Hello forum!
I've decided to take the plunge and add a fuge to my big SW tank. I'm not a fan of the HOB type, because I think that would just be too much weight hanging on glass, so I'm building my own. This will sit off to the side and slightly above the main tank. I will pump water from the main sump into the far end of the fuge, and it will overflow into a standpipe where gravity will return it to the sump.
I've ordered a custom 20H acrylic tank with a special hole drilled in the side (for the gravity return), and am now piecing together the rest of the equipment. The only thing I'm having trouble deciding on is the lighting. All I've ever used for tank lighting is standard fluorescents, so I'm deficient in this area. The fuge will be 24" long so I can find a stand and other parts without having to special-order everything. I will add LR and LS to the basic setup.
My INTENT is to have pods, snails, peppermint shrimp, and other detritivores in the fuge (for reducing nitrate and phosphates), plus I'd like to grow some Caulerpa algae, Sea Grass and other beneficial plants (to help feed the herbivores). Since I'm not going to have corals, I probably don't need VHO or MH lighting, so I was wondering if regular HO/CF was sufficient for what I'm going to use the fuge for.
There are too many types of fixtures out there to choose from, and some of it I don't understand (like "Daylight", "Super Daylight", "50/50", "Dual-Actinic", "Aquarium spectrum", etc.). I know "actinic" is the blue-shaded bulbs, but what about the rest of it? Is all this really that important if I don't have coral in the tank? HO/CF should be good for the plants, but will that much light make it hard on the inverts I'm choosing? Anybody care to recommend a specific manufacturer or model?
TIA,
--Aquabear
I've decided to take the plunge and add a fuge to my big SW tank. I'm not a fan of the HOB type, because I think that would just be too much weight hanging on glass, so I'm building my own. This will sit off to the side and slightly above the main tank. I will pump water from the main sump into the far end of the fuge, and it will overflow into a standpipe where gravity will return it to the sump.
I've ordered a custom 20H acrylic tank with a special hole drilled in the side (for the gravity return), and am now piecing together the rest of the equipment. The only thing I'm having trouble deciding on is the lighting. All I've ever used for tank lighting is standard fluorescents, so I'm deficient in this area. The fuge will be 24" long so I can find a stand and other parts without having to special-order everything. I will add LR and LS to the basic setup.
My INTENT is to have pods, snails, peppermint shrimp, and other detritivores in the fuge (for reducing nitrate and phosphates), plus I'd like to grow some Caulerpa algae, Sea Grass and other beneficial plants (to help feed the herbivores). Since I'm not going to have corals, I probably don't need VHO or MH lighting, so I was wondering if regular HO/CF was sufficient for what I'm going to use the fuge for.
There are too many types of fixtures out there to choose from, and some of it I don't understand (like "Daylight", "Super Daylight", "50/50", "Dual-Actinic", "Aquarium spectrum", etc.). I know "actinic" is the blue-shaded bulbs, but what about the rest of it? Is all this really that important if I don't have coral in the tank? HO/CF should be good for the plants, but will that much light make it hard on the inverts I'm choosing? Anybody care to recommend a specific manufacturer or model?
TIA,
--Aquabear