To fuge or not to fuge?

[mseepman]

I have a 25g section within my sump that is currently dry and I was planning on running a refugium in there. Before I start things off, I wanted some input from others as to whether a fuge would be beneficial still. I am running the display using Prodibio so I guess you would say I'm trying to go very low nutrient. I personally have never had much luck with fuges...but I'm totally open to doing one on here and that's what I had the sump built with.

Any opinions or suggestions?

[kien]

When I first set up my tank 3 years ago I had a fuge too. It didn't grow chaeto very well. Then BioPellets came out and they worked great for me so I rebuilt my entire sump and scrapped the 'fuge in favour of a larger reactor chamber for my skimmer and bioPellet reactor. Haven't looked back since!

[Proteus]

I also use prodibio and though I would use a fuge with cheato. Within a week the cheato was falling apart. The fuge quickly became filled with rubble

IME prodi bio has been best on its own. I used to use gfo but pulled it. I saw a small po4 jump for a week then bacteria levels balanced out. I clean glass once a week if I'm board but def not required. In turn I filled reactor with hydroton for a little more bacterial filtration

[mseepman]

Thanks for the info. I will try to figure out what to do with the space. Maybe still a fudge without macro...just a pod farm. Maybe just an area for my reactors.

[Madmak]

I've recently converted my 30 gallon refugium to a frag tank for the same reasons that Kien mentioned, biopellets killed it. Without biopellets it grew Chaeto well and helped with pH and nutrient levels. I did leave the sand bed and rubble there for the critters.

I still think a refugium is a good idea for a tank that doesn't incorporate a carbon dosing program. I would consider it essential to a tank with a small amount of live rock or one using dry rock, for at least the first several months.

[daplatapus]

When I upgraded my sump I took out my fuge because I was constantly having my DSB go rock hard and I was starting to worry about it going bad and causing a crash. Around the same time I started reading about Algae Turf Scrubbers and decided it would fit pretty good in that section. So now in mine I have a pump in that section with the ATS frame and 2 CFL brood hoods and it grows algae great!
What about putting an ATS in that section?

[mseepman]

Not a bad idea. I will have to re-look at the threads about those. Thanks for the suggestion.

[lastlight]

Just click your heels and say SantaMonica 3 times and he will come to refresh your memory =)

[mseepman]

Haha...I was just thinking that

[Pan]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-12/eb/index.php

[Duker]

Well that was an interesting read, although I am still a fan of refugium's, even if it is for the "wrong" reasons. I do enjoy the chaeto, and dragon tounge macros, agree with caulerpa being a pain in the arse with the unvassivness and sexual reproduction via "melting". Something interesting, I had to shut off my fuge in December due to a teeny weeny leak. I thought ny phosphates would go through the roof, so of course I have been watching closely and maintaining my weekly maintenance of 20-40 gallon H2O changes, and surprisingly my phosphates are even lower without the fuge (although i did have a little caulerpa in the fuge) which definetly went sexual and melted a few times before I got in there and trimmed it back....but i am still planning to re-hook the fuge up. I just gotta untie the piano from by butt. So fuge....yes please, so many cool things going on in there. Maybe this time a fuge/frag tank split....hmmmm we will see.:biggrin: