fuge.

saltynewbie

Member
hey-
i have a 55 gal, and i put the fuge listed in my sig under it with no problem what-so-ever. so i would think that your 10 gal wouldnt cause a problem either. i put arag-alive and regular aragamax sand in mine along with some LR rubble. GOOD LUCK!! :cool:
 

saltynewbie

Member
im not certain about the watts per gallon rule on a fuge. i have a normal output 13 watt striplight, and my caulerpa and inhabitants are growing and multiplying just fine. HTH and GOOD LUCK!! :cool:
 

saltynewbie

Member
i have several different hitchhiker snails in my fuge that do well cleaning out the algae on the glass. i know some people have ceriths and astreas in theirs, but my hitchhikers do a good enough job cleaning themselves! i think that some of the stomatellas are breeding in there too. sometimes i just sit and watch my fuge critters do their thing b/c its so neat!! :cool:
 

bang guy

Moderator
I've done a lot of experimenting with 10 gallon refugiums ('cause the tanks are only $9 LOL)
Depending on what tasks you want your refuge to perform... I've found the following to be best for 'pod production:
1 - 1/2" of very fine sand seems to do best.
2 - one or two very porous small rocks.
3 - RDP lighting of 4+WPG
4 - Flow rate of 40 - 80 gph.
5 - no more than a handful of two or three types of macroalgae.
 

flamingkingofhe

Active Member
when you say rdp what do you mean and when you say flow rate are you talking about a powerhead or the ammount of water cumming in and going out?
 

bang guy

Moderator
RDP is Reverse Daylight Photoperiod. Lighting the refugium opposite the display tank.
For flow rate don't add powerheads, they kill bugs. Just the flowrate from the display. Most bugs do fine with one pass through a water pump but powerheads seem to be pretty destructive.
 

bang guy

Moderator
Nothing wrong with 24/7 lighting. It won't prevent caulerpa from going sexual but it will grow slightly faster when lit 24/7.
 

brent595

Member
I am thinking of starting a 10g fuge under my 75g since this is all I can fit in there now. I wish I had known about it before I set everything up. But anyway, I only have two hang on the back filters and the fuge will be below the tank. How can I set this up and what are some ideas about the feed and return?
I'm thinking I could get an overflow box to feed it and add a plastic divider to keep the sand off the return pump, but to keep the flow slow enough, what size return pump would I need to push it back up into the tank? And how do you fiqure the water turnover rate that goes through it? And also how do you plumb all this? Can you hook PVC up to the return pump and overflow?
 

flamingkingofhe

Active Member
I wouldnt worry about a return pump you can get one in just about any size it is the overflow that might be the problem as stated above you want about 80 gph turnover in the fuge so the problem lies with the overflow where do you get an overflow that only does 80gph i may be mistaken but i have never seen one that only does 80 gph this may be a good chance for you to set up a sump! imo i would use this opportunity to set up a sump you dont have to go buy a 300 $ set up you can design your own! lots of people use a rubbermaid sump or buy a 10-30 g tank and make there own. how many lbs of lr do you have? you may have enough for a berlin set up and may be able to remove the hang on the back filters. do you have a protein skimmer
?
 

brent595

Member
I have 75lbs of live rock and 75lbs of live sand. No skimmer. I'm just looking for a way to lower my nitrates.
If I use a regular gravity fed overflow box, then the return pump would determine the rate of water flow through the fuge. Because the amount of water that is pumped into the main tank, is the same that will go out of the overflow into the fuge. So all I need is a pump that will return to the tank around 80GPH. A 300gph overflow box means 300g is the maximum you can push through it in an hour. You can slow it down. Just what size return pump would you suggest since the powerheads are not good, and how would you plumb it?
 

flamingkingofhe

Active Member
ok sorry i see your point well to start i would buy a skimmer if i were you it will probably help with your trates
if you arent going to use a sump here is what i would do i would set the overflow up to empty into the fuge directly and then i would buy a tank divider and section off a small part of the tank to put your pump in and then put the return line back to the main tank
with out a sump this is the only way that i can think of maybe someone else will have some more input on this also what brand of filter do you use you may be able to plum it into the filter depending on what brand and type of filter it is
i know someone that has an eheim and plumed a t into the hose or whatever he uses that goes into the filter and used one end of the t to go to his fuge and the other end to go to the filter and then he has a tank divider and pump in his fuge that goes back to the main tank
 
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