New tank up and going fuge-less. Long term observations?

Skimmo

Skimmo

New member
I just put up a new 40 Breeder with a 15 gal sump. I have the sump running without a fuge and I was planning to run just GAC & GFO instead of a chaeto fuge on a reverse light cycle as I've done in the past.

I'd like to get away from the issues I've had in my previous tank with a deep sand bed in the display tank and an algae bloom that started in that tank's fuge. I think the Natural concept was cool but it's tricky if the natural filtration parts can't be compartmentalized from the display.

Anyone have experience long term with a reef tank running a GAC/GFO reactor without a fuge?
 
There are some out there that don't run a fuge, I happen not to be one of those people... I have run GFO and a fuge together with decent results.

Someone please chime in.
 
mlreef said:
There are some out there that don't run a fuge, I happen not to be one of those people... I have run GFO and a fuge together with decent results.

Someone please chime in.
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I run a sump with skimmer/fuge/GFO. Everything is happy and growing.
 
Tethered_Limbs said:
berlin method ftw, get those plants out of the sump!
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I run a section of my 40b sump as a fuge. Just with Chaeto on a reverse light cycle. I also run GFO. I've had this up and running to for 11 months now. No issues and anyone who's seen my tank can verify how i dont have a single spec of algae in my tank lol.
 
I have never relied on a fuge for nutrient export, that is always done via WC and GFO/skimmer, the main draw of a fuge for me is pod reproduction
 
mlreef said:
There are some out there that don't run a fuge, I happen not to be one of those people... I have run GFO and a fuge together with decent results.

Someone please chime in.
Click to expand...
I run a fuge separate from my sump 20 gal bsb and some kind of algae not cheato also few mangroves. I was running gfo but had some issues and once i removed gfo tank did great and fuge did lot better they were fighting each other lol. Just my experience. But i love my fuge but will never do one in sump will always be external. Easier maintaining. If gotta do work to it i csn shut it down and system is still running. I can leave it off for a week with no side effects to main tank. Cant do that with in sump
 
I never run fuge on my tanks. If you look at the link in my signature my most successful SPS tank run 2 years with GFO , GAC and bio pellets , no fuge before I took it down. I believe that for fuge to be efficient it needs to be a good size ( way bigger then most of us have space for) but fuge is also nutrient trap most if the time.
 
I'm actually planning on taking out my fuge chamber in my sump. Unless there's tons of flow in it, detritus gets stuck and the whole tank gets more nutrients. And I can't keep algae solely in the fuge anyways, so I'd rather have less nutrients with algae in the DT for the fish.
 
MMreef said:
I never run fuge on my tanks. If you look at the link in my signature my most successful SPS tank run 2 years with GFO , GAC and bio pellets , no fuge before I took it down. I believe that for fuge to be efficient it needs to be a good size ( way bigger then most of us have space for) but fuge is also nutrient trap most if the time.
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From my experience I have to agree with you. I thought a volume of 15" wide, 24" long and 10" deep would be overkill for my previous fuge. After 4 years running it seemed like I could not generate enough laminar current in the fuge to tumble a chaeto ball constantly. It would get stuck even in a 15" wide spray bar fitted to a MJ-1200 outlet. This was in a chamber after the weirs with constant 250 gph flow going through them. It just became a tumbling mass of detritus floss. Hair aglae overwhelmed the chaeto and grew off of it even after harvesting.

Thanks for your input.
 
If I were you, I'd run a biopellet reactor on it from the beginning. Less to maintain than GFO, and you won't have a rapid nutrient stripping problem if you use them from the beginning. Just run no more than 50% dosage until you have reason to increase.
 
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