To Fuge or not to Fuge...that is my question?

[tom obrecht]

I've been in the hobby for a good number of years but have never had much luck with sps corals. I'm thinking about giving it another whirl and am curious what opinions people have on fuges? I come from a softie background and have always felt they were beneficial but many of the stunning sps tanks I see here don't incorporate them. Before I finalize my plans for a sps system should I be including a fuge or not?

 

[dvanacker]

Not needed...it may be beneficial but not worth it to me.

 

[jpacker1508]

Heres how I look at a refugium. What does every reef on the planet have in common? It protects a low flow, high nutrient, grassy, refuge. Thats what our refugiums are, the grassy wetlands between the shore and the reef. It is what feeds the reef.

 

[Mangodude]

I think fuges are effective if you have them on large enough scale. Ie. I have a 75g tank as my fuge for my 150g tank. I run no skimmer and have a 50w smd led chip on opposite cycle with my lights. Works great! I keep calurpa algaes not cheato though, cheato grew too slowly and collected too much detrius.

If you only plan on having a small ball of cheato in your sump with a small light, its not worth it. JMO.

 

[karsseboom]

Yes refugium can be effective at removing nutrients but they have to large enough to actually work. Most people have a small section in there sump and think its helping.

 

[dowtish]

There are lots of folks that use a small area to keep chaeto in not for nutrient reduction, but for ph stability.

 

[tom obrecht]

Thanks for the responses so far. I guess I'm wondering if more eople now days use a fuge or not? I know there are a number of very impressive systems using a lower nutrient philosophy that I'm guessing do not use a fuge. To me it seems to be another place for detritus to build up and add to the nutrient load of the tank. Thoughts?

 

[mic209]

I ran a fuge with my previous tank, eventually it became more work than it was worth. It was part of my sump and it after a month or so you wouldn't be able to see through the sump with all the other algae that grew. Also from the light being near the skimmer, I was having to soak it in vinegar every couple months to get rid of all the coraline that grew in the skimmer. MY current tank has no fuge and my corals are just as happy and no more dirty sump. Just need to siphon out the detritus every few months, no scraping algae.

 

[Patrick Cox]

I am starting a primarily SPS tank with a small fuge with only chaeto and an LED spotlight. My reasoning was to grow chaeto to consume nutrients and to also have a place for pods to grow. I don't plan to add any sand/mud or other substrate. So, we will see how it goes.

 

[creefer01]

I'm in the process of removing a fuge from my sump. I'm planning on keeping chaeto for pods, but no sand or rock to speak of.

 

[Bax]

I like a fuge I have seen the volume of natural food source it produces and this has to be beneficial to an SPS system. It cant be detrimental. However, if you feed your SPS directly with fabricated foods, you could do without it. I do not feed my SPS except for fish food and fish poo.

 

[toothman]

I have a fuge in my system and really think it helps in a ulns. Most people think fuges do not work in a ulns, it will work well if properly lit. Do not bother using a fuge if you do not use intense light. Chaeto grows well in a ulns. I would recommend Sun System HPS 150 Grow Light Fixture. I would also not use any sand in fuge, live rock is good.

 

[reefgeezer]

I've evolved to a no fuge system. The space I used for a fuge just wasn't big enough. It was about 10 gallons. I kept a tumbling ball of cheato in it. It grew pretty well until the carbon dosing kicked in. Seems like once the nutrients were limited, all the fuge did was collect detritus. I changed the flow so the fuge was only fed by the skimmer. That slowed down the detritus but didn't stop it. I finally just removed the Cheato. The only difference I noticed was a slight clearing in the water and about a 1 degree temp drop when the light was removed.

 

[tom obrecht]

So right now it appears it's about half and half . I'm wondering for those who recommend a fugue what size to go with? Is there a percentage of fugue to display you would recommend?

 

[reefer91]

I've had luck with 25% of display volume.

 

[mess7777]

I love mine, it's always interesting to see the pod populations coming and going, bristle worms, amphipods fighting, sponges, different types of algae...some days I look at the fuge more than the display tank!

 

[Bax]

I like my fuge to be about 50% the volume of the DT. That's not all lighted fuge. I like about 1/3 of the fuge space to be dark with just LR

 

[BillyC]

Lots of great ideas here that I've agreed with for a couple years.

1. Fuge MAY be beneficial but not worth the trouble.
2. Fuge is beneficial but only on a large enough scale. (I.e 50% total volume.)
3.

 

[FranktheTankTx]

Pro Refugium:
1) Grow macro algae to control nutrients
2) Maintain steady pH with opposite light schedule
3) Increase pod population
4) Place for unwanted critters such as crabs, etc.

So, I'm mostly interested in #2. For those who do not use a refugium - Does your pH fluctuate day/night? If not, how do you maintain a steady pH?

 

[elegance coral]

So, I'm mostly interested in #2. For those who do not use a refugium - Does your pH fluctuate day/night? If not, how do you maintain a steady pH?

No. With a clean tank, adequate flow, and alk, the PH is not a problem.