Bang Guy can you give me some advise?

msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
Thanks for all of your help!
Do you recomend cheato? what actually does it do for the tank? are thier any other types of alge i should look at?
your very welcome, I would of imagined someone else would of added their 2 cents......
cheato i do recomend simply because it doesnt go sexual on you, which means it turns to mush. appearently if you keep up on it the calapera (sp?) if kept trimmed it wont go sexual but I would rather not mess/risk it.
Its a nutrient transport, the plants absorb out of the water and you in turn trim it when it overgrows. Previous to the fuge I had a chronic nitrate problem. The plants are very effective at removing it. It also is a great place for pods to grow/develop which can further aid in cleaning the tank and add some cool diversity. Pods are small little animals that scamper around after dark mostly (at least in my tank) and hangout on the rocks, the sand, eating etc. They are fun to watch and if you get a good population established you could add a dragonfish. Some ppl have used it as a time out for naughty animals that are behaving poorly, I personally havent done that. I will be adding tang heaven as its called to my fuge as I have a tang and woudl like to start feeding him live algae instead of the freeze dried stuff (he wont eat the cheato).
BTW the lamp i use is a 16wt one sku # 773-972 model edxr-30-16 made by commerical electric.
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member
Originally posted by roadrunner
1st - thanks for your help up to this point.
2nd - is there a benefit having the sand and cheato in the first section and the skimmer in the second section?
My LFS told me to put the skimmer in the first section and the sand and stuff in the second section.
I was just thinking about this and there was a reason why I put the fuge first, it was because there is no way to make the water column tall again after the first section with the way I have made it. So if you put the skimmer first (which needs a shallow amount of water) you cant rebuild the water up for the fuge section. The only way around that would be to put ur skimmer on a platform. This might work for you but my skimmer was way to tall for still fit under the stand.
Click to expand...
 
sammiefish

sammiefish

Member
Cool, I see that the fuge should first in a series of baffles to maintain the highest water level in the fuge then drop down for skimmer etc...
great..
thanks
 
roadrunner

roadrunner

Member
another question for you msd2 -
when the water enter the fuge were you have your LS and LR and cheato, does it ster it up? how do you position the tube so that it doesn't ster up everything?
i was reading that some peolpe feed thier main tank, and feed thier fuge? do you do this or dont you do this? if you do feed your fuge, what do you feed it?
is it better to leave the lights running all day and night? or oppisite the time the tank light is on? what is the benefits of this?
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
another question for you msd2 -
when the water enter the fuge were you have your LS and LR and cheato, does it ster it up? how do you position the tube so that it doesn't ster up everything?
i was reading that some peolpe feed thier main tank, and feed thier fuge? do you do this or dont you do this? if you do feed your fuge, what do you feed it?
is it better to leave the lights running all day and night? or oppisite the time the tank light is on? what is the benefits of this?
When the water enters my fuge it really doesnt stir it up. Before it enters the fuge I have an adapter that makes the pipe that comes from the main tank from 1 to a 2 inch. I capped the bottom and drilled the pipe with holes 1/2 inch up and down the pipe and all sides of the bigger pipe. It disperses the water pretty smoothly and doesnt really seem to stir anything up. I t acts as a diffuser.
I dont feed it, I dont have anything in there that I would feed. Not sure why/what you would feed in there.
I rotate the lights to keep the ph stable, at night ur ph drops in ur tank, the lights on the plants help to keep it cosistant. I would say its better to run the lights in opposition to your main lights. I guess you could keep them on all the time but it wouldnt offer any stability of ph between the night/day cycle.
 
roadrunner

roadrunner

Member
can i setup the fuge and run it without a skimmer? do i need to know anything about the skimmer before i setup the fuge?
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
can i setup the fuge and run it without a skimmer? do i need to know anything about the skimmer before i setup the fuge?
Yes you can run the fuge w/o the skimmer. Im not exactly sure what your asking but I will infer you mean if you get the skimmer at a later date. The only thing you would want to know is the chamber size needed for your skimmer, its footprint. Mine (skimmer) is a pretty decent sized one and has a footprint of 9x9. I would at least make it 9 inches long to give you some flexiblity for skimmers.
Personally if I had to choose I would first get the skimmer then later add a fuge setup. I would say the skimmer is much more important than the fuge.
 
roadrunner

roadrunner

Member
just wondering . . . what do you mean by chamber and footprint?
also when you do a water change- after taking the bad water out, do you then put the new water in the pump section of your fuge or do you just put the new water in the main tank?
thanks for everything!
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
just wondering . . . what do you mean by chamber and footprint?
also when you do a water change- after taking the bad water out, do you then put the new water in the pump section of your fuge or do you just put the new water in the main tank?
thanks for everything!
chamber is just the word I used for the section where the skimmer is at. footprint is the dimensions the skimmer's base. Its the actual area it takes up that sits in the sump.
I take the water from the main tank, no particular reason why I do that, its just quicker to siphon off from the top of the tank ( figured out how many inches down on the glass it so to remove the amount of water for the change so I just suck it out down to that distance).
formula for gallon is ft(tall)xft(wide)xft(deep)x 7.5 = XX gallons of water
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
i found out that the footprint for the skimmer is 6w x 2 1/3d, i also found out that the pump is ajustable.
So I would make the section where the skimmer goes 8 inches long. Im trying to visual the skimmer but I cant imagine one thats only 2 inches deep. What skimmer are you using?
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
an aqua c remora - its a hang off the back.
should i be looking for one that will sit inside?
I have not used that brand, but others have used it and liked it I think. If you look around there is a place that sales euroreefs that have minor blemishes for around the same price as the remora. I have had great luck with the er. If you went with the remora you could put it first because both sections are going to need to be pretty full of water since its a hangover the tank style.
Id say you can either route siting inside the section or hanging over the side, really up to you.
 
roadrunner

roadrunner

Member
the hang on and the in sump style is the same price. . .just wondering, if i get an in the sump style how would it be held down in the tank?
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
the hang on and the in sump style is the same price. . .just wondering, if i get an in the sump style how would it be held down in the tank?
the weight of the water. It is partially filled up and it stays put. just out of curiosity how much are the remora's?
 
msd2

msd2

Active Member

Originally posted by roadrunner
the footprint for the in sump is 6 x 3 - does that mean that the middle section should be about 8 or nine inches?
Personally I would make the section about 9 inches just in case you want to upgrade/change/add something in that section in the future. BTW you can find the er 5.3 for about 216 shipped, might be worth lookin at.
 
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