HOB fuge or skimmer on your nano?

[neuro]

Does anyone have a HOB fuge or skimmer on your nano?

If so, what's in your fuge?
Have you noticed any particular benefits with your fuge/skimmer?
How big is your tank vs your fuge?
What kind of load is in your tank?

much abliged!

[Reeferz412]

The bigger the better. I have a marina/finnex breeder box I modded as a fuge. Of course this is small for my 20 but the more water volume the better. I have a budget so I cannot be spending left and right. You could go with the CPR aquafuge if you are willing to spend the money.

My fuge is 1.5 gallons and contains live rock from my aquarium that I did not need in the display tank. I smashed it with a hammer to make it rubble. I have one compartment with Chemipure elite and chaeto with the LR. I also attached a clamp on light to help the chaeto grow. The ight i am using is a simple 6500k bulb from home depot. The clamp on light and bulb can be bought at home dept for less than $10.

My fuge serves as a mini copepod/nitrate controller. The chaeto acts as a phosphate remover and depletes the hair algae I once had of its phosphates in my display tank. The rubble rock helps house the copepods which can serve as a food source for my fish. My bio load is quite heavy for my tank. Predominantly lps and softies, I have 2 mollies, 1 yellow wrasse, a clownfish, and a firefish. Along with 20 blue legged hermits, about 60 ceriths, 4 or 5 nassarius, one peppermint shrimp, and an emerald crab. My tank is 20 gallons.

As far as a skimmer, I have a CPR bakpak. That skimmer holds a large volume of water. Plus I store two heaters in there (one for back up). I have a maxi jet 1200 running on it. just with that and the fuge I have running it has great water turnover. Plus my two koralias 2's.

The fuge is small but serves its purpose on my 20. You will want to go bigger if you have a bigger system. The aquaclear mod is practically the same as the fuge I have but the aquaclear costs anywhere from 50-$75. My breeder box fuge cost me $15 and the pump I took from a fountain (fountain pump:Beckett water pumps) which costs about $10 on amazon. Like I said, I am on a budget but this works great for me! Best of luck!

[BlueFyre]

I have a finnex fuge(1 gallon) on my 25 gallon reef. I use it to grow cheato and pods. I don't run a skimmer. My nitrates stay around 5 and I believe the fuge is part of that. I can't say for sure though.

I have a variety of soft corals and LPS with a couple SPS thown in. I have a pair of clowns, a jawfish, a neon goby and lots of inverts.

[TL1000RSquid]

I have 2 nano's up(29g and a 10g that im upping to 20g), currently setting up a marina fuge as well, at the moment both tanks have Aquaclear filters one with the DIY fuge mod cutting up the media basket the other with a DIY intank style basket, both contain chaeto, chemipure elite, and some rubble. Helps with the trates and pods.

My 29g has the aquatic life internal skimmer it works ok.

10g has a single clown and inverts. 29g has a pair of clowns, watchman goby, dwarf angel, gramma, corals and inverts.

[-RYknow]

I'm running a Aquamaxx HOB-1 and Aquaclear AC-70 Fuge mod on my 20 long. My tank is only two weeks old and still cycling, so I can't really say much about performance. I've run the AC-70 fuge mod on my previous 20 gallon tank, and seemed to have good luck with it though.

I'll be running chemi-pure, rubble, and cheato with a DIY light.

-RYknow

[ange062]

IMO it's too hard to get a useful size fuge on a nano unless you are running a sump. The amount of macro that you can grow is too constrained to provide proper nutrient export. Better off going with an oversized skimmer and reactors. Just my 2c though.

[pweissma]

IMO it's too hard to get a useful size fuge on a nano unless you are running a sump. The amount of macro that you can grow is too constrained to provide proper nutrient export. Better off going with an oversized skimmer and reactors. Just my 2c though.

I absolutely agree. I had chaeto growing well in the back of my Solana. Removing the chaeto had no impact on nitrates.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

[neuro]

Thanks guys I'm beginning to agree with ange062 and pweissma:

After much searching and looking around, I decided to run an AC70 fuge mod w/chaeto and a 24/7 led light to see what would happen. Unfortunately, it didn't do a whole lot--if anything.

My phosphates are still very high (~.45 ppm) and the chaeto is practically dying and falling apart. Either I'm doing something wrong or the chaeto just can't absorb the lot of phosphates. It's been reduced to half its size.

I don't have any major algae, only an occasional diatom collection on the sides of the tank.

[Reeferz412]

The light, you need to change it. I am running 6500k bulb from home depot on mine. My hair algae is almost all gone with COMBINED efforts from blue legged hermits, emerald crab, two mollies that eat hair algae, and the chaeto somewhat stealing whatever phosphates from the hair algae.

[Reeferz412]

Oh and manual removal of course. Cant expect them to eat the long stuff

[neuro]

I got rid of the chaeto. It came apart in pieces. There was no way I was going to put more resources into simply maintaining chaeto.

My tank is doing just fine; no algae at all, and I haven't scraped the tank in over a week--crystal clear.

[Reeferz412]

One of the lucky ones ha ha. Best of luck on your endeavors of being algae free!