took my fuge offline

And it was probably one of the best things that I have done to my tank in a LONG time...

My fuge was getting dirty, to the point where the nutrients were uncontrollable and bringing my whole system down. I am sad that I will be loosing the awesome benefit of a DSB but in only 4 days I am seeing a tank that looks nicer than it has for months!!!

now that thats out of the way I have a spare 20g to do something productive with... another frag tank maybe? species tank?

 

That's too bad! I vote....species tank!!!

P.S. I'm still bored!

 

hahaha im still writing my paper. looks like an all nighter tonight

 

Any idea on what kind of species tank you would do??

 

my lfs has mantis shrimp in at all times... except they put the prices of the peacocks through the roof :-/

I could also do a simple setup for non-photosynthetic stuff but then i have to feed them and that makes for fowled water down the road...

I have always liked harquelin shrimp so maybe I could put in a few of them

Im not really into anglerfish so they are a no go.


Anyone else have ideas?

 

haha another frag tank just sounds sooo much easier right now

 

Y not jus vacuum the dsb of the fuge out? Or even just leave it offline for awhile with water ad an airstone let it clean itself up?

I do love mantis shrimp tho....

 

I actually have not run a "fuge" in a few years. I do have a sump for equipment, but with carbon dosing and other methods, my macro tends to die off if I don't dose nutrients for it. So, I have not bothered. As long as I keep up with water changes, changing out carbon and GFO, keep the Protein skimmer running well, keep fish stocking reasonable, I do not see any nutrients or nuisance algae. I do have a lower display, that I was thinking about making an inwall display fuge. However, things have been good enough, I have just made it into a second reef display instead.

 

I have been finding this to be true with a lot of people I talk to... one person that i spoke with went so far as to call refugiums the "septic tanks" of aquaria lol

 

But there is a lot that goes into that statement. If your fuge is not performing right, then why??? If you don't want one or you want something different then fine. But if it is not doing well... then why not get it right???

A fuge it's self is a place for pod production. That part is not a big deal...plenty of benefits to increased pod production to the tank. ultimately it woul dbe arwsome to have so many they feed of the algae and feed the rest of the tank so I don't have to.

A DSB must be maintained. It also has to be supplied with the right amount of waste... not too much that it get's choked out. Over all a DSB provides deenitrification and more micro fauna to feed the tank. However, detitrification can be taken care of other places too and perhaps that is not a big need in your system. It does not HAVE to be a part of a refugium.

Macro alage suck up nitrates and phosphates. However, perhaps this can be accomplished these days with bio pellets. Algae does feed pods but that can be handled differently.

My point is there are plenty of components to what is called a "fuge" these days. As with everything in this hobby proper maintenance operation and husbandry is the key to success. You always have to ask your self what is the goal and am I doing things properly to achieve that?