What if I remove my refugium?

[OneReef]

I have a 75g tank with decent amount of SPS, and a small fuge in my sump. The fuge has a decent sized mass of chaeto growing well in it. Also maybe a pound or so of live rock small chunks, no sand.

I was thinking of removing all the chaeto and rock, and using that space for more equipment, like a GFO reactor and Carbon reactor and their pumps.

How efficient if GFO vs chaeto for phosphates, etc. Can I remove the chaeto cold turkey and put a GFO reactor in its place or would I see any negative effects?

 

[wrestle1952]

I don't have a sump but had a hanging fuge with Miracle Mud and chaeto. One of the hangers snapped and water leaked everywhere. I was going to replace it but I temporarily put on a Hagen Aquaclear with ChemiPure Elite and Nitrazorb. It may seem ridiculous but my water is clearer and I have zero algae problems. With the fuge I was getting macroalgae in my tank the fish wouldn't eat and I have tangs and blennies. None of my crabs or snails would touch it either. I dose vodka daily. I have zero phosphates thanks to the ChemiPure with elite. I am never going to use a fuge again. It's like maintaining another aquarium.

 

[tomasga]

Perosnally I prefer to have a FUGE in place to provide breeding gournds for pods, etc whilst removing excess nutrients through through the chaeto. I think you would need to remove the fuge slowly and monitor your nitrates, phosphates in the process to ensure no excess buildup during the transition and moving forward. Not too familiar with the GFO though

 

[jb61264]

i will be doing both..i love having a fuge for the very reason it is like having another aquarium built right into your sump...i'll actually be hosting a mantis shrimp in mine...but i also will be running one or two TLF reactors for carbon and GFO

you most likely aren't going to see any negative effects by removing your fuge since you only have a little live rock in there and I'm asuming you have quite a bit in your DT.

Do you have sand in the DT?

 

[OneReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15337022#post15337022 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jb61264


Do you have sand in the DT?

Yes, lots of LR and shallow sand bed. I was wanting to remove the fuge as it always gets gunked up with detritus and stuff, and don't want to have to clean it out and trim and clean/shake the chaeto all the time. It will be easier to clean and maintain my sump, and will give me easier access to my equipment. I am hoping by adding the GFO that it will offset the removal of the chaeto.

 

[jb61264]

ahh..my fuge is fed by a T in my return line so I don't really have to deal with any detritus...funny, I am just now looking for some chaeto to put into my new 55 sump for my 75 tank.

One thing to consider about the switch is that chaeto is a zero expense sort of thing...just harvest it out when it grows too big...the GFO will become another recurring expense

 

[r-balljunkie]

you can hang your reactor off the side of your fuge....dont take up room that way.

tee off to feed the reactor inline, so you wont need another pump

c

 

[emoore]

A fuge is great for pods and other life but unless it is pretty large I think the GFO will easily outperform a small fuge.

 

[adtravels]

I and a number of reefers have done similair, I noticed no negative differances, I used the space to get a better skimmer.

 

[gooyferret]

GFO and Carbon reactor shouldnt need to be in your tank. Im running both a fuge and GFO/Carbon reactor and seem to be doing really well. Why would you want to get rid of something that really dont cost you anything??! I prefer to do my exporting naturally, I just recently added mangroves and that dropped my Nitrates to 0.

Look at my build thread click on my red house and you can see how my GFO reactor and sump is setup.

Im thinking after my GFO has been used up I may shut it down to see if theres a spike in Phosphate and Nitrate, if not I just will run carbon in it. GFO is very expensive! Macro is FREE!

HTH