Fuge vs. Media Reactors?

I originally posted this on my build thread but I thought I might get some responses if I posted it on it's own.

Alright, I'm not sure if this falls under the category of stupid question or if it just boils down to a matter of personal preference. I haven't put anything in the refugium section of my sump. Originally I wanted to have a refugium, thinking that I would have room in my cabinet for media reactors down the road if I wanted to add them. Well it turns out there's not much extra space in my cabinet. I was wondering if I would be better served down the road by leaving the fuge section for a couple of in-sump media reactors- GFO, etc, or if i should just go ahead and put a DSB, some rock and chaeto in there?

Any suggestions or ideas?

 

I think if you get your fuge well established and it's large enough, you can skip out on the media reactors. I have a 40ga and after the fuge grew out and matured I have no need for media reactors. SPS is limited in my tank however, so if you are thinking of calcium that is a different story, plus I use my own RO/DI water so I have no real algae blooms anymore.

Fuge is way cooler to look at too And, in the case you have a naughty critter or fish, it serves as the drunk tank

 

If you have the space I suggest both specially with SPS coral. You might be able to use a HOB fuge on the DT and reactors in the sump.

 

I suggest both. Although a fuge will handle most of your worries, there are certain compounds a fuge will not remove, but a reactor with activated carbon will.

 

A "refugium" is a place free of predation for pods to grow to feed the tank. Nutrient export is something else.

I suggest you use GFO if you find you have a phosphate problem. You can use bio-pellets if you do not want to grow macro algae. You can grow macro algae if you find you have a nutrient problem. All these things have a purpose. You need to determine what your needs are for your tank.

 

You can very much make a fuge into a nutrient export mechanism, though.




That would be a 16"x16"x4" block of solid chaeto, which alone can keep my nitrates and phosphates at 0 and my DT algae-free, on a 65g (real water volume) system with no skimmer and a couple of anthias that need to be fed daily. It also feeds 3 pod-eating fish; a melanarus wrasse, a mandarin, and a canary blenny.

 

You absolutely can... but different components have different purposes. It's best to understand what it is we are trying to accomplish here.

 

Oh, absolutely. I was just trying to illustrate that when planned properly, you can achieve multiple goals with a piece of equipment or filtration scheme.

I didn't mention that it also feeds a melanarus wrasse, a mandarin, and a canary blenny with the sheer amount of pods it puts out, which I meant to - and which absolutely should have been mentioned in order for anyone to get that point from what I wrote LMAO.

 

Yep... and fuges are such a naturally good place to add macro and DSB that that has pretty much become synonymous with what a "fuge" is... even though it is not.

Bio pellets have promise and I would have to see if it would continue to be worth it to grow cheato or if the pellets would starve it out. But for me personally, even if I did not grow macro... I would still try to accommodate a pod population somewhere just to feed the coral.

 

Great replies. Thank you.

I guess that having just started the tank, I don't know exactly what my needs will be. My intent at this point is to put together the best possible basic set up that I can. From what little I know so far, keeping nitrates low is a "need" I may have. So a fuge with a DSB, some rock and macro algae will do that- right?

I understand that a fuge by definition is an area of low flow and no predators that provides sanctuary to plants or animals that require slow flow to thrive. I also understand that an opposite light cycle in the fuge will help in maintaining a stable ph in the water column. Additional nutrient export also seems like a good thing to have in any tank. So, I guess I'm basically just trying to get ahead of the game at this point. Though I won't be trying my hand at the more challenging corals at first, I do want to be prepared equipment-wise for if and when I do down the road. I'd like to keep my set up as simple and clean as possible but I do want to make sure I cover all of the bases from the start.

I'm going to go ahead and put a DSB and some rock in the fuge section and see if I can find a work-around for the space issue as far as the reactor(s) go. Having a remote fuge actually displayed next to the DT is an option I like that I guess I can resort to if I need to free up some space in the sump down the road- not really something I want to or can afford to do now though.

I guess there's only so much pre-planning I can do at this point and it seems that from everything I've read so far that there are no concrete answers to what an optimal set up would be. Especially not having any livestock or much experience yet.

Am I kinda getting it? :confused1