Refugiums

As the name implies, a refuge is meant to be a place where other animals and plants can be kept away from the main tank and given refuge from the main tank's inhabitants, most of the time though, they are used more as algae scrubbers, in that macro algaes are grown to absorb nutrients out of the water and when trimmed and thrown away, the nutrients are exported from the tanks water. This is by far the best one thing you can do for your reef aquarium. I urge you to look into adding a few such additional aquariums to your reef system and recreate the various habitats that make life possible for the fringing coral reefs that we try to emulate.

In addition to providing nutrient uptake, the sea grasses and macro algae also provide the proper habitats to produce nutrients. By that I mean having given the multitudes of small life forms a place to live and eat within the algae and sea grasses that provide them a home, those life forms will then provide nutrition to the other larger species kept within our coral display aquariums.
By simply becoming aware of what algae species are suitable for use, and doing your best to stock such habitats with the appropriate life forms, your entire reef aquarium will become much more self reliant and that much closer to the meaning of the word reef.

If given the space, I would prefer to run a number of large refugiums in order to better recreate the various habitats that form the world's fringing reefs. Such reefs are where the vast majority, if not all, of our aquarium's inhabitants come from. Even with limited space, as you can see from my refugium, even a single aquarium dedicated to creating a varying habitat can and will have its benefits.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION