Question for GL on Fuge

[ostrow]

Really, you have a what, 7 gallon HOB fuge on your 180G system? On RC I was persuaded not to spend money on one of those for my 75.

Do you think it makes a difference at all? Do you like it?

 

[Opcn]

I'm not GL but I can tell you that a 7 gallon fuge can suit your needs idepending on what your needs are, If your growing macroalgea to feed fish then 7 gallons is fine, with enought LR 7 gallons could produce some great pods for a mandarin, Maybe if you have a small fish thats not big enought to go into your FO tank then you could grow it on a bit, it all depends on what your doing and how much space/money you have to dedicate to it,

 

[Great Lakes]

Boy Oz...I have to be honest here, you caught me with my pants down on this one. )

I threw some rubble in the fuge, along with some macro when I set it up, but have not had any results yet.

It come with the tank so it was not a concious choice I made to own it.

That being said though, it is a quality piece of work.

I am aving a couple of problems at the moment. First, I can't seem to get a pod population going good again, and second, I have a real nice hair algae farm going on..

I had so much going on over the last couple of months that I was sadly doing just about the minimum required to keep my tank stable.

But now that I am snowbound and have the time again, I am working at it.
For my pod situation, I am getting my 55 gallon cycled with about 100 pounds of live rock I had laying around, and am looking at a couple places to order some copepod and amphipod cultures. I will use the tank to primarily grow pods, culture my rock, and grow out some frags.

My algae problem...boy oh boy.
I always have had a little, but have been able to keep it under control. Trouble is, I am having trouble getting it back to a manageable level. So just tonite I got a Lawnmower Blennie. Him and my magnum running Phos-ban ought to do the trick.

Now here is an interesting situation. A what would you folk do if in my shoes kinda deal. I use tap water for changes and top offs. Many consider this a huge no no, me included. But in my situation, the only negative seems to be the hair algae. And as I said, it really isn't bad at all if I am paying attention. The upside is that the city just run the water to my location about five years ago, there fore all the supply lines are a good quality,(ie; no rust or sediment), and our water system is considered to be one of the best around. The big plus is my calcium levels.
My town sits on one of the largest mined limestone deposits in the world. The bay that the water is drawn from is all limestone. My water comes out of the tap at a ph of about 7.9, and once circulated and some CO2 dissipation occurs ends up at about 8.0 And my calcium rarely rarely drops below 500. I think I have only dosed for calcium one time. Practicly the only thing I ever dose to keep the ph/hardness/calcium trio in line is a little bit of baking/washing soda mix every few weeks to keep my hardness levelled out.

GL

 

[ostrow]

Boy GL that is a tough one. I'd say you might need to switch to RO water BUT an alternative is to use that 55 to run a real fuge. Your little HOB isn't going to export enough nutrients to outcompete hair algae. But a 55G fuge would be a good size.

I don't know why you aren't getting pod growthin the HOB now but in the larger one for sure you will.

Where are you seeding from? IPSF? You might do an ebay search on "detritivore" ... Rob Sullivan there is a great guy and ships an awesome package.

Tho I don't have a fuge so opted out of his macro.

BUT: wife gave ok to turn a basement room into a fish room!!!
Not happening soon cuz pricey, but the plan would be a display tank of 5'X2'X2', plumbed to the basement where my 75 will serve as a fuge, and I would get a divided 55G for prop/sump purposes. Would need a large pump to cycle water back up to the main and a larger skimmer than I have now but other than that I shouldn't need much else in the way of equipment than I have now. Still, the display and the 55, plus stand/canopy and pump/skimmer is gonna toss this project well over $1500, and that isn't including the extra rock I'll need, so probably talking $2K. Not any time soon. Until then, fuge-less am I.

Opcn I have a reef and would want a fuge to outcompete the bad algae, clean the water, farm critters, etc.

 

[Opcn]

Instead of a 55 gallon sump/fuge why don't you get a 240 gallon ruber maid stock tank http/www.brusselsagri.com/farm_supplies/rubbermaid.htm, since its not the main display tankand its virtually indestructable you can get one thats a hundred gallons to large and can handle a pump failure (a major risk when going one story up) Or if thats not your ball of wa you could get one and set up one of these babys http/www.shopping.com/xGS-rubbermaid_sto...nkin_id-3062119 for auto topoff. Maybe fill it with base rock and 50 pounds of live Rock, you will get the same pod production you would out of 50 lbs in a 55 gallon but you'll have more room for pod colony expansion in the futere.

