Help on refugium / quarantine tanks

B

beeven

AC Members
Feb 12, 2008
39
0
0
Washington, DC
All,
I'm new to the hobby (just started my first tank 3 months ago) and I was hoping someone here could offer some advice on refugium and quarantine tanks. I only have one (1) spare tank to supplement my main tank... the spare is about a 5 or 7 gallon. Since I only have one spare I wont be able to have both a quarantine and a refugium at the same time. My main tank is a 75g FOWLR (looking to add corals soon). My questions are:

1. what exactly does a refugium offer
2. if i only have room for one(refugium or qtank), which is more important to have.
3. what would i need to set one up... powerhead, filtration, heater, lights... or can it just sit on its own.

any other help or advice would be appreciated. thanks.
 
beeven said:
All,
I'm new to the hobby (just started my first tank 3 months ago) and I was hoping someone here could offer some advice on refugium and quarantine tanks. I only have one (1) spare tank to supplement my main tank... the spare is about a 5 or 7 gallon. Since I only have one spare I wont be able to have both a quarantine and a refugium at the same time. My main tank is a 75g FOWLR (looking to add corals soon). My questions are:

1. what exactly does a refugium offer

<<A refugium offers a place to cultivate copepods for food and for nutirent export like nitrates>>

2. if i only have room for one(refugium or qtank), which is more important to have.

<<Quarantine tank is more important in my opinion, as all new arrivals should run a 4 week quarantine process to ensure the new inhabitant is "clean" before adding to the display tank>>

3. what would i need to set one up... powerhead, filtration, heater, lights... or can it just sit on its own.

<<For a quarantine - Heater, a powerfilter and some PVC pipe parts for hifing places..The filter media can be stored in the main display tank to keep it cycled

For a refugium, its a little different...You would need to plumb this to the main display tank, add flow, lighting, live rock and a DSB and macro algae>>

any other help or advice would be appreciated. thanks.
Click to expand...

Added some comments in red, hope this helps.

A note on your spare tank size..Depending on the size of fish you may be buying when you stock, this may not be big enough to use as a quarantine tank, i would always suggest 10 - 20 gals min...
 
I would say a QT tank is one of the most important pieces of hardware that we have at our disposal. All it takes is a tank crashing one time and loosing several hundred dollars worth of fish to realize just how important.
 
Besides the importance of a quarantine tank, I would also add that a 5 to 7 gallon tank would be difficult to serve as a refugium of any size given the following issues:

1.) You need space to put a tube from your tank to the refugium, which takes up space.

2.) Your refuguium will need a location where pods and algae can grow, which will take up space.

3.) Your refugium will also need a place for a return pump, whch will take up space.

I would be very difficult to do all of that in 5-7 gallons. I have a 20 gallon refugium and wish I had something a lot bigger for a 55 gallon tank.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll be setting up a Qtank this weekend. Which means I'll have to buy a new pump, heater, light, and maybe a small piece of LR. I appreciate the help... but I think my girlfriend hates you guys for convincing me to go out and spend more money.
 
I'd not get live rock for the QT but instead PVC pieces. You don't need a light either. It won't hurt but it isn't absolutely necessary. Here is a list I put together for QT tanks: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/blog.php?b=129 By the way, I bought a used tank off of Craigslist and even with dumping some of what came with it I spent less than $30 including the vinegar to clean it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom