Creation of the fuge pic thread

yours is so much nicer looking.i'm rebuilding mine this winter.but heres the photo you wanted.its 29gallon,my next will be a 30 long made the same accept i need a nicer place for the carbon pad.its rubberband to that orange eggcrate thing and set a rock on it so it does'nt blow off.i used a 65watt power compact and every month it doubles.in the photo i'm about to take half of it out and put a new carbon pad in.

 

Well, just thought I'd update the thread. The 'fuge is running great, although it took some creativity to get it under the main tank. The stand's depth is about the same as the 10 gallon 'fuge's depth. But I got it in.

I've got a nice compact flourescent spiral screw-in bulb at 67K. Creates almost no heat, and burns like daylight. I keep it on from dusk till dawn.

I've located my first copepods in the 'fuge. They're scurrying about just like cockroaches on land. Cute little buggers. If they multiply, I think I'll get a blenny--maybe a pink spotted one.

 

Great build thread. Sparky.

Are you going to manually export pods form your fug to the main system?

J

 

Howdy, Jason. Thanks!

For now, I plan on taking it kind of slow, and seeing if an ample amount of pods make it to the display tank via return pump--they seem small enough to make the trip without incident. If they do, I'm hoping tank conditions will allow them to breed in the main tank too, unless that sort of thing doesn't generally happen. I know they love the chaeto. As I watch the chaeto ball turn slowlyin the 'fuge, I catch glimpses of what seems to be dozens of them making their way around.

If necessary, I suppose I'll manually export them although I've never heard of this being done. Is it done with a small vessel of some sort? How can they be collected and manually brought "upstairs?"

 

Usually the pump of the return can do them in.

I've heard (never had a fuge myself) that during pruning you can just shake the pruned marco algae over a bucket and the pods will fall into the bucket and then you just add then to the main system.

Pods will do well in your main system as well, They can become food for many fish

J

 

so to them it's just a food processor, huh? LOL.

That makes good sense about shaking them into a bucket. I'll try that when they're super plentiful. Not yet, tho.

Thanks again.

 

Well, some time has gone by and here's another update. I've observed the population of 'pods has almost equalized between the chaeto ball in the 'fuge, and in the main tank. I've got what appear to be hydroids all over the main tank's glass. There are pods scurrying about on the glass too, and lots of them on the sand too.

 

heres pics of my fuge, the tank is a 15 gallon acrylic. the supply line to the fuge is from the chillers with a tee to control the flow into the fuge. the drain from the fuge goes into the sump with a 90 at the end. the fuge has grape and chaeto with 15# sand and 15# rock and a 96w pc. the lights are reverse the main tank and are on an hour prior to the mh in the main tank and stay on an hour after the mh in the main tank is on.

if you lay a piece of 1/2" pvc on the bottom of the fuge, your pods and other bugs will multiply very quickly. the pvc should be atleast 6".

 

Now that's a picture of established! Looking good, guru. I have some 1/2" pvc laying around. I'll put some in the fuge and see about the pods.