took my fuge offline

Well it would be a shallow tank like 12-18".... say 4' long... water comes in one corner and flows like a bubble trap... down one side, back down the middle, down the other side. Something like that would be a 12 foot pass in a "trough" say 8" wide in a 24" wide tank. Something like that.

I like the idea of a ATS but don't care for some of the draw backs. Instead of the consatant harvesting and killing pods just use a trough or something like that. Clean out some algae every so offten. Don't care about recycling nutrients as long as it is a net export.

Really I had a mixed reef but slowly went to SPS and found that it is pretty hard getting both to thrive in one tank. Thought about seperation and more natural ways to do thing.

 

I took my fuge offline due to it causing more trouble than I felt it was worth. My macro algaes did well. My pods multiplied like mutant gerbils. GHA was also taking over my sump. I had to spend more time cleaning GHA out of places I did not want it at, than a fuge was worth to me. I saw no real change between running a fuge and not running one when it came to my nitrates. My macro algae grown in my overflow has decreased since the removal of my fuge. However, the micro algae growth on my glass has increased. I don't mind cleaning my glass a little more often if it means not having to clean GHA off mangroves once a week.

I don't think I will ever go back to running a fuge until I can set up a completely blacked out tank so no light would go outside of the fuge. My sps are well colored and grow quickly. As of now, I don't see a need for a fuge.

 

^^^ The fact that you have such abundant algae growth says you have abundant nutrients.... N and P. So what did you do about them. A fuge has turned into a place to put macro, but that is not what a fuge is. Pod production and even a DSB are still beneficial without growing macro for nutrient export.

 

I really like this discussion! and I am happy that it went on... please dont feel guilty lol

One thing to add, I did have to dose nitrate once in a while to promote growth. I always did so in such minute amounts though... There were two noticeable benefits to this: My phosphate levels were always extremely low (since there is a 1:1 ratio between phos and nitrate export I would typically have to put in extra nitrate to pull out the extra phos from feeding, etc.) and I got awesome colors from my sps plus fast growth of macros.
On a side note, My corals still retained amazing color as the nutrients built up in my fuge sand bed... even as I was dosing the nitrate. I am thinking that the built up nasties were not nitrate or phosphate but probably some other forms of organic waste (most likely due to my skimmer being a little on the smaller side for my bioload)

 

angler fish with non photosynthetic inverts/coral;D

 

I came about using a fuge from the opposite direction. Initially, I was very anti-fuge. I carbon dosed before it with good results. After adding the fuge, I realized that the macro acted as a buffer, not the carbon source. I maintained the same carbon routine, and the macro takes up the slack, allowing me to feed as much as I like without issue. I feed the fish at least once a day, and all of the LPS/NPS every day. No algae in the DT, and no GFO.