Growing a reef in my refugium

[Paul B]

I don't really have a refugium, but a lighted algae trough that is above my water. It is fed from the outflow of my skimmer (I don't have a sump)
The purpose of it is to have a better place for algae to grow rather than in my tank itself and for the years that it has been installed, it has worked flawlessly.
I don't pay much attention to it but I looked in it today because the water is a little deeper than it usually is. I have a screen in there in case I want to clean it out I can roll up the screen and rinse it off but that ain't going to happen. There is an entire coral reef growing in there and it is about 1/2" deep already. It is mostly hard tube worms but there is also encrusting corals, a type of bubble algae and hundreds of amphipods that seem to be playing ball with the hoards of baby brittle stars. This is why I love this hobby so much, you never know what you are going to find. Now I know those tube worms grow on everything as they are inside anything in my tank that has water in it, but I didn't realize I had so many growing in the trough. The water is having a hard time getting through so I will have to thin it out a little. Those tube worms make an excellent filter as their "feathery" gills are perfect for straining out tiny particles of whatever is in there and there is obviously something in there to support such a massive amount of life. Also, while re positioning a bottle that my fireclown calls home, I found a living mussel large enough to eat. He is under a rock completely under the gravel. I am not sure if it is a local New York mussel (I doubt it) or something that came on a coral as a baby.

 

[Zippy69]

Now that's a great find. What kind of corals made it in there?

 

[Paul B]

It seems that there are some of the same corals I have in my tank. Some are encrusting and some are zinia's. Most of it is a thick jungle of tube worms that the water has a hard time getting through. I think I cleaned the thing out about a year ago, but I forget. I always like to see large concentrations of tube worms as that is a good sign of healthy. They do grow everywhere but they are a delicate animal and their presence is a good thing. They grow under all my rocks and even under the gravel as they like water movement and are not photosynthetic. To have such a large amount of them means there is abundant food in the tank and that is what I like. Food grows pods and many of my fish are only pod eaters.