Advice On Fuge

[reef keeper]

heybguys. Really enjoying this site and the fact I've run into some of you lol.

I have a 150 g reef and a 55 g sump. Sump runs with 30 gallons of water. It's a standard 4 ft 55. I'm looking at draining it and putting in a divider for a fuge. I thing the fuge might be 18 or 20" long so volume might be 10 gallons.

I'm running gfo right now but would like to get off that train. My sump would be so tight that I would need to get the brs dual reactor to run carbon or gfo.

Any opinions or advice? I do have plumbing to run a separate line into fuge to overflow into the return section

 

[teebone110]

maybe combine your carbon and gfo into one reactor?

 

[reef keeper]

I tried. But it's way less effective. If I do the fuge I will only have room for the tiny pump to run the reactor. I won't have space for my vertex in the sump

 

[saltyair]

from my understanding of your post - the best way to go, sell the sump you have and pick up a used 75gal and create the chambers you want.

 

[reef keeper]

It won't go under the stand lol. And I have no way to get the current sump out

 

[saltyair]

Ok but a 75gal is 4ft long - other option is to get a 25 gal display refug with a second return pump.

 

[TORX]

I would suggest not using a fuge if that is your restrictions. In a 180 gallon TWV, a 10 gallon fuge will not be effective enough of an option. Yes, fuges work if that is the route one wants to use, however, they have to be large enough to sustain your system and avoid using pellets or gfo. With your limitations in room, I would suggest just keeping to reactors.

 

[teebone110]

I would suggest not using a fuge if that is your restrictions. In a 180 gallon TWV, a 10 gallon fuge will not be effective enough of an option. Yes, fuges work if that is the route one wants to use, however, they have to be large enough to sustain your system and avoid using pellets or gfo. With your limitations in room, I would suggest just keeping to reactors.

And maybe eliminate a pump by building a manifold off your return to run the reactor?

 

[reeferkeeper420]

I would suggest not using a fuge if that is your restrictions. In a 180 gallon TWV, a 10 gallon fuge will not be effective enough of an option. Yes, fuges work if that is the route one wants to use, however, they have to be large enough to sustain your system and avoid using pellets or gfo. With your limitations in room, I would suggest just keeping to reactors.

Sorry for hijacking, but what would be a efficient size fuge on a 135? Im debating scrapping the fuge idea if mines to small and sticking to reactors and using the fuge tank for the return pump area and maybe a small frag tank chamber.

 

[reef keeper]

I would just need to upsize my return. I use a ssicce 4 so would up to the 5. Nice

 

[EricTMah]

Sorry for hijacking, but what would be a efficient size fuge on a 135? Im debating scrapping the fuge idea if mines to small and sticking to reactors and using the fuge tank for the return pump area and maybe a small frag tank chamber.

I use a 90gal as my sump and my fuge is about 30X18 with tons of live rock, cheato and mangroves. Seems to keep up with my heavy bio load.

 

[TORX]

Sorry for hijacking, but what would be a efficient size fuge on a 135? Im debating scrapping the fuge idea if mines to small and sticking to reactors and using the fuge tank for the return pump area and maybe a small frag tank chamber.

I would suggest at least 20% of your twv for a fuge. Most successful ones I have seen are 20 gallons on a 75 gallon tank, as an example. I plan on at least a 20 gallon long as my summer project.

 

[Reef Hero]

I've never run a refugium but you will need to have a decent amount of living organisms and plants in there to control your size of system. Anyway you can put a refugium somewhere else? Also, you mentioned that you want to get off the GFO train by adding a refugium....I'm not sure what your po4 values are or could be in the future but I want to note that a refugium will remove only a very limited amount of phosphate from your system. It could be necessary to still run gfo and possibly even carbon in the future....
Id leave room for a reactor or two and try to put a large refugium somewhere else..... Is it possible?


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[reef keeper]

It's impossible to put a fuge anywhere else. For my next tank I will make sure there's room

 

[saltyair]

Then I would suggest not adding a refug and going to bio-pellets. I use aio bio-pellets I don't run gfo only carbon.

 

[reef keeper]

Ok. Pellets I will read up on

 

[Reef Hero]

I'd read up further on how to reduce nitrates and phosphates; and of course ultimately keeping them in check. First step is to get proper testing kits so you know who is winning the battle. What kind of readings are you seeing right now?


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[JamesHurst]

Just checking, you have a skimmer, yes? You will need one running well along with pellets to export the converted nutrients.

 

[reef keeper]

Yes. I have an Mrc 3 beckett skimmer. It's a beast.

What do you recommend for a reactor? My tank is 150 g

 

[JamesHurst]

Tlf, brs, or vertex if you have cashmoney. Im sure some other good names are out there though.