The Ultimate Refugium Starter Pack
Everything you need to set up, start and seed a healthy refugium.
Setting up a new refugium? Looking to establish a copepod population in your tank? This hand-selected package is designed to make that easy and affordable.Size Guide:
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- MarinePure Biofiltration Ceramic Media: An ultra porous ceramic media that allows water to flow through it and has an unparalleled amount of surface area providing an ideal environment for beneficial nitrifying bacteria and copepod populations.
- Fritz Aquatics Turbo Start 900 Live Nitrifying Bacteria for Saltwater: A super-concentrated blend designed to contain all of the strains of beneficial nitrifying bacteria necessary to seed and cycle your saltwater aquarium making it safe for copepods, phytoplankton, macroalgae, and other livestock.
- Clean macroalgae of Your Choice: We treat, quarantine, and inspect all of our CleanMacro algae to ensure your refugium gets off to a healthy parasite and pest-free start. Macroalgae also provide excellent habitats for copepods, zooplankton, and other beneficial microfauna.
- 5280 Pods™ Live Copepods: A three species blend of over 5,280+ tigriopus, tisbe, and apocyclops copepods of all sizes and life stages for maximum zooplankton diversity designed to seed and establish your tank with a healthy and diverse copepod population.
- OceanMagik™ Live Pyhytoplankton Blend: A nutritious blend of four strains of live phytoplankton designed to give your copepods, corals, and filter-feeding inverts a healthy and complete diet.
- Rinse MarinePure in RODI water until it runs clear then add MarinePure Cubes to refugium, sump, overflow box, etc.
- Turn off the skimmer and add TurboStart 900 Live Nitrifying Bacteria to refugium, display tank, or any other high flow area. This will introduce and establish the beneficial bacteria colonies in your tank and also make it safe to introduce the copepods, phytoplankton, and macroalgae. .
- Add Live Cleanmacroalgae to the refugium area under an adequate light source. Follow the directions on the product label and discard any water in the bag.
- Remove filter socks, turn off pumps and skimmer, and add the entire Jar(s) of 5280Pods™ Live Copepods to the refugium area. Some may also be added to the display tank if desired. Follow instructions on the product label for best results when adding copepods. Do not put the pods in the fridge, instead, keep them at room temp between 55-80 with the lid off.
- Begin dosing OceanMagik Live phytoplankton blend at 5ml per 20gal per day to keep the copepods fed and reproducing in your refugium/ tank. Store unused portion in the fridge.
- Store unused portions of OceanMagik in the fridge.


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Our Guarantee
We take the worry out of buying Live Copepods, Phytoplankton, Inverts, and Captive Bred Fish online by going above and beyond to take care of our customers. That’s why we guarantee every order we ship will be 100% Alive On Arrival or we will replace it free of charge. Booya. We’ll even cover the shipping on the replacement no matter which service you choose. Double Booya.
About our policy: When your order arrives, be sure and inspect the contents to ensure everything is looking alive and well before you add them to your tank or put them in the fridge. We’ll give you 12 hours after delivery to make sure you are completely satisfied.
“We will take care of you and make it right”
If for any reason you decide something isn’t quite ultra grade, simply snap a photo of the unopened item(s) you would like replaced. Be sure to get the expiration date on the back label in the photo. After that, visit www.algaebarn.com/claims and submit the form. We’ll review the photo and have a replacement out to you faster than a six-line wrasse at feeding time.
Captive Bred Fish: We guarantee every Live Fish we ship to be 100% Alive On Arrival and we also offer a 7-day health guarantee on all Live Captive Bred Fish. In the event that your fish arrives DOA (Dead On Arrival), simply take a photo of the fish in the unopened bag/jar within 2 hours after delivery and visit www.algaebarn.com/claims to submit the form. If the fish is DOA, we will offer you a choice of either a full refund or a free replacement, including the shipping cost. If the fish expires from natural causes (this does not include being killed by tank mates, jumping out of the aquarium, being acclimated to the wrong environment, not being fed the recommended foods) within 7 days after delivery, just provide a picture of the expired fish and we will offer you a free replacement, however, you must pay for shipping, or a refund, less the shipping cost. We can offer this industry leading guarantee on all of our live fish because Captive Bred fish are generally healthier and hardier than their wild-caught counterparts!
Invertebrates: We guarantee every invertebrate (Invert) we ship to be 100% Alive On Arrival. In the event that your inverts arrive DOA, simply take photos of the DOA items within 2 hours of delivery and visit www.algaebarn.com/claims to submit the form. We will review the photos and issue store credit for any DOA Inverts!
Once your replacement order is processed, we’ll send you a brand new tracking number automatically. Thats it, pretty simple right?
So start giving your tank the love it deserves and order with confidence knowing that AlgaeBarn has your back.

matthew.k.wyatt (verified owner) –
Loved this kit. Established a nice colony fast. My red ogo died fairly fast not sure why but ill live. Would recommend to anyone trying to start a refugium.