Hellow guys this is my first time posting in this forum so I would like your opinion about a particular subject. I wanted to know if a fuge can become a watse basket. I have had my tank set up 3yrs and some change. I have a 150 with a 60 gal sump. this is a description of my sump if you were looking at it head on. On my right side is my fuge which is fed from my tank. In the middle are my returns and calcium reactor and on my left side is my skimmer. In my fuge I have chaeto, sand some grape caulepra. I have no clean up crew in there and my sand bed is about 3" deep. I wanted to know if I never clean my fuge can it become a source for nutrients. Also I want to know if I could start my fuge over from scratch? If so changing out my sand in the fuge would it cause anything in my tank to spike? If I had to do it all over again my sump would have my fuge in the middle and the returns to the right.
Can a refugium become a trash can?
- Thread starter mmotown
- Start date
GS-Rock
New member
it might become a little dirty, but with out a clean up crew you should clean up with a turkey baster sucking any and all the crap you can, you can start a new fuge just dont remove all the sand at once, do it over a 2-4 week time frame, with that you will give your tank time to adjust. i dont have a clean up crew in my sump/ fuge. But i clean it out at lease once every 3 weeks or so
HarryLongo
New member
Sounds like you're saying your fuge is the first stop from your tank so it's acting as a filter, so to speak. Of course all the stuff dumping into anything as a fist stop from a tank will collect all sorts of matter... the heavy stuff drops to the bottom and the suspended stuff goes on to the next ' processor. ' If you dig your hand down into your fuge sand, pull out some sand and smell it, determine then if it's foul smellng like rotten eggs. if it is, you have to correct that problem since it's a source of pollution. Some means of removing suspended matter before it reaches your fuge would be appropriate. I have a CPR hang on fuge on my 29 reef tank and excitement to get it got me before thinking about the science behind such a contraption. No means to circulate water through the sand bed is designed into the thing... which ultimately will cause it to pollute. One day I'll make an under gravel filter for it and reinstall the fuge. If you had a 3 inch sand bed in a tank without an under gravel filter it will some day pollute... a big, big no oxygen zone down deep where it's needed.
young_Skywalker
New member
so what method do you use to add sand to a system? do you soak the sand in the bag and then essentially sink it?
