Should I D/C my Fuge?

[saline solution]

I have been spending more time taking care of my fuge lately than the display. I am tired of it. I removed all the sugar sand, took it out, cleaned the tank, varied the flow through the fuge, same thing keeps happening...The fuge is the slowest current in my system, so that is where all the detritus settles. I run filter socks. I have a 40 watt curly bulb lighting it. I do all my water changes from the fuge. The display looks good, but I get serious nastyness in the fuge. If I don't have surface agitation I even get bacterial matts like I OD'd on vodka. (only in the fuge)

Who is running a SPS setup without a fuge, and are you having any problems? I am thinking that if I cancel the fuge I may have to add a big UV and try that route. Anyone doing this?

My skimmer is big enough I think I can D/C the fuge, and not have a nitrate problem, but I hate to loose the other benefits of a fuge.

Anyone else have this problem? How did you cope?

 

[tkeracer619]

A lot of sps keepers do not run a fuge. IMO a 5g fuge on a 80g reef does nothing but give pods a place to reproduce. A stack of LR will do the same thing.

 

[luther1200]

If you get rid of the fuge all that nastyness will be in your DT. That is one of the points of a fuge IMO.I wouldn't get rid of it if it were me.

 

[sus]

i do not run a fuge with my setup, i just have some extra live rock in my sump. I havn't had any issues with the lack of a fuge, although I am dosing VSV.