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What is a REFUGIUM?
A refugium (pronounced "re-few-gee-um") is a part of your aquarium and filter system kept separate from the rest of your aquarium, so that several beneficial additions can easily be made to the tank.
Why should I add a REFUGIUM to my system?
Feed your tank right - Provide more abundant and diverse live food sources such as copepods and amphipods for existing tank inhabitants and finicky eaters like Mandarinfishes.
Naturally filter your water - Dramatically lower your nitrate and phosphate levels and export excess nutrients from your system by growing and harvesting macroalgae.
Provide refuge - Delicate species such as some of the pods mentioned before need an isolated area such as a refugium where they have a chance to thrive and multiply. Larger refugiums can also be used to help acclimate new fish to the aquarium or to separate fishes that have problems cohabitating.
Stabilize your pH - Keeping your refugium lights on when your main lights are off will keep the macro algae in your refugium consuming and processing CO2, thereby reducing common "nighttime" pH fluctuations.
Bigger is better - Adding a refugium will usually add more water to your entire system making it easier to keep water parameters stable.
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