The Nano Fuge Only Experiment

[jhadaway]

This may not be the first time somebody tried this but I wanted to document it. I've had a 5.5 gallon pico running in my office for a good bit now. It's doing great but it's been tough to keep clean because of the size and the overstocking. Recently i decided to get a mandarin and a watchman goby from ORA. I knew they would be small so I decided to keep them in my pico for a little while to fatten them up before going home to my WB 100.3. After a few feedings a days for 3 or 4 weeks I noticed the coral was really coloring up across the board. My light orange digitata was now starting to glow, the sunset monti was making a comeback and my BOP was really showing green and purple. On top of that PE was crazy.
At first I was attributing it to the little Kessil I was running but if that were the case the coral would have looked like that from the start. I have alk pegged and I do weekly 3 gal water changes. The only filtration is a 2x2 pad. After watching a few BRS videos on refugiums and algae scrubbers it hit me. This was from elevated nutrients from the feedings. I now have my hands on a fluval flex 15 that I'm going to convert to a reef tank. I'm planning on building a fuge in the second chamber and running a 12w fuge light with cheto. I will only use a filter pad in the first chamber.
The only downside to the pico was the hair algae that crept in. So the goal is simple. I'm going to use a filter pad and a fuge for filtration. That's it. After a month or two I'm going to put in a pair of clowns and snails as needed. I'm hoping the fuge can out compete the tank for algae growth. I've got some mods to do on the tank and I'll post pics soon.

Happy Reefing!
Joe

 

[blaxsun]

So how often are you adding pods to your pico/nano?

 

[jhadaway]

I had it seeded from the start with sand from my home tank. They were everywhere until the mandarin came to town. After 2 weeks out the pods are showing again. I have added 2 bottles in the last month. Eating algea off the glass.. My hime tank has been seeded 3 times in my fuge and tank. The Mandarin eats brine and pellets too. I might add them every other month from here.

 

[jhadaway]

Update.
The tank has been going through some swings. My all4reef pump clogged and started a cascade of problems. I lost a spongedos and i have some burned montis. I hated the bare bottom look so i added some crushed coral. Im hoping its easy to keep clean unlike the sand was. I had aiptasia that has been eradicated by one peppermint shrimp and a gha outbreak that flux rx took care of.
Now the cheato has started to grow. Ill run it opposite the lighting. I added 2 blue strip lights about a month ago that i am acclimating. Once the chemistry settles im adding some annacropora from home to see if i can grow it here. I did add xenia and a feather duster.

 

[jhadaway]

Also, I switched out the stock pump with a Syncra Silent 1.5 with 2 RFG's. The tank has great flow. I will add a small powerhead eventually to stir everything for a few minutes a day. Maybe something around 425gph.

 

[kevgib67]

Update.
The tank has been going through some swings. My all4reef pump clogged and started a cascade of problems. I lost a spongedos and i have some burned montis. I hated the bare bottom look so i added some crushed coral. Im hoping its easy to keep clean unlike the sand was. I had aiptasia that has been eradicated by one peppermint shrimp and a gha outbreak that flux rx took care of.
Now the cheato has started to grow. Ill run it opposite the lighting. I added 2 blue strip lights about a month ago that i am acclimating. Once the chemistry settles im adding some annacropora from home to see if i can grow it here. I did add xenia and a feather duster.

I like this approach, following.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Update.
The tank has been going through some swings. My all4reef pump clogged and started a cascade of problems. I lost a spongedos and i have some burned montis. I hated the bare bottom look so i added some crushed coral. Im hoping its easy to keep clean unlike the sand was. I had aiptasia that has been eradicated by one peppermint shrimp and a gha outbreak that flux rx took care of.
Now the cheato has started to grow. Ill run it opposite the lighting. I added 2 blue strip lights about a month ago that i am acclimating. Once the chemistry settles im adding some annacropora from home to see if i can grow it here. I did add xenia and a feather duster.

Tank is looking good!

 

[jhadaway]

Stocking
2 ORA stubby clowns
1 tuxedo urchin
1 cleaner shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
various snails
6 red and blue legged hermits
1 serpent starfish

 

[jhadaway]

So I'm about 4 months in with the replacement tank and it's finally locking in. Growth has been great and I once again have stable Alk. I had some issues with my dosing pump and had some effects from adding some coarse gravel. I tried bare bottom but I didn't like the way it looked and the snails and urchin kept pushing everything around. I have the normal brown dust algea but that's about it. It's food for the CUC. The cleaner shrimp vanished but everyone else is doing great. I am now changing 3 gallons of water a week.
Now for the big part. I have filter floss on the overflow and chaeto. That's it. The chaeto has gone from a golf ball to about a 4"l x 4"t x 2"d. It's growing great. I have not measured N03 or PO4 but I don't have any algae growth and I have great growth/color/PE on my coral. I do feed frozen food M-F and pellets on the weekend to keep the water as clean as possible. I have noticed that pellets every day drive algae growth in this tank.
All in all so far I would say picos and nanos can run with filter floss and chaeto only and be successful. I will keep it going and see how things go once the corals grow out a bit more.

 

[jhadaway]

So we are at the 6 month mark. I’ve been doing 3 gallon water changes every 10-14 days. The tank is thriving and consuming more alk just about every week. Outside of the dust on the glass, i don’t have algea issues at all. All the corals are growing well along with the clowns, yellow-line goby and peppermint shrimp. Im feeding formula 1 5-6 times per day and dkh pellets on the weekend. Here’s a shot of the refugium in the back middle. It was a golf ball, now its packed in! Outside of the filter pad, the fuge is the only filtration and it seems to be enough!

 

[jhadaway]

Tank shot