LFS Opinion of Fuges....

From my limited understandng, miracle mud approximates the soil type that is typically found supporting mangroves. Mangroves are situated near tropical coral reefs. Just a thought, eh?

 

Yeah the mud has a lot of iron in it I believe. It's pretty darn expensive mud though, but some people swear by it. Regardless a fuge of some sort certainly doesn't hurt if you have the room.

 

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=Refugium;num=1086799197;start=0#11 date=06/10/04 at 12:42:09]a fuge of some sort certainly doesn't hurt if you have the room.[/quote]

Amen!

 

Yes...and I do have room ...a 20 gallon tank I plan on DIYing into a fuge/sump.( My very first venture into diy)
I was looking through picture galleries and I like the one in CheckMateKingII's. I was thinking of basing mine on his....

 

Yeah CMK's fuge is a nice little one!
[smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

 

Hey Johno, if your not harvesting the pods and stuff, isn't it still a refuge for them even though your taking some algae away once in a while?

I use fuges for many reasons, the biggest being, I hate having to harvest macro outa my display tanks, but I love the benifits of algae. So I use a fug. I also love all the life created by the fug, pods galore. I've never had a lack of pods in any of my tanks though, regardless of fug. The key to them, IMO, is having a larger gravel area for them, as well as sand. They seem to love larger debris, stuff the can get into the cracks off. I give them a area behind my reef with little chunks of LR.

 

I agree. However, I'd like to bring up a matter that I just recently discovered. The LFS that I worked at for the most relaxing month of my life, refers to fuges as "Algae filters". Now the pitch on the filters was not that it was a great place to harvest, macro algae, or a great place to grow Pods. No, the pitch was that it was one of the most advanced systems of filtration available. Their shop made algae filters came separated into 3 parts, a wet/dry area, the fuge or algae area, and the return pump area. By combining a wet/dry with the algae filter, it would assure the removal of the ammonia and nitrites in the water, as first and most important, secondly the algae would strip the water clean of Phosphates, Nitrates, and other nutrients that micro algae need to grow.

In other words the Macro Algae out eats the Micro Algae, so the Micro Algae starves to death. Well, not really it just can't grow as fast as it would like.

I tested this out. When I first put the 130 Watt PC fixture on my 10 gal, the glass would go green everyday. And everyday I would scrape the glass with a razor (my magfloat wasn't strong enough) and everyday it would be just as green. So I threw a piece of Branch rock with a nice bunch of calerpa rubber banded to it.

Guess what my Pod count has sky rocketed. I think they get mad nutrients from the macro algae. There's my two cents.

;D

 

how do u harvest the pods. and why would u. isn't a fuge supposed to be a hide out for creatures.

 

[quote author=Gresham link=board=Refugium;num=1086799197;start=15#15 date=06/29/04 at 11:26:20]Hey Johno, if your not harvesting the pods and stuff, isn't it still a refuge for them even though your taking some algae away once in a while?[/quote]

Yes, it certainly is a refuge, a place where they can multiply in numbers in relative safety.  Some of the free swimming pods are harvested by the means of the return pump thereby making for good coral food.

A mate of mine ( Viking ) often tells me he doesn't directly feed his corals, he simply stirs the sand in his fug a bit and the return pumps does the rest.

John

 

so they multiply fast. I just see some on my fuge's walls.