different time's of the day. You doing a wonderful job with your channel and thanks for sharing.
How tall can some of these plants grow to? And have you considered building a drop off tank beside the stairs.
Marine plants have such a diversity but the market is pretty limited, if the demand for those plants goes up you might be able to actully utilize your green house as a green house lol.
Hi Than, is it worthwhile setting up a refugium in a reefer 170?
What are the two types of fish at 2:50
The bright orange one is a 'Harlequin Tusk Wrasse' and im not sure about the other one but im sure it is a tang of some sort almost looks like a yellow eye tang just without the yellow eye
Hey I am setting up a 65 gallon tank I want a frogfish though so I want to set up a refuge for it can this work ?
can you do a video on electric flame scallop feeding, or do u have any recommendations for feeding.
awesome. I'm a refugium beginner with a 20 x 20x 16 crystal trigger sump feeding into a 60 gal cube display tank. I'm all all for a beautiful refugium. Interested in knowing what light (maybe T5 on a budget) and how you avoid the light spilling over to other areas of sump causing algae growth. Any ideas would be great. Beautiful looking micro algae. Thanks
rapid led -- check them out. Look up:
2 x Solderless CREE XT-E Royal Blue LED
Driver Jumper
Solderless LED Plug 0-10V Dimmable Nano Driver with Potentiometer
4 x Solderless CREE XP-E Photo Red (660nm) LED
For less than $60 you can get all you need to make a pretty good led that dims. Search for the King of DIY - algae scrubber -- he makes a great light for algaeI ended up making that light, but building a waterfall-type scrubber.
Thank you for sharing this video! I was wondering if you could suggest where these less common species of macro-algaes can be purchased?
Than what is your experience in shipping macro algae? In particular, what are the maximum allowable transit times for shipping? I am in Guam and have access to many varieties of macro algae. I thought I might try and ship some stateside and see how they hold up on the other end...
+Rod White Whenever I ship macro algae I send it overnight with a coral order, so I don't have too much experience with shipping that takes longer than 24 hours.
Wouldn't the copepods die when they're sucked into the pump?
+dsegundo which is why some people put the refugium after the pump and let gravity do its work....from what i understand refugiums benefit from low flow so simply using a valve to divert a small amount of water to refugium then letting gravity siphon off the excess back into main tank would allow for safe travel of almost anything.
what kind of mushrooms are those at the beginning for the video?
I run my refugium as clean as possible with no sand, plenty of Liverock, and mushrrom corals. I have chaeto as well as razorblade caulerpa that grows faster than the chaeto.
Love all your videos man . I have a question that is a bit off topic, i want to start a saltwater tank but where i am from we dont get any products for saltwater. If i need anything i willhave to order wich is costly . however i do live near the ocean can i use straight ocean water to start. Thanks
That's a great idea, unfortunately it's a bit of a coin toss whether this will work or not. The water will be fine, the problem is that you might introduce some parasite or pest that harms your fish. So I wouldn't bet a multi thousand dollar system on unfiltered natural ocean water. However if you have an empty tank and want to experiment a bit it's perfectly fine. You'll discover plenty of tiny animals that you might have never seen before. Try to keep a hermit crab or something alive for a few months, then grow from there. Good luck.
Is there a ratio of how big to get a refugium. Or is having a 1 to 1 scale ok too?
What was the coral around 4:50
***** I'm no botanist, but it looks like it could be a Scinaia species. I haven't seen any photos of Scinaia with spots, though. Whatever it is, it's pretty. :)
love watching your videos, than. thank you for all you put into these wonderfully educational vids!
Will tangs eat macroalgae or can I keep one in my refugium, I want to set up a 100G display refugium with a deep sandbed, lots of live rock and macroalgae to help with filtration and to produce Copepods and phytoplankton, can I keep a tang or a butterfly fish in there or will it eat the macro?
Tangs love macro-algae.
Would pods, grape caulerpa and brittle stars thrive in a SG of 1.046 with brine shrimp
+Austyn Rocco what are u making ? pickles ??
The Fish Guy I hope nothing is in there
Do I buy micro algae or do I grow it
What do you think of filter socks?
I'll it effect copepods?
Thank you
Does it affect them?
No. Ones you have them in the system nothing can prevent them from growing
0:38 is that some kind of sea star?
