Fuge cleaning???

[turbois300]

Should I be syphoning out the fuge sand when I do water changes? It's not a RDSB but it is about 3-4". Just wondering if I should do this frequently or just from time to time. Or at all... It's a 20L with only sand and chaeto (snails and such also). Thanks

 

[fly guy]

personally I would say clean the sand out of it entirely and just have a BB fuge with a huge hunk of macro

if you are using it for nutrient export this is the best way to go. you can then in a few seconds witha shop vac every now and then vacuum out what settles for permanent and absolute removal

if you are using it to grow pods to support something sepcifically.......use a BB as well and just make some pod condos with rock rubble. Again, you can at least remove excess detritous from the floor instead of letting it rot in a sandbed just so organics can be released all the time

 

[Hypertek99]

I wouldn't clean the sand in the fuge

 

[turbois300]

Interesting.......2 different ideas. Anyone else care to elaborate??? The chaeto is so thick and huge that it takes up all other space in that tank. I prune it regularly to help with nutrient export and the flow through this area is low. I have a mandrin and that guy needs a lot of pods...which I have. I've heard disturbing sand beds can be disadvantagous if they are really deep. Mine is just kinda deep.

There is quite a bit of stuff that I think I can vaccume out off the top without getting too deep into the sand. I can just pull out the 10 lbs. of chaeto and float it in the display while I would do it. Would that be advisable? I have a 38 BB tied into my setup and I don't like the BB.....too much stuff to clean off the bottom. Even with crazy flow.

 

[fly guy]

I have a 38 BB tied into my setup and I don't like the BB.....too much stuff to clean off the bottom. Even with crazy flow.

set up right a BB tank needs very little if any crap ever siphoned off of the floor, and it deosnt take crazy flow to accomplish it. Just a little thought into how you set it up.

 

[turbois300]

I set it up with a spray bar across the bottom and a 1200 gph Seizo across the top. IT still finds the little cracks and dead spots to accumulate. No problem to suck out.. it just adds up kinda quickly. Nothing against BBs. I like the look of them also.

Main question is on the fuge cleaning.... I've been noticing when I get paly's or zoas that they get really small in my tank. It's like they miniaturize. They stay colorful and reproduce like crazy but they are all small. even palys. When I get them they are huge like thumbnail size then they go to pencil eraser size. This happens in every part of the tank too. High light or low light and same with flow same coral same everything. Anything in particular with zoa or paly that makes the physical size of polyps small? Yet still colorful and reproduce like weeds.

 

[fly guy]

Ive had serious shrinking polyps syndrome myself.......I ahd it when i kept all of my polyps in a sps dominated tank. In my case, it was a combination of too little nutrients and too much light I believe. Needing more nutrients is not to be confused with them needing "dirty" water. that is a myth. they like it clean like everything else. feed the tank and get it out is the name of the game

setting up a polyp tank and feeding the absolute crap out of it fixed the shrinking polyp problem for me. within a month of seting that tank up and feeding it wel;l all of my polyps showed a huge improvement in polyp size.

 

[turbois300]

That makes sense as I rarely feed the tanks anything but flake and nori.... a little garlic on the nori from time to time and some brine shrimp too.. My display is mostly SPS and I've got a crap ton of xenia in the display and also in the 38. I skim 24/7 and I have 2 x 250 12Ks on lumenarcs that are on for 12 hours. SPS grows like crazy and the only zoas that keep their size are my blues. There are like 3 tennisball colonies that are almost out of control. Could the xenia be stripping out too much good nutrient? I have 2 basketball size colonies and then some. Thanks for all the info guy