question on refugium

[Lee Hon Myung]

Hi all, i currently have a 3 feet sump with about 1/3 allocated for the refugium. initially i only have 1 handful of cheeto plus a bag of carbon (no sandbed) but after adding t5 lighting, it has now boomed into a forest with and the dirty bottom is brimming with activity! i see alot of very small looking shrimp like creatures that seem to crawl very fast in the water, i even see some creatures that resembles the brittle sea star.

question: should i attempt to clean the bottom of the refugium (that means i will have to take out the creatures i mentioned above)? there is this red plant that grew out of nowhere (i presumed is some form of algae) should i remove it from the refugium as well?

[waterperson]

One of the reasons for refugium is cultivation of copepods. The shrimp like creatures you see are the pods. Some will get pumped into the main tank from time to time as fish food, healthy snacks.

Red plant not so sure without pic id. Most probably macroalgae.

[Pacman]

Those are good stuff some people tried very hard but still unable to have them. Don't disturb their peace haha let them alone it's also a sign of healthy system

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[xiggie]

The refuge was build to keep water clean , remove po4 and no3 . Dirts , rubbish , dead matter, detritus are the main cause of high no3 and po4.

If your tank water is good and the refuge is doing what it's supposed to do.Then I would leave those stuff alone , but if those dirt are causing problems , I would remove them. Don't worry about the little critters , there are lots more from where they first came from.

[Lee Hon Myung]

thank you guys for the info!

i shall leave the refugium untouched.