Sk8r
01/09/2010, 12:43 PM
Fuge. Refugium. A small green tank. Green in various senses.
It is either part of your sump (the central chamber), or is set up on a closed loop with your tank.
OK: definition: 'tank on a closed loop'---simply put, you put a maxijet pump in a second tank, clamp the input AND the output hoses firmly into place in your sump OR display tank, and water continually comes out of your system, into the adjacent tank, and water from tank 2 continually cycles back into tank 1.
Now---what's the setup with this second tank or this middle division of the sump? You set up another deep sandbed, put in more live rock, and get a nice ball of cheato moss to add to it. You light it (mine is lit 24/7, though some just light it whenever the other tank is dark). And you don't have to cycle this one: its sandbed will quickly come live from the bacteria cycling through your water.
Critters that can live in there: copepods will skyrocket; various snails, hermits, anything you've been warned not to put in your reef, predatory crabs, starfish, etc. Small fish (but not with predatory crabs!)
Critters that can escape it into your main tank: copepods, beneficial bacteria and algae spores, should you put caulerpa into it---this is why I say Cheato, because it doesn't sporulate.
What your tank sends into it: phosphates, nitrates, round-tripping copepods, spores, spare food, etc, which are caught in the cheato, which also eats phosphates. Yay! And the sandbed eats spare nitrates. And the little critters eat the spare food. Plus copepods eat micro algae.
What it can do for you: 1. it feeds your fish copepods constantly, especially mandarins and scooters. 2. it sops up phosphate that grows algae in your display tank. 3. it serves as an extension of your sandbed and live rock, and should anything serious befall your main tank, immediately shut down the link to the fuge: let the fuge continue on its own, and even if you have to go so far as a re-set-up on the main tank, the fuge once engaged again will immediately start repopulating the main tank sandbed and filtering anything the main tank can't do yet. It's sort of an 'instant' cycle---not entirely instantaneous, but close to it. I've never heard of anyone shortening their initial cycle by setting up a living fuge first, but imho it would help.
So in short, it improves your water, feeds your fish, serves as a growth tank for tang and rabbit treats (algae) and serves as a backup sandbed in case you have need of it. It's a good place to put spare rock, in your rearrangements, and it's a good place to store a misbehaving specimen until you can get it back to the lfs for trade.
You can also make them pretty so they serve as a second, green, display.
Worth doing, and not only for reefs.
It is either part of your sump (the central chamber), or is set up on a closed loop with your tank.
OK: definition: 'tank on a closed loop'---simply put, you put a maxijet pump in a second tank, clamp the input AND the output hoses firmly into place in your sump OR display tank, and water continually comes out of your system, into the adjacent tank, and water from tank 2 continually cycles back into tank 1.
Now---what's the setup with this second tank or this middle division of the sump? You set up another deep sandbed, put in more live rock, and get a nice ball of cheato moss to add to it. You light it (mine is lit 24/7, though some just light it whenever the other tank is dark). And you don't have to cycle this one: its sandbed will quickly come live from the bacteria cycling through your water.
Critters that can live in there: copepods will skyrocket; various snails, hermits, anything you've been warned not to put in your reef, predatory crabs, starfish, etc. Small fish (but not with predatory crabs!)
Critters that can escape it into your main tank: copepods, beneficial bacteria and algae spores, should you put caulerpa into it---this is why I say Cheato, because it doesn't sporulate.
What your tank sends into it: phosphates, nitrates, round-tripping copepods, spores, spare food, etc, which are caught in the cheato, which also eats phosphates. Yay! And the sandbed eats spare nitrates. And the little critters eat the spare food. Plus copepods eat micro algae.
What it can do for you: 1. it feeds your fish copepods constantly, especially mandarins and scooters. 2. it sops up phosphate that grows algae in your display tank. 3. it serves as an extension of your sandbed and live rock, and should anything serious befall your main tank, immediately shut down the link to the fuge: let the fuge continue on its own, and even if you have to go so far as a re-set-up on the main tank, the fuge once engaged again will immediately start repopulating the main tank sandbed and filtering anything the main tank can't do yet. It's sort of an 'instant' cycle---not entirely instantaneous, but close to it. I've never heard of anyone shortening their initial cycle by setting up a living fuge first, but imho it would help.
So in short, it improves your water, feeds your fish, serves as a growth tank for tang and rabbit treats (algae) and serves as a backup sandbed in case you have need of it. It's a good place to put spare rock, in your rearrangements, and it's a good place to store a misbehaving specimen until you can get it back to the lfs for trade.
You can also make them pretty so they serve as a second, green, display.
Worth doing, and not only for reefs.