fuge contents

[jlylec]

I'm wondering if I have too much stuff in my fuge that will cause issues for me down the road. I started off with the idea to just use rock rubble in lieu of sand as I read a DSB in a fuge can be a nitrate factory. Then I got this stuff called Garf grunge and when it came I quickly decided there was no way it was going in my DT so I put it in the fuge. Now this is what it looks like.

This is a brand new set up. It's been salty for about a month. Cycle is just about complete and I have added a CUC and a couple test frags of coral from my other tank which are doing well.

Any thoughts?

 

[PCFisher66]

How many lbs did you order?

 

[wineman]

Over time the smaller grain sand will filter down in to the rubble and fill the voids, Are you asking if it is piled too high?

 

[kgross]

I will tell you to remove it from your fuge. You will get a lot of detritus settling in your fuge (unless you have a really high flow rate), and with stuff in the bottom it is very hard to siphon all the detritus out that builds up.

Kim

 

[jlylec]

How many lbs did you order?

It's like 20lbs of grunge on top of 25lbs of rock rubble. Probably about 8" deep now.

 

[jlylec]

I will tell you to remove it from your fuge. You will get a lot of detritus settling in your fuge (unless you have a really high flow rate), and with stuff in the bottom it is very hard to siphon all the detritus out that builds up.

Kim

If it's full of things to eat the detritus isn't that ok? Then you don't even have to siphon anything? I have a minimalist DT with 2 pillars made up of about 100lbs of rock in a 180 gallon total volume system. I wanted the rubble to compensate for less LR in the DT. This not a good idea?

 

[kgross]

I will be honest. I have been running lots of tanks for many years, and I have not seen a fuge yet that will eat all the detritus that settles out in it.

Do you have a sand bed in the display tank? if so I would not worry much about the amount of rock. I have quite a few tanks setup with very little rock and they run fine, but have not tried a small amount of rock without a sand bed myself.

Kim

 

[jlylec]

I will be honest. I have been running lots of tanks for many years, and I have not seen a fuge yet that will eat all the detritus that settles out in it.

Do you have a sand bed in the display tank? if so I would not worry much about the amount of rock. I have quite a few tanks setup with very little rock and they run fine, but have not tried a small amount of rock without a sand bed myself.

Kim

Yeah I have about 4" of sand in the DT too. Would it be bad to let it start up like this and empty the fuge in like 6mos? Thanks Kim!

 

[kgross]

Cleaning it out every 6 months or so would be fine. In my shop, I have to clean out all of my sumps and fuges about every 3-6 months just because of the detritus build up. Once I get over about a 1/4 inch building up in the corners, the water quality starts going down and things just do not look great. Then I get the shop vac clean them out and things start looking a lot better.

 

[kgross]

I almost forgot with the 4 inchs of sand, I don't think you need any rubble in your fuge. I have a 75 gallon tank I sell corals out of that has about 25 pounds of rock, and a 3 inch sand bed that has no ammonia problems. Now it does only have 4 large fish.... but no ammonia problems at all.

Kim