Serpent Star
cant hear what you are saying with the backing music
I had been meaning to watch this for awhile then was laughing to see many clips from when Than came by my office tank (my serpent star is a UA-cam star now apparently!). I tore down that massive double refugium system 100gal + 20 gal 100lbs live rock and miracle mud) with a smaller, 40gal cleaner sump system and UV BEFORE the refugium (also old system clip shown in video of what not to do) It looks beautiful now but it’s taken 2 years to get the performace back up to what it was... long story short there is something to be said for a large refugium and the first rule of biology - addressing surface area relative to tank size.
Can I have a refugiam without a sump?
what about no skimmer?
I have kept refugiums since I started in the hobby 18 years ago. I love them! I think you're 100% correct in saying it's a great opportunity to create a completly seperate artistic habitat. Currently I'm running a small CPR hang on back refugium on my 15 gallon column tank. I'm upgrading this week to a 20 gallon cube and bought CPRs medium refugium too. I'm so excited to set this one up! There's lots more room than my current fuge. I'm researching species of Macro to figure out which I want to keep. I have Chaeto, Red Dragons Breath and 2 Mangroves now. I'm using Brightwell Aquatics Koral Lagoon Substrat which is more of a crushed coral substrate but I'm thinking about switching to some refugium mud. Any thoughts? I dose Brightwell Ferrion and have a Chaeto Max growlight over it. The Chaeto is a beautiful shade of dark green and I'm loaded with pods and just saw a family of zooplankton in the Chaeto the other night. Great video man!
Great info!
There is a fish larvae at 1:33
Great video T!
Awesome video!
Great vid! Informative as always!
Re watched this as I’m setting up my first fuge. Are you going to run a display fuge alongside one of your new DTs in the new facility?
I have my reef tank without any calcium reactor or even dosing in different chemicals. I used boiled garlic reach in calcium or egg shell.for magnesium boiled beans or leafy vegetables reach nutrients need for your corals plants need nutrients as corals do.perfect combination is necessary magnesium,copper,calcium,iron,zinc,found in plants
what is that beautiful pink fish @ 3:45
+Nick Rauseo Those are square spot anthias
why not try lighting the refugium 24/7? unlike higher plants, common in freshwater, algae dont have a metabolic rhythm and can photosynthesize constantly.
(algae refugiums aren't very common in freshwater aquaristics, but just like algae farms they are usually lit all the time)
Tank pH changes during the day as display tank corals and organisms use photosynthesis. Algae could grow 24/7 but that may make pH swing even more if the algae don't stop when your display organisms are doing work. Unless you're trying to grow them for a small profit, lighting the refugium all day might be counterproductive should their uptake compete with your corals. If pH moderation doesn't matter to you, I don't know of any real downsides.
Hey man love your videos, just a little thing, around 1:30 you said mysis shrimp, mysis are freshwater shrimp, should be brine shrimp. Otherwise great video.
When I ran my refugium I had the lights on 24/7. I had to remove half the macro algae every two weeks as it would entirely fill the space. I understand the idea to help balance ph by using inverse photo periods, but is there any appreciable difference just running the lights 24/7 instead?
And just thinking back... I remember learning all about bristle worms the hard way cutting the chaeto out. Apparently six inch long worms don't like to get cut in half.
great information here
thanks
Very nice!
SURE WISH YOU WERE MY BROTHER DAN, HOW DO YOU DO ALL THIS, I CANT GET THIS NFO BUT HERE ON Y.T. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!
Than*
so informative thank you
does Caulerpa works in refugiums?
I just LOVE hearing your
Voice....
I am addicted..
thanks for the video
Otimo video 😉✊🏾
Very informative. Many thanks :-)
people do not do this because macro and corals need entirely different water. if you get a hair algae outbreak, there is nothing that will clean the hair algae for you. a member at MARSHreef in houston had a beautiful 90g macro tank. I got some macro to use in my fuge from her. Many are slow growing. people use chaeto because nothing eats it, it does not anchor to anything, and it grows ridiculously fast.
I have seen people do what you are talking about, but they abondon it because it is so hard to keep pest algae in check, as they outcompete the ornamental algae.
I've never had that problem I have three refugium hooked up to my tank. But different microalgae cheese and different time settings for whites. If you do have a hair algae Breakout. You could buy a sea hare and put him in the tank delete everything in a week. Then you'll have to put them in different tanks with algae to eat or sell him or give him back to the pet store
Love your channel just subscribed :-)
Have my volume up all the way and all I hear is music, what are you saying?
So true man
GOOD JOB THAN
Than just do asmr already
Kinda nasty...Lol
I CANT UNDERSTAND YOU..... SPEAK HARDER!