What do I need to know??

[Doan]

My wife just called and my Refugium was just deliverd by the fedex guy. So that means I get to set it up tonight yay a friday with the fishes. It is an aquafuge 18 inches long 12 deep and 4 wide. I am just gonna get some Live sand and some rubble on the way home to stock it. Is there anything else you guys who have fuges can tell me. How much aglae do I put in to suck up some nutrients. Mostly the fuge is for bugs but I think I can combine algea and pod farming. But can I just put it all in tonight? Should I just put in the sand today with mabye a little rubble and wait a week or so on the aglea? Anyone got any tips

Thanks

Doan

 

[fishfreek]

aquafuge 18 inches long 12 deep and 4 wide.

Is this one of those hang on back fuges? With dimentions like that I would think so.

I dont have a fuge but I understand them fairly well. You shooudl be ok putting your sand, rock rubble and algae in there tonight. Obviously the algae will need to be lighted. IMO its best to reverse light this from the main tank but if its a hang on fuge I don tknow how practical that will be.

How much algae to put in? Well remember to allow for algae growth. I suspect you should put maybe 1/2 of the total amount of algae that you want at any given time. This way the algae can grow and you can then prune it every few weeks.

 

[SquishyFish]

Okay..first..this is being attatched to an exsisting tank right? If the sand is either "live" or already cured, then yes...you can put it right in the tank. Adding the ReefRubble...just dont add alot at once. It can contain alot of decaying material if it comes out of their curing tanks. A few cups of rubble in a 75 gallon system would be a good start.

As far as the algae...I would toss a handful of macro in there and put a HD grow light on it. Keep in mind that they do put off alot of heat so you will want a vent for it...but they work very well to grow algae.

Squishy

 

[kidkameleon3]

HD has a great grow light for aprox $7 I used them to grow ,well when I was a kid anyway It fits in any standard socket.I like cheap shop lights as they have reflectors

 

[Doan]

Darn it ... A $7 dollar light the one I got was $56...Ohhhhh welll should have asked before I ordered... Ok I did what you guys said and put in the sand and rubble last night.. Mabye only 4 lbs of rubble.. caue it was new and I didn't want to shock my tank. I am gettting the algea today as the LFS guy here told me that for some reason Carpula algea is illegal to ship or something up from florida so I had to get in touch with a fellow reefer here who is going to give me some. My one question now is that that light I have on the back is 18w but it is pretty bright... I have it as a hang on on the back and even with the back blocked out there was a good deal of light getting into the tank as of lights out lasat night. Would this just be equalivent to moon lighting.. Everything seemed a little confused last night but I just attributed it to it not being absolutly black in the room like it was.. Does this sound like just 1st time with the light adjusting and does it sound like it will be ok? By jitters I mean the bubble didnt' have out all his tenticals the amonome closed up just a bit... and the flame and mandarine just started darting around the tank. But for all I know this is normal after lights out as Well once the lights go out I am pretty clueless as to what they do.. I absolutly love the whole effect, my wife and I were up till about 2 am sitting on the floor watching night time in the tank.. .It was awsome and watching the mandrine snatch the bigger pods was cool too... much more active (active in a different way) than I am used to seeing..but what should I watch out for in the next few nights to make sure they can handle the lighting at night and that it will not be so much things go bonkers and it begins to have a negitive effect on the tank as a whole..

 

[jerejohnson]

doan how did the fuge look, can you take pictures? do you think its necessary to get to it all the time? or if it just fits will you beable to service it when needed? in all what did you think of it? im looking at one and just kinda wanna know? thanks sorry about all the questions.

 

[WarOrks15]

ya my corals with the moon lights close up right after the PC turn off but then reopen a hour later. but ya it is really cool to watch all the pod fly around the tank and see all the snails start moveing around to eat there meals.

 

[Doan]

Ok jere 1st Please don't appologize for any and all questions. I have bugged so many people here it is sad but everyone has been wonderful and I like helping out with my very limited knowledge as well. I will have some pictures up for you but problably not for a few days as I want to get it finished algea and all prior to pics. that being said I will tell you what I know. Do I think it's necessary to get to it all the time. -- No. I really don't I have it hanging on the back and If I can get to it If I need to but Once the algea is in there with the LS and rock I can see no reason or need to go in there except every few weeks to keep the algea pruned. Honestly since the back of my tank is black and the light lines up with my main light you can't even see it from the front. If you walk around to the side of the tank though you can see in it from the side... mostly so I can make sure that my algea is doing dosen't need pruned. Ummm After the first night I really like it so far .. way to soon to make a definitave judgement but I got some great sand and there are bugs everywhere in there already so that made me happy. I am assuming the algea will help stabalize my nitrates which have always been about 10 ... not bad not where I want them either I am also told this will help keep other algeas out of my tank.. I don't understand how that works but ok that seems good too. I also noticed some pretty good size buggs in my main tank that I am assuming came from the ref cause my mandarine had gotten all the ones i had .. they were swimming and seemed intact so it looks like once they start breeding it will acomplish what I need it to which is get pods from the ref to the maintank alive and intact so they can be used as food. Finally as an added bonus as stated earlier I love the moonlight effect but I am not sure that my inhabitants do yet so I will keep you posted. All in all way overpriced for what you get but I think I will be very happy with it. I will try to have some pics up for you on Sunday if you want to check my gallery.

Doan