Fuge crud

[Frogger]

Hi, just had a question about some stuff in my fuge. First, let me tell you about the system...80gal bowfront reef (lps, softies) 4 fish and a ~30 sump/fuge combo. The fuge is in the middle baffled section. Anyways, I had high nitrates. So, I went to LFS and got some chaeto. No growth. It all died. So, I changed light spectrums. I tried burning the TSP lights Melev suggests with no luck. So I changed to a coralife quad tube 96w CF and then to the daylight CF from Wally world. Still no luck. I have not been able to grow chaeto, period. (Even with nitrates as high as 50 at one point)

 

Currently, I have 2 Wally World daylights, 61k I think, burning on the fuge, which is about 4 inches deep. I left them on after the last of the chaeto dissentigrated. Now, I have a layer of crud on the side walls as well as the powerhead in the fuge area. The crud kind of peels off in layers. Some is a purpleish color and some greenish brown. It has encrusted the heater as well.

 

Any ideas why I can't get the chaeto to grow and what exactly the crud is? Oh, there are also little bubbles in some parts of the crud.

The good news, nitrates are finally down to near 0 (they were high though last time I tried to grow cheaeto so I know nutrients weren't an issue.)

Thanks!

 

Mat

[Lowman]

Sounds like cyano to me.

[reefhut]

fuge

 

I would agree with Lowman. It's most likely cyno bateria. Cyno usally shows up under high neutrient conditions and lack of water flow. First things first. Increase flow in the problem area's, cyno dosent like flow. The only changes you should be makeing right now is water changes. Your nitrates are way to high, you won't get anything to grow. Do water changes gradually. I mean 20% once every two weeks tell all your levels are in check (ie PH,Alk,Nitrates, ect..). Also check temp swings, your temp should not get over 82 and below 75. Thats my two cents, hope that helps.

[Nyles]

I have a similar setup, center baffle fuge. Keep the water flow super low in there when you get the problem fixed, but as reefhut said you need to do some water changes to get your n03 in check once you do that you should be able to grow cheato. Feed sparingly (try a small amount once every 2 days after you get your levels back, then after a few weeks minimum slowly add a little more)

 

I am using the 6500 kelvin light melev uses and it works great, its been cycling a year in my tank and I still get great growth from it.

 

Once you get your levels in check you need to get some snails in there to help cleanup the muck that will slowly accrue. Also remember with a center baffling system and slow flow much of your scum that would be at the surface will settle on the surface there, so make sure you skim it out when water changing, it makes a difference.

 

Good luck.

[Frogger]

Thanks for the info guys. Nyles, as far as the flow in the fuge, there is a layer of scum floating on the top. I added a small powerhead to help increase the flow around the area. But it seems like most of the flow is on the bottom because of the way the baffles are setup. Should I aim the powerhead at the surface to stir it up? I'm a little confused because reefhut says increase flow and it looks like Nyles said to substantiallyl decrease flow.

As of now, I now longer have a nitrate problem. They are back down close to zero. However,I still have the large scum problem.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[Nyles]

Well my opinion is by adding a powerhead you are not accomplishing what the porpose of a fuge is (create a slow moving water area that pods can grow and allow a NO compete area for cheato to grow and create photosynthesis) To keep your colonies of pods in there you need to keep the flow rather low (I push 500 GPH through a fuge that is 15" w x 15" h x 24" L (water level measurement) the water is very slow moving but to keep the cyano out you need high flow LOL) by adding the powerhead I think your just allowing the cyano to move on to another area, since you have it right on the top of the water wouldn't it be better to just skim it out? I have found that when I get it, it comes and goes (especially when I skip the skimming the water surface), so having a contained area to capture could actually be a benefit, so you have to find a happy place. When I do water changes I grab a cup and skim and "Stuff" off the top, if you do it weekly its wont be much, I cant even see anything (but I still do it to make sure and floating contaminants are removed), more a very thin almost invisible hint of oil, probably organics accumulated from the air in my house, I do run Carbon, but it will still accumulate slowly over time. The snails I have (20 asterea) keep it very clean, I also keep a single hermit in each chamber for settling detritus. Unfortunately a fuge has to be cleaned in order to keep it running tip top, but the snails reduce it to about 1/3 the work.

 

Hope that helps.

[Nyles]

On a side note when I clean my fuge and cheato.....

 

Since it has three chambers, well kinda 4. First 4" x 4" is the water dump chamber that contains the bubbles, water travels down then into the skimmer chamber, then triple baffle to fuge, then triple baffle to return.

 

When I clean the sump I need to shake out the cheato from time to time and blast out detritus, when I do this I make one extra step. I stop my return pump to the main system, I put a 1" tube down my skimmer output and have it exit to my return pump chamber so the clean water is sent there. Then I shake the cheato and unsettle the detritus. What this does is reverse the water flow so it sucks all the detritus into the skimmer. Its very effective and keeps the detritus out of the main display. I usually let it run for 30 min or so and then remove the tube and turn back on the return pump.

[Frogger]

That cleaning method is a great idea! I'll definitely be using that in the future. I'll pull the powerhead and see what happens. Thanks again!

[Frogger]

Another question for your thoughts concerning the fuge......I currently have 2 80 gal tanks in the front room. I'm moving the older tank (LPS mostly) into the new bowfront. The old tank has icecap 660 with 2 actinics and 2 white actinics. The new tank has 250 MH with 15K's in it. What I did on the first batch of transfers was after they acclimated while floating in the fuge (to keep constant temp) I put the frags (I fragged a bunch of stuff just as an experiment so I didn't torch my whole reef with the MH's) in the fuge for a day or so to get used to the new water chemistry. The new tank is strictly RODI where the old one I had to resort to some tap topoffs (with de-chlorinizer).

 

Well, getting to my question.....since this area of the fuge is somewhat stagnant compared to the main tank, will there be anything there (the fuge area) that would injur the corals that wouldn't be there (like concentrations of certain things) in the main tank? The first batch went over pretty good (except the frag from the green frog that I accidentally crushed. He's not looking so good right now, but at least he is still alive.) I started another bunch last night. But after reading Nyles I started wondering about the stagnant water thing.

 

Again, thanks for all the help!

 

Mat

[Nyles]

What are you using for a return pump and whats the fuge width? Even with these figures I would add that as long as the water is turned over there 2-3 times per hour or more you should not have a problem (your problem would start with lack of oxygen) but highly unlikely unless it was truly stagnant and thats highly unlikely, typically you would match your skimmer pump size with your return pump for skimming efficiency.

[Frogger]

The center section (fuge) is roughly 14Lx12W (water flowing from right to left widthwise.) I have a mag 9.5 return and an octopus skimmer (unknown pump specs.) I think the only "stagnant" water would be the layer of scum that floats around on the top. I'm sure that the water definitely gets turned at least 4-5 times an hour.

I've been thinking about it today and I've come to the conclusion that I am going to build a small floating overflow box (I don't have an auto-topoff yet so water level fluctuates) with a tube going to the skimmer section to constantly skim the fuge area. What are your thoughts on that?

[Nyles]

I have the same return pump, I think simple cleaning when you siphon out water change water is all you need. Give that a try first.