Sigh, still doing patchwork on the old tank...

[HiFidelity]

It's not leaking, in case the title was misleading...

So my current schedule still allows me time to maintain my tank but it has not quite let me do the work needed putting together my new tank, so for now (maybe for a while) I'm still forced to put up with this thing, but I refuse to give up on it because I love my livestock to death and will do everything within this tank's limit to keep them all happy

I'm wondering if I can turn the crappy built in sump/filter into a mini-fuge, I'm thinking of throwing 6-10 6500k Cree LEDs on a mini heatsink on top of this chamber where I'm keeping LR, the water circulation is quite ideal, a pump lifts the water out of the tank & sprays it via spray bar over the entire length of the chamber, inside there are 2 slotted baffles before the water is returned to the tank which I assume will work perfectly for keeping chaeto in place. Also I have the skimmer setup so that it also lifts water from the tank & then returns into the soon to be "fuge" area.

Do you guys thing this will work ok? if so would anyone in the east bay be willing to donate a clump?

To those who know my tank well and wondering why I'm doing this, well I'm SICK of algae, I don't have a bad infestation or anything but there's always some fuzz on the powerheads & frag rack so I want it gone, also I want to ditch carbon dosing (if I can).

Pic so you know just what the heck I'm talking about, there is only LR in there right now;

Another important thing I should point out is this is on top of the tank so the main lighting for the tank actually hits this thing too, could chaeto die from overexposure to light? it would end up getting a very long light cycle between the fuge lights and main lighting. Could I possibly do a short (maybe 4 hours) light cycle for the fuge to offset this?

 

[Devon]

I have some for you. Let me know when your ready.

 

[neuro]

How big is the area? I think the smallest fuge I'd ever go with, is something the size of an Aquaclear 150. Even then, I don't think the fuge worked all that great. It turned out to be more of a filter than a fuge, and needed replacing and maintaining every week. Couldn't even properly grow chaeto in it, although I know many who have been able to.

 

[swk]

I also carbon dose and my fuge has become a useless waste of space under my tank IMO. At this point I'm keeping it online strictly for pod production and a critter sanctuary. My tanks nutrients are so low that chaeto just craps out after a while. I'm in the process of changing to different macros that are more suitable for a low nutrient system.

Ime, a fuge is a bit of a waste for nutrient reduction if you're currently carbon dosing. Even before dosing, my fuge just wasn't cutting it for nitrate reduction for me. Carbon dosing has handled all those needs but I still like having a refuge for the pods and other critters.


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[HiFidelity]

neuro - it is pretty big actually 3"x6"x20" (3 depth & 20 length) so it's ample space I assume for macro algae (for a 40g DT). The HOB fuge (aquaclear diy) are primarily good for nano tanks where there is no other way of filtration in my opinion and not going to make any measurable change on larger tank like yours or mine...

swk - what's prompting me to do this is the fact that there is all sorts of algae in the DT despite my carbon dosing regiment, I've tried dosing more, less and everything in between and the only thing that changes is the coral's response to the nutrient load, some corals get really happy when I dose a lot of carbon, others get happy when I dose less. I've got every type of algae growing in my DT right now (including bryopsis) which hasn't been a real issue since it doesn't grow out of control, most algae gets eaten since I have several healthy herbivores. Another huge reason is pods, I used to have tons of pods in my tank until a mishap with a BAYER dip nuked all pods out of my tank and since there have been none.

So yeah basically the only big reason I want to give this a shot is hopefully to eliminate all algae from DT and maybe cut down or eliminate carbon dosing. I am always a big advocate of the "natural approach" (not that carbon isn't) but growing macro algae is far more natural than dripping vodka & vinegar into the tank haha.

Unfortunately I have not made any progress on this other than locate a chaeto donor (Devon) I'm trying to find some free time to put something together (lighting wise) and figured I'll use this;

I'm going to put 4 or 6 cree cool white LEDs (6500k) on a reverse light cycle. Hopefully it works...