Building a fuge

by **nicholas542** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:42 am

Hey guys I recently bought a tom's rapid's pro wet/dry filter. I think i'm going to just be using the overflow/surface skimmer portion, and building a refugium. I currently have a 40 gallon that is 12 inches wide, 18 inches deep, and 36 inches long. Any good suggestions on how big a fuge I should make. I already have a soccer ball sized mass of chaetomorpha macro algae, and 10 red-mangroves to plant in the fuge. Just wondering what type of substrate I should use, and how deep of a substrate bed to create. Any advice is good advice so feel free to hit me with it.

by **fihsboy** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:23 am

the deeper the better. And I would go with a 29 gallon sump. It would fit in your stand....and it would give you plenty of room. divide it out into portions like I did on mine....except mine is a 20 gallon....plant your mangroves or let them root themselves I personally dont like the chaeto....it kept dying on me. I had a ton of light on it and It just let the nutrients back in the water. In a few weeks im going to get some culpera and light the fuge around the clock to prevent a sexualality with the culpera. I would just use some good quality live sand and some mud. Mix it together really nice and you should get a good quality substrate.

by **nicholas542** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:56 am

I though chaeto didn't go a-sexual i have a crap load of the stuff like I said a soccerball sized mass ready to go into a fuge. The Culpera macro algae is better?
I've been raising this chaeto in a plastic container with a 11 Watt power compact running 24/7, theres a ton of little critters in there too. I like the idea on the substrate what type of mud should I use there's a ton of diffrent manufactures.

by **fihsboy** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:24 pm

Mine didnt go asexual.....it just didnt take in as many nutrients as I was hoping for. I didnt realize you had to keep pulling the algae out..Substrates up to you man. I would get something burrower friendly....so you could get some nas snails to eat the dietrus out of your sand. plus worms,copepods, and brittle stars. The main benefit with the mud is that you would have all the trace elements down there slowly releasing in your system. Your right....Chaeto doesnt. It just kept dying on me.....releasing the nutrients right back into the system.

by **schigara** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 4:22 am

I hate to keep harping on this but a Xenia Scrubber seems to really work. There is not much info out on the web yet but I have been using it and have seen zero nitrates since I started using it in the refugium. My tank is SPS dominant and nitrates have been at zero for more than 6 months.

Display and Xenia Scrubber have shallow sandbeds. Original refugium has a 8" sandbed which does not produce many signs of an active DSB.

Macro always sucked and never produced results like Xenia.

I still test bi-monthly for nitrates and still come up with zero.

by **nicholas542** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 5:55 am

like pulsating xenia coral or what ?

by **schigara** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 5:03 pm

yep, Red Sea, Elongata, any will work. The Elongata grows very fast though and would seem to consume nutrients quicker because of this.

by **fihsboy** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:32 pm

Im going to get some and throw it in my fuge. I would like to try this as well as the mangroves and the dsb.

by **nicholas542** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:29 pm

yeah I got a bold pulsating xenia just the other day and threw it in the tank. When I starts to get too out of control I'll harvest some from the display tank and transfer into the fuge. I love it when a good plan comes together.

by **nicholas542** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:00 am

Finally got my 20 gallon long tank for my fuge. Found it at petsmart for under $40.00 I think I'm going to add a 5-6 inch sugar sand bed. I'll post some pics when I get the thing done. I'm going to have to build a new stand now though so I can have a compartment just for the fuge, and a compartment for all the electical. I think I'm going to build it a little longer than normal so I have a side table for fragging, and doing my water testing.

Building a fuge

16 posts • Page 1 of 2

Building a fuge

Building a fuge

16 posts • Page 1 of 2