Fuge questions!!!

1. Is there a certain way you're supposed to remove chaeto (I don't mean physically)? Do you just remove it when it gets to big or is there a time frame? I understand the chaeto's sucking up the nitrates, but i thought I've read something where you toss a part of it due to it being 'saturated'...? I dont know how the heck you'd know which part to tear off and chunk!

2. What do you with all the lil tube worms etc stuck on the chaeto? Should I pull them off and let them sink to the bottom?

3. I put a bottle of tiggerpods in the fuge a few weeks ago, but all I see are isopods and a few amphipods. What happened to them? the other pods eat copepods?

4. I dont think this is an issue, but I'm seeing lil tiny bugs in the sump (return area) now. I took the 'sponge' off the intake to the pump to reduce nitrates and to allow these lil buggers to be thrown into the tank...that's the way to do it eh?

5. Should i allow hair algae and some purple lookin stuff to continue to grow in there as well or get a snail?

Thanks a bunch! ;D

 

1) Leave the chaeto alone unless it is getting too big, in which case you can prune it.

2) You can leave the little worms alone in the fuge, or you can shake them off into your tank as a little extra fish food

3) Copepods are very difficult to see, even in the dark with a flashlight, because they are small. They are probably still around, although some may have been eaten by the amphipods

4) Yeah, you can do it that way

5) Leave all the stuff growing in the fuge, including hair algae. Better that it be there rather than in your DT. All the stuff growing in your fuge will reduce the nutrients in the water that returns to the DT

 

I agree with everything said by JJK. And, yes, amphipods will prey on copepods. They will not eat them all but they will keep the population in check.