Chaeto & fuge questions

[drfu]

So i have decided to start two fuges on both of my reef tanks, one is a IM Nuvo 8, the other is a 15g column. On the Nuvo 8 i have installed InTank's fuge basket & 10 watt submersible light in my back heater column (where it was designed for) & in my 15g i have installed a InTank basket for an extra Aquaclear 20 w/same 10w light (this basket also has a spot for filter floss to polish the water) Each one has a nice size ball of algae in it, they both have got a lot of light & flow to grow(at least i think so). I have also bought a live mixture that my lfs breeds of phyto,rotifiers&copepods that i have seeded in each fuge.

My idea was this, to help with nutrient export in conjunction with my standard weekly water changes & to feed corals. I have read up a bit on chaeto & fuges but still have a few questions on them.

My questions are as follows:
1) what to look for in growth with the algae, ie color, amount of it, how will i know its doing its job?
2) cultivating of it, how/when, if i get some good growth from it that is?
3) do i clean the algae out in the main tank to shake some pods out, clean what has caught up in it & the fuge or should i just rinse it out with recycled tank water in a bucket?
4) exporting the pods/phyto/rot from the fuge or do they just get dumped into the tank from the filter all the time.

Any other tips, useful info on chaeto, fuges would be awesome like best practices, etc. thanks in advance for all of your responses.

 

[Sniperhank]

You'll know if you are getting any benefit if you see a drop in nitrates and phosphates, as this is what algae feeds off of. If there are 'algae issues' in the display, these will likely stop spreading and sometimes even die off if the macro consumes these nutrients before the others do.
Cutting back macro algae varies. The more you have, the more nutrients it can export. Since these are in nano tank situations and not in a sump, you'll want to make sure to keep it trimmed so it fits in the small containers it is in.
In terms of pod production, due to the size I wouldn't really expect to see a huge pod population coming out of it. But, they normally can export themselves from the fuge into the display. Yes, they can survive going through pumps due to their size.
It will be interesting to see if you notice any benefits from having macros in your small tanks. Usually, in small tanks it is recommended that you just do water changes with ro/di water and call it a day since these small tanks can't have huge amounts of macro in them, as it will die off from lack of nutrients to feed off of or just doesn't have a big enough benefit to where it is worth many people's time.

 

[drfu]

You'll know if you are getting any benefit if you see a drop in nitrates and phosphates, as this is what algae feeds off of. If there are 'algae issues' in the display, these will likely stop spreading and sometimes even die off if the macro consumes these nutrients before the others do.
Cutting back macro algae varies. The more you have, the more nutrients it can export. Since these are in nano tank situations and not in a sump, you'll want to make sure to keep it trimmed so it fits in the small containers it is in.
In terms of pod production, due to the size I wouldn't really expect to see a huge pod population coming out of it. But, they normally can export themselves from the fuge into the display. Yes, they can survive going through pumps due to their size.
It will be interesting to see if you notice any benefits from having macros in your small tanks. Usually, in small tanks it is recommended that you just do water changes with ro/di water and call it a day since these small tanks can't have huge amounts of macro in them, as it will die off from lack of nutrients to feed off of or just doesn't have a big enough benefit to where it is worth many people's time.

Thanks for the reply, i guess time will tell for sure. I do have a prob with the fact my 15 gallon always shows between 1-2 ppm by weeks end when i do my wc, i could skip a week to see. It did have some issues with phosphorus but i think that was from where i was getting my ro water from. I do get some diatoms in my substrate & do have to clean the glass weekly from a light film, could see if that drops in frequency. This tank only has one fish it it, quite a few invertebrates so the bioload is light as its only 2 months old now but is packed with corals & some do require feeding.

As for my 8 gallon i have had nitrate issues cause i have two juvi o clownes in it, nitrates get up anywhere between 5-10 ppm by weeks end when i do my wc so here im hopping that within a week the trates only get up to 2-5ppm. This tank also has a bit more diatoms & algae because of the higher trates i figure and its 4 months old.

A lot of people have said its a waste for small tanks but i think any export is good for stability of wager chemistry so I'm looking forward to the results.

Good to know that the pods taking care of themselves.

As for trimming, do i trim the outer edges only? Also about cleaning the ball, do i need to and is old tank water fine .

Thanks again

 

[Sniperhank]

Yeah, shake it some above the tank to keep pods in your system then rinse in old tank water.