Live Rock in fuges

[cmondo]

Hey Anthony,
I just read the thread on flow through a refugium and it was very informative thank you.
In the thread you talked about the benefits of rolling cheato in your sump. I was wondering if placing liverock into the fuge instead of having the cheato would have positive effects comprable to that of the cheato?

Secondly, does having cheato that isn't rolling detrimental to the health of the tank? Or more specifically in a small fuge where the section is only about 5 gallons of volume and the height isn't very great?

Thanks in advance.
Chris

 

[stewie24]

Since Anthony moved on, i'll try and do the best i can...
Adding live rock to your sump/fuge is a great benefit. If you have a heavy bioload or just want more "natural" filtration. Some people have fuge's with algae, and others have fuges with lr and algae. Its just a matter of preference. I myself plan on having live rock rubble (for more filtration and then incase i need to mount frags).
"Tumbling" the cheato just gives the algae more light and attempts to keep the detrius off of it.
As for the live rock comparing to cheato - no. Live rock may filter out nitrates but the cheato uses the extra nutrients in the tank.
Having cheato that does not roll is not detrimental to the health of the tank, however if you do have a fuge w/ cheato in it that is not rolling, a good piece of advice I would give would be to "rinse" or "shake" the ball of cheato in your container that dirty tank water goes in when you do water changes to keep the gunk/detrius off of the cheato.
Hope this helps.
Stewie

 

[cmondo]

Thanks stewie. I may split up the rock and the cheato then, that way i get the benefit of both. Possibly put my live rock into my return section of the fuge?

 

[prezioso73]

as far as rolling chaeto....I just roll it by hand every other day or so. Also. I take it out and rinse out the detris once a week.

 

[cmondo]

Yeah that sounds good prezioso, I have been doing that since i read the article once a week.