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Coral Vue Hydros

CPR AquaFuge 2 ?


razgris

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I am looking at getting this hob fuge

http://www.marinedepot.com/Hang_On-CPR-CR1...-CR1721-vi.html

 

Has anyone use it here?

Any disadvantages?

Any better options ?

 

I am going to put it on a 11 gallon mr aqua tank?

I want to put some chaeto and a skimmer it it.

I use them in my lab. They do bring down nutrients a small amount, but it's not a huge system so don't expect any miracles for nutrient export. Still, they're very useful for pod production, add a bit of stability, provide a bit of nutrient export, hides other equipment well, and can be a good place to put an inch of miracle mud if you're into that. Lets put it this way. I won't be taking them offline any time soon. A better option would be a sump with a larger refugium chamber, but there isn't a much better HOB refugium available. I'd recommend a nano-glo LED light to pair with it.

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Yea i'm not much into the sump for this tank, i was going to put my heater and skimmer in there, i have been reading on the site and they say chaeto isn't good unless you have a basketball size anyway.

 

How would you say the quality and noise level is on yours??

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If you can find it for a decent price, I HIGHLY recommend and Aerofuge instead. I got it from ebay (A class A version, meaning it couldn't be sold because of some cosmetic issues.. of which there were none when I got it.). I LOVE it! I use it on my sumpless 40Br.

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I have the medium CPR Aquafuge 2 on my 10 gallon reef, with Fiji mud and a 12" 8000K ecoxotic stunner strip. Growing chaeto and pods like crazy. I would go with it. You can add a airstone skimmer in the first chamber.

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I have the Aquafuge 2 Small on my 15g. It works well for keeping equipment out of the display tank, an area for carbon and phosban, and growing Chaetomorpha, but then the AquaFuge's pump is still awkwardly in the display area, so it keeps most of the equipment out of the tank except itself.

 

I haven't tried a skimmer, but the AquaFuge is narrow so make sure that the nano-sized skimmer you're eyeing will fit. There's also a version of the AquaFuge that has a skimmer built-in, but I don't know how well that works.

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I have the small one, which I guess is the one you'd get. I actually left this review on the marine depot site:

"I ordered the small but mine looks different from the pic, which was almost a problem on my 12gal aquapod. My cpr came with a outlet like a normal hob filter (which it turns out is the VERSION 2 of this HOB), so it a flat plate that directs water into the tank instead of a pipe as pictured. I was hoping for the pipe so I could extend and route it over my 4" rear filter area and into the tank, but thats not possible now. It just feeds into and pulls from the filter area.. not sure thats as efficient as could be, and the 12" heater I put in the inlet section has to work harder to keep the tank at 80, which probably overheats the hob as a result. Its quality made and looks nice. I see how it could break if full and you didnt support it properly from the bottom. I bought a light that clips to the side but it sits too high and lights my tank at night (when I want to run the cpr to balance levels at night). I plan to ditch that and find some sort of low profile led that will shoot into the tank from the side. I also plan to make a top for it because I'm losing more evaporated water than I did before. The rio pump that came with it is garbage, and rattled like crazy as soon as you lessen the flow. I decided to ditch it all together and I split off my main filter pump with a "y" adapter and fed it into the cpr (which needs low flow anyway). This saves power, clutter and keeps my tank quiet. The flow knob is also quite hard to turn and not confidence inspiring when placing it into the inlet tube. It feels like its going to break, but I've been careful and its ok. Overall I'm happy with it, but it is a bit overpriced."

 

Overall my review sounds negative, but I like sort of having two tanks. I put my nuisance stuff like aggressive crab and macro in there. Its not growing macro well for me, but I think that may have more to do with low nitrates in my tank already and I have the flow going through it very low - Only a very small skimmer will fit back behind the inlet tube there on the small version. I just put a heater and probe there and some rubble down near the input. then a thin sand bed on the other side. Like I said flow is very low through there. I extended the outlet ramp with a piece of plastic bottle so the pods and stuff that seem to like to live in there wont get sucked into my filter, and go right into the tank. I was hoping for the version one outlet, but I've made this work. One thing I really do like is the top skimmer section because you can put delicate things in there, or baby macros or frags. for a small 12g like mine its a nice thing to have. The bad part about that tray is that when the water pump shuts off, it drains completely so whatever is in there will dry up (I shut pumps off when dosing phyto).

 

It was also REALLY handy to have it when my little watchman was getting picked on. He nursed himself back to health until I was able to remove the offending fish in the main tank.

 

6795950031_2cc096f71c_z.jpg

 

This is the new outlet design and you can just make out how I removed the terrible pump that came with the cpr and bridges off of my main pump with a simple Y pipe. Like I mention above, I not have a thin flat piece of clear plastic attached that allows the water to enter the main display instead of the rear filter area. I use the flow control valve that comes with the cpr to adjust flow.

6795934185_1c8cf8d53c_z.jpg

 

BTW for lighting I have a 13W fluorescent 6500K on top of the tank that I cycle with the tank and I use a jbj nano refugium light (4 little led, 6500K I think) shooting horizontally from the inlet side and thats on all the time, even at night. I'm trying this new lighting setup and hopefully it grows chaeto a bit faster. As for now, every day a bit of the pictured caulerpa keeps dying/turning white.. not sure why!!

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Wow! Your tank must be new cuz my CPR is covered with coralline to the point it's only viewable from the top. Do you guys clean yours? I noticed the sand bed in the is turning black!

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