critters in the refugium

so i am torn on what do. i hav heard both sides...what do you guys think

my fug has been going for awhile, nice DSB. Now the question is "should i add a couple of turbo and nassirus snails. Its mostly only hair algea growing in there. is it even worth it? if anything i think the nassirus snails might be good to just move the sand around alittle bit.

 

Well, IMO the hair algae is good in the fuge to use up all of the nutrients in the water. Once my tank is up and running with fuge i will be adding a goby to sift sand and not eat the algae. It's up to you though.

 

Froc3, curious on what flavor of gobies you use in your refug?

 

a sand sifting goby is going to be taking out a lot of your critter population in your refugium, if you can, i would rather use nassirus for sand sifting as it will mostly be at the bottom of the tank and not really going towards the hair algae that is most likely going to be in your microalgae.. nassirus for sand sifting would be the wiser way to go if you want a good critter population in your refugium..

 

Refugium owners beware! I tried to incorporate the benefits and help of snails in my refugium a couple times and everything was fine until they climbed up into the return hose and clogged up the refugium, needless to say the water ended up all over the floor!

 

nope, dont add anything but micro/macro algae.

 

I'm digging up this thread, and I hope you don't mind sucka, I'd like to ask a few more questions about this. Not meaning to jack your thread, just not much on this subject and I don't think adding a thread would be good for this question. Let me know.

 

This is a quote from Tangster--I set my fuge up and went by this rule--My fuge has been very successful

A refugium is not ever going to be attractive if its to do the job its designed to do. Its a swamp not an attraction . When one is working and growing as it should there is no room in it for a fish and the purpose is to export nutrients and if you house algae eating animals in there unless you toss them out also along with the exported grasses then you just created more waste to deal with. No fish no snails no shrimp not nothing but deep sand and grasses and bugs . But hey you can put these in there just don't expect it to do the job you think it will perform . Just are setting up another display tank not a refugium.

Refufium means place of refuge and they where developed and brought along to be a safe place for a Dee sand bed to be safe and to give the sand fauna a safe place to live free from predation and do their magic work and to supply some natural foods . Its just a nasty saltwater swamp/marsh

 

The problem I'm actually having is GHA & Cyano are so bad in my fuge, that I think it's spilling over into the DT. I have plenty of snails, crabs, inverts that each do their own job, but it still seems like it's getting into the DT. I'm also having bouts of Aiptasia. I never had them in the 55 and it was filthy, underfiltered, overstocked and overfed. My coralline is flaking and red bubble algae(pretty sure it's what it is), is growing in it's place. I feed my fish once a week. A pinch of flakes and a few pellets for my EG. I change my filters about once every two weeks, sometimes more. All my levels are within normal limits(I know that the normal limits are, I've been around this long enough). So, this leads me to thinking that maybe my fuge either isn't big enough, or, over loaded?

 

Green hair algae is a nusiance alage correct?? So if it is in your fuge...how does it not get into your DT ??