Hermits in the fuge? Is this okay?

[AnnetteG]

I keep wondering, should I have hermit crabs in my refugium? I have 4 down there now. At first, I thought it would be a good idea so they could eat up leftover food bits that get by the skimmer. But now I'm wondering if they're eating up the pods too? Maybe I should just have snails down there?

[Reefscape]

In a well running refugium, i dont see any need to house hermits there...I can see the argument side though for them clearing up any uneaten food which ends up there...

[fsn77]

I don't keep any hermits in our refugium. I do keep a few snails in there, but it's literally only 2 - 4 in a 20 gallon refugium (cerith and nassarius). There's others, of course, that I didn't add... like those tiny round shell snails that find their way into a tank via LR purchases.

I do have a word of caution though... Turbo snails are not the best choice for a refugium. I was having problems seeing any growth of our macroalgae in the refugium, and started to see our macroalgae disappearing without the color fading out or anything. Then, I figured out what was happening -- I saw the turbo snails eating the macroalgae. At first, I thought they might just be cleaning microalgae off of it, but further observation showed that they were in fact eating it. It's no wonder I couldn't notice any growth of the macroalgae. After removing the turbo snails, macroalgae growth has been great.

[JohnLin]

wouldn't uneaten food just provide more food source for the various pods and fauna therefore making the refugium even more efficient?