Refugium

[BigIan]

As some of you may know alice and i have bought a fully set up marine tank and we`re throwing ideas around about what to stock.
I want a mandarin goby/dragonette, and i know that these fish can be very hard to keep as they won`t feed, but i was thinking if i added a refugium would that then enable it to feed on the life that the refugium kicks out??

i hope this question isn`t too stupid

 

[SkiFletch]

Not too stupid at all. While there are anecdotal successes of aquarists getting their mandarins to feed off of prepared foods they are very difficult to entice to do so. As you've read, the best way to provide food with them is with a refugium yet there is one problem with doing so. A "standard" refugium is a section of a sump underneath the tank. Except any pod life that grows down there is usually killed by the impeller in the pump when it pushes water back up to the tank. Therefore, if you want to keep a mandarin in a small tank such as yours, probably the best choice is to have an overhead fuge. Pump water up and let gravity return the pods safely to your tank, its essentially a reverse sump . Put some LR and macroalgae up there and you're all set

 

[BigIan]

thats what i was thinking, i was toying with the idea of having a shelf above the tank as the wall there is a bit bare, what sort of gallonage are we taling about here for a fudge?

and would i need to have the protien skimmer off in order to keeo the "pods" in the water

 

[SkiFletch]

If memory serves you have a 3' tank, something like a 20 long would probably look good above that. And you can run a skimmer, thats not a very big deal when it comes to pods

 

[Miss Wiggle]

cool, you do realise ski you've got Ian all excited now, he kept rolling over in bed and nudging me just to say 'mandarin goby' now that is sad!!!

what we reckon is we carry onas we had planned, leave room in our stocking for one and when we're at the very end of our stocking which will be some very long months away we'll discuss it again and decide if it's too much work or too much of a risk for us. Cos there's no way we're ready to start trying for extra sensitive and difficult marine fish just yet!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Lol, good plan . The good news is that an overhead fuge is easier to install once fish are in the display tank than installing a fuge in the stand or below the display. I'd make the decision in 6 months if you can make Ian wait that long . Then if you decide you're ready for one, construct your fuge, populate it for a month, and give it a try.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Lol, good plan . The good news is that an overhead fuge is easier to install once fish are in the display tank than installing a fuge in the stand or below the display. I'd make the decision in 6 months if you can make Ian wait that long . Then if you decide you're ready for one, construct your fuge, populate it for a month, and give it a try.

obviously, i can make him do what i like...............






















thats a complete and utterl lie but I do like to delude myself.

 

[BigIan]

we`re getting a mandarin goby......

Eventualy.

do refugiums need lighting ect? as i was thinking that i could keep loads of cool critters in there, and watch them crawl around on an evening

 

[Sp00ky]

IAN!! LOOK !!

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/spotted-mandarin-mar...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[andywg]

Except any pod life that grows down there is usually killed by the impeller in the pump when it pushes water back up to the tank.

Strangely, Most people I have seen posting who actually have a fuge under the tank in a sump state they have seen many critters go through unscathed (through placing them in the sump and watching them go up when adding cultures).

It is very much undecided as to whether the pods do or do not survive the ride up the sump return.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, you'd have to light it for sure. Probably a T5 or two with a 6700k bulb to grow the macro algae for the pods to eat and hide in

 

[Miss Wiggle]

IAN!! LOOK !!

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/spotted-mandarin-mar...1QQcmdZViewItem

what? we can get them form our lfs quite regularly, no chance we'd just jump straight in and buy one now, were nowhere near ready.

 

[Sp00ky]

IAN!! LOOK !!

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/spotted-mandarin-mar...1QQcmdZViewItem

what? we can get them form our lfs quite regularly, no chance we'd just jump straight in and buy one now, were nowhere near ready.

yeah i am fully aware of that... i was teasing ian

 

[BigIan]

and thats a spotted mandarin i was after the stripey one...
no point buying one now we need some way to feed him hence the need for a fudge....

 

[crazyelece]

Cheap easy way to add a pod fuge is a HOB filter like an Aquaclear with all the filter guts stripped out. Add a little cluster of live rock rubble for the pods to grow and populate and they just fall back into the tank. Remember you need to wait 6 months after you setup the pod fuge before you get the manderin so you really need to plan and start the fuge now so the pods have time to populate and grow to substantial enough numbers to survive a manderin. The added benefit to a HOB filter is the lights on the tank should also hit the filter and thus you don't need extra lighting.