Pro's and con's to

[Off The Deep End]

Putting crushed coral in your refugium rather than oolite or a smaller grain substrate. What do you guys think about crushed coral in a refugium? I was thinking since it can hold more bacteria than aragonite that would be better for a refugium but I have never seen anyone use it for that, what's your opinions?

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[kmcmurtry]

When i had a fuge I had a bunch of little gravel and smallish rocks and the pods loved it but i wonder if more places to trap detritus is good or bad. Maybe someone will chime in who has had a fuge like that longer than me. Mine seemed ok but that tank was up less than a year.

 

[jda123]

I would go for a nice mixed size bed. As long as it is aragonite and "reef grade" size, it will be OK.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Jda are you saying I should mix the crushed coral with oolite in the fuge? I have a bag of crushed coral and a half bag of oolite.

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[Off The Deep End]

Good greef I have a few detritus traps before my fuge area, good point though.

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[jda123]

How big is the crushed coral? Does it day, or can you take a picture of some next to a penny? Too big is not good. 1-2mm is pretty good. I would not want it too much bigger than 2 or 3mm.

 

[Off The Deep End]

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[Off The Deep End]

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[zombie]

When i had a fuge I had a bunch of little gravel and smallish rocks and the pods loved it but i wonder if more places to trap detritus is good or bad. Maybe someone will chime in who has had a fuge like that longer than me. Mine seemed ok but that tank was up less than a year.

Depends on what the goal is. If your go is to have next to a 0 nutrient system then crushed coral can hurt you compared to aragonite. If your goal is to farm microfauna, then cruched coral can help you since the detritus trap provides them a better food source, but can reduce numbers for sand dwelling organisms since the sharp fines can kill them. IMO the best of all is a medium grain aragonite sand with a ton of live rock rubble.

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house. -robert heinlein

 

[Off The Deep End]

I will have cheato in there, going for low nutrient system.

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