Fuge Set Up questions

[Dalbery]

So I will have my new sump tommorow with a 19 gallon fuge built in. I see people with sand beds and rock rubble in their fuges. What is the purpose of that in a fuge? Doesn't that make for a possible nitrate trap? Also what is the recommended gallons per hour per gallon of fuge recomendation for fuge flow? Would running 10k led's over the fuge be less beneficial than running say a 6500k bulb?
Thanks in advance,
Darrell

 

[ac7av]

You can just leave it bare and float a ball of cheeto in it. 6,500k grows green algae better but is not necessary. 10,000k will work just as good. Low flow is better then too much flow but my recommendation for a 19 gallon fuge I would say 150 to 200 gph

 

[Chichas01]

I tried to make mine support the best of all options:

• I use a deep sand bed for nitrate reduction
• water in/out is around 3-5X but I use a couple K1's to move the water in a gyre to keep detritus in suspension and provide higher flow for the chaeto. This give me good dwell time and higher flow around the chaeto and sand.
• i have sections of LR rubble and smaller crushed coral for habitat of pods and other critters along with the sand.

I can see pods, tons of bristle worms, little shrimp, and brittle stars all over the place.

 

[jrgilles]

I have a 20 gallon fuge. I have it bare bottom, as it makes for very easy clean up. I have a generic silver utility reflector with a 6500k plant grow bulb in it (compact fluorescent.) I built a light mount for the reflector out of scrap pieces of plexiglass.

I like my fuge set up. No possibility of a nitrate trap with the bare bottom, and its simple and easy. I have a couple of pieces of rock in it for pod homes, and a mesh bag full of shells also for the same.

Have 3 kinds of macro algae, and they all grow out of control. Never seen any nitrates or phosphates in my system.

If you want some macro algae and are near seattle, I can hook you up. Fuge is full and needs to be cut back. I have chaeto, grape caulerpa and caulerpa mexicana. With the caulerpa, you'll need to keep 24H lights on the fuge though so they don't go sexual (which is a good idea anyway, because it helps balance out the day/night pH swing in the system.)

 

[TJL]

Hey Darrell, I know most (including Melv's reef) are saying 3-5x volume through sump/fuge but IMHO this is old & outdated information as I have been running a high-flow sump/fuge for more than 20 years with great success. The theory that the water movement needs to be slow for the macro & pods just doesn't hold water with me, the macro is absorbing nutrients not capturing them and I have always had a tremendous population of healthy pods, brittle stars, astrea, stomatella snails etc...living in a mixed bed of Chaeto & Caulerpa growing on a sandbed. My curent system has 950+ gph running through approx 30+ gallons in a 40g fuge (31 X volume) As far as skimmers & heaters go, fast water has no affect on a skimmer and depending where you place the heater has little affect with it also. My fuge is 4/5 lit and 1/5 cryptic with a black baffle to keep macro on lit side. In our systems where water flow is so important why waste the effort in plumbing it up for a couple hundred GPH. I'm planning on bumping the turnover rate up a bit on my next system closer to the maximum drain capacity of the overflows.
Just my personal experience/opinion and your welcome to visit or PM for more detailed info.

Todd

 

[TJL]

Case in point, in nature just take a look at most any beach/shoreline and the healthiest mass of kelp and algae grow in the highest current areas like rocky points and narrow channels or on the pilings at the ferry docks where they get blasted with water flow. Then if you take a closer look you'll see huge numbers of inverts in and around them. Even in river systems the healthiest plant variety is where there is a fair amount of flow compared to the frogwater where its mostly slime algae and duckweed.

Todd

 

[blk822822]

I have seen TJL's sump and it is sooo clean. and the tank is a beauti. Very healthy.

 

[jrgilles]

I run mine slow, but not sure it really matters. Chaeto is probably happier in high flow. If you have more delicate macro algaes, a slow flow would probably be better for them.

Not sure what your setup is, but my fuge flow is controlled off of a ball valve off of my main drain line, so I can change it as I see fit.

 

[blk822822]

My refuge is set up separate from the sump. I have a ball valve on the retrun pipe back to the tank and have it set that it keeps the water in the fuge going in a counterclock wise spin through all the macros and the over flows back into the sump.It's a recirculating fuge I guess. Seems to be working good so far.

 

[Dalbery]

Thanks for all the replies. I too will have a "T" in my gravity drain line with a ball valve on the fuge side. So I think I will be going with a bare bottom with some rubble for pods to hide or just move one of my 2 pod condo's into my fuge. A little koralia K1 or K2 probably isn't a bad idea either. I have my new sump sitting in the back of my CRV right now. I'll post pics of it later today in a seperate thread. I am stoked over my new sump and I got a killer deal on having it made

 

[TJL]

I have seen TJL's sump and it is sooo clean. and the tank is a beauti. Very healthy.

Thanks Bill, and all I'm really saying, is don't waste the potential water flow to your main DT by down sizing or restricting flow through your sump/fuge. Bare bottom sand or mud doesn't matter, if your going to run the plumbing anyways use as large of a return pump (internal or external) as your overflow will safely handle.
As stated above my next and larger system I plan on running at least 3 high-flow pumps on 3 seperate large sump tanks (mechanical sump, fuge, growout) all plumbed to the DT in the fashion of a closed-loop system. Hopefully alot of water movement without having any powerheads in the DT at all

Todd