opinions on fuge

[The Staffords]

Now that the 125 is up and going we will be setting up the refugium in the sump. I am considering using cheato with a bare bottom, or with maybe some rubble or a small piece of liverock for pods to reproduce in to feed our mandrin pair.

What do you use and why have you choosen this?

[marinelife]

Cheato works great and does not die as easy.

I have some in one section of my sump, I also have rock in the rest.

The rock is for pods, sponges, and anything else to live on/in.

I do not think you can go wrong with both if you have the room.

[chromiumlux]

I use a deep sand bed in my fuge. Live rock and cheato. Great place for a diversity of critters to grow in. I just shake the Cheato once a day and feed my corals a little treat.

[satch12]

I use a duplex system, with cheato and live rock on top and im very happy with it. the bottom part of the duplex is for sponges and tunicates to form on egg crate with low flow, there is very little light down there but there is a ton of cool stuff that i can only imagine can help the water.

[The Staffords]

Is there any way you could post pictures of this duplex system? Sounds interesting and familiar but I'm not sure if its what I'm thinking it is.

Joel

[jeremyreef]

I use a deep sand bed in my fuge. Live rock and cheato. Great place for a diversity of critters to grow in.

same here

[TechGuy40]

I use a duplex system, with cheato and live rock on top and im very happy with it. the bottom part of the duplex is for sponges and tunicates to form on egg crate with low flow, there is very little light down there but there is a ton of cool stuff that i can only imagine can help the water.

Thats how I just set up my sump. Did you black yours out at all?

[satch12]

Thats how I just set up my sump. Did you black yours out at all?

No I thought about it but I was to ancy to get my tank running. I feel that it wouldn't make to big of a difference as to what kind of stuff grows in the bottom level but maybe being blacked out, all the little sponges and stuff might have colonized there faster. Just a theory of mine. Another reason I never went back and blacked it out was because I find it really cool to look at all of the little organisms that did form there, but I'm a pretty big nerd when it comes to science haha. (Bio major). Even though its not blacked out it is still pretty dark down there due to all of my rock and cheato thats on top. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Ryan

[satch12]

Staffords if you go under the nano forum and look at the 24gal build there are a few pics of it there without the cheato. I cant access those pics right now otherwise I would just repost them for you. MAYBE ERIC CAN FIND A WAY to repost them. sorry for the inconvenience.

[TechGuy40]

No I thought about it but I was to ancy to get my tank running. I feel that it wouldn't make to big of a difference as to what kind of stuff grows in the bottom level but maybe being blacked out, all the little sponges and stuff might have colonized there faster. Just a theory of mine. Another reason I never went back and blacked it out was because I find it really cool to look at all of the little organisms that did form there, but I'm a pretty big nerd when it comes to science haha. (Bio major). Even though its not blacked out it is still pretty dark down there due to all of my rock and cheato thats on top. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Ryan

I see. I need to black out one side of mine. I don't think 400 blazing watts of 20K bleeding into the side will be helpfull. I didn't black mine out so I could view it also. I'm not a bio major, but the science of this hobby is what I am interested in. Especially coral growth. I've started dating, and assigning each frag a number to track growth. I'm taking nerd to a new level.

[satch12]

Nice tech thats a great idea on keeping a journal for growth. Yea 400watts is a little brighter than the 16watt CF i have over my fuge haha. You could sample your water every week and keep track of params and see if there are any correlations with coral growth, a lot of work but would be a cool "study" if you will.

[TechGuy40]

Nice tech thats a great idea on keeping a journal for growth. Yea 400watts is a little brighter than the 16watt CF i have over my fuge haha. You could sample your water every week and keep track of params and see if there are any correlations with coral growth, a lot of work but would be a cool "study" if you will.

The 400 is over the frag tank next to the sump. Thats the whole idea, track everything, see what corals do best in what conditions. Specific conditions for maximum growth.

[chromiumlux]

And then maxiumum frags for everyone to trade

[satch12]

And then maxiumum frags for everyone to trade

Exactly!:D