Just a thought however, a 55 would fo just wonderfully

 

[ostrow]

Yeah that's another idea. I'm set for topoff, plumbed my RO/DI into my pipes with multiple protection against failure.

The 240 rubbermaid tho is too big for my space most likely. I'm figuring a 75 and 55 plumbed together for fuge and sump is 130G total, and that will hold anything that would overflow down in case of pump failure. I'm not gonna lose all 150G from upstairs, after all. More like 15 tops is my guess. Plus, the 55 can be divided to handle frags on one side and skimmer on the other. That is my current thinking. The 75 is too big/too deep to use as sump/skimmer, tho I suppose I could buld a stand with eggcrate and set the skimmer on that. Then would have to have rocks in front of it to slow flow, and on other side of that I could do frags but then we are very deep for a frag tank.

I think I like the idea of the 75 rock/sand/macro fuge draining to a 55 or so frag tank with skimmer on the side.

I haven't heard the "major risk" of pump failure. There are some really good pumps out there, many many people do this.

 

[Opcn]

Well the major risk comes in here, if a storm hits and you get a brown out, two or three seconds even a 10 foot (conservatively) column of water in the pipes makes a very powerfull siphon, debris (includeing the kind with fins) can easily get sucked up into the outlets, they clog the impeller and when the power comes back on the pump does nothing, That happened to me, in a 240 gallon FW tank I was setting up lost 60 gallons since the outlet for the current was halfway down the tank, the sump was only 4 ft below the bottom of the tank but in sokme 5 seconds it got cloged andwater overflowed the wetdry (I set it up so that salt and appropriate rocks can be added yielding a SW setup) Lost a few danios.

 

[Great Lakes]

Ostrow...how much money you have???

I have the 100 gallon Rubbermaid, about a 100 pounds of live rock I can do without, and about 200 pounds of sand. I could even do without the 55 gallon as I could just use a 29 gallon for a pod farm.

Wife is trying to transfer to Houston as we speak and I just cannot stand the idea of taking any more than I have to.

As it is, we might even have her move first and get a 180 or 240 up and running so I can ship rock and corals to her.

I even have a turbofloter that hangs on the rubbermaid real well. It takes a little tinkering to get it going but works well once it get going.

Also have a couple of wokhorse 5's I can throw in for lighting needs,
Added bonus. I have a stand built that goes over the rubbermaid and should support the 55 gallon above it. I had a pair of 20 gallon prop tanks over it no trouble.

We can haggle if interested. I'll work up a good price in my head in the meantime.

GL

 

[ostrow]

Opcn, that makes sense if you are assuming a tank drilled with an overflow that is just a pipe taking in water. Any tank I have will be drilled on the bottom and have overflow boxes to the surface, once water drops below the slats that's it, and fish/inhabitants should be safe. Or am I missing something here?

GL: I may well be interested, though I can't hook all this up until I have a proper display (see paragraph above) plumbed to the basement, I could run all this separate down there until I'm ready. Maybe.

Let me konw what you are thinking. ONce it is all set up I'll need more than a little Turboflotor to run a 150+75+55. Or whatever it ends up being in gallons. I'm thinking somehting like a EuroReef 8-3 or somehting like that.

 

[Opcn]

The real danger isnt the overflow but the return pipe, if the pump is running the pipe is full of water and a pipe full of water makes a grat siphon.

And GL, when your in huston you'll get a more senceable car right

 

[ostrow]

durso pipe opcn, your fear is corrected as water quickly drops below, siphon gone and no flood. durso pipe my man!!!

 

[ostrow]

GL, twiddling my thumbs waiting.... Don't you do and change your mind now!

 

[pleder]

I have the same fuge on my 44. I love it. Had a hair algae and cyano problem on setup but was treated with chem clear and the addition of phosban to the cannister. I did buy livesand seeded with pods and now have a tank teeming with pods.

I would buy it again.