Fuge Flow

Word!

You know what... maybe you can help me out. I have read all the debates between hi and low flow. What I took from it was that in reality it did not really matter. That both could be successful.

However, what is the purpose of low low flow as 1x fuge volume?

I get that it works. When you listen to the fans of high flow it usually comes down to macros liking high flow. You have probably seen some that direct their flow on a pane of glass to shoot it across the surface and tumble their cheato.... that's fine. We know macro can grow in high flow... or you could just do a ATS and be done with and grow it that way.

But what are the benefits of going low flow? I have talked to Tangster, but never really got an answer as to what is actually going on... other than it works. What is going on in a low flow fuge as opposed to the high flow and what are you getting out of it?

 

Low flow benefits from dwell time. The bacteria, algae and animals in the DSB have more time to pull out the waste.

I think you are right about the macros needing more flow. I can't keep cheato, but then again I have a crab in the fuge that is an eater.

 

I read Powerman's sticky and he said slow flow benefits copepods. So depends on the organisms that you plan on keeping in your refugium. If you aren't keeping pods then maybe 10X the fuge volume, if you are keeping pods then maybe 5X the fuge volume.

 

But then we are back to that other debate.... filtering 10% of the waste out of 100 gph is the same as, filtering 100% of the waste out of 10 gph. In the end the total amount is the same.

One thing I was concerned with is if I supply 10x the fuge volume... is that too much overall. Am I supplying too much waste for it to process? Detritus settling out and building up. That was a concern I had, but it turned out to be no that big of a deal. I would certainly be more worried about doing what was needed to make sure it stays on top of it.

I'm not making a case for or against. In the end my fuge seemed peaceful, the DSB was healthy, and I had a lot of pods. My cheato did not grow abundantly, but it was there to mop up what was left.... my tank was not set up to grow a trash can full of cheato a week. I had no algae in the DT.

I'm a fan of moving the least amount of water as needed so perhaps I should have stuck with less longer. Maybe next time.

 

Really it's a guess... I"m not an expert on pods and I never got around to asking them how much flow they liked.

I know people have higher flows and still had plenty of pods... my aim was to allow a higher concentration in the fuge to allow more breeding. My water inlet was sort of shielded and directed, then it would overflow the baffle... even at 100-150 gph, that was still a trickle over the baffle and the fuge itself was very still. That was my real aim.

To hear of others running full sump flow through their inline fuge at 800 gph did not seem very peaceful, but I don't know.

Again, honestly, I try to think of what would be best, theorize as to what will be ideal... and perhaps it is "ideal" for my setup... but then after time you see others doing things quite different with the same out come. After a while, I was more amazed at how life flourishes in all of our tanks in all of the varieties they are run.

 

But going with this 1x volume, my flow should be 2-3 GPH (est. 2-3 gallons of water in 'fuge area)? How could I achieve this? Don't you need some decent movement for the chaeto to "tumble"?

 

If you plan on tumbling the Cheato you will need a much higher flow. Probably 10X to 20X.

 

But I will have LR, Chaeto, pods and sand in this area. 10x still look ok?

 

That should be fine. 20X wouldn't cause any issues either I believe.

 

Don't put LR in your fuge...no good reason, plenty of bad.

And tumbling your cheato is overrated IMHO. Yes people do it. The one I have seen specifically direct their water to do that... just flowing water through your fuge isn't going to do it. With such a small space, I do not think you will see a benefit.