'Dark Fuge' setup

[tidepooldreamer]

I am trying to add a 'dark' fuge to my AIO - basically just somewhere to hopefully let my pods breed safe from fish. My plan is just a coarse media bag filled with some live rock rubble added to my AIO chamber right before the return - is there anything I'm missing here? It seems simple, so I wanted to make sure there's no glaring flaws!

I know such a small fuge won't support a massive population; that's not a problem, I have no plans for a mandarin or anything of the like. My only real goal for this is just to provide a reservoir to replenish the display population; having some live rock rubble on hand for frags is a nice bonus as well.

 

Thanks 🙂 Apologies if this has been addressed before - I found lots about typical fuges with chaeto but not sure what would be needed without that!

[SaltyGallon]

Yeah sure plenty of people use chambers of their AIO to house stuff which is beneficial to the tank such as inverts, pods and bacteria - commonly using rock rubble, bio balls, bio bricks or similar. In time you get cool little sponges and stuff in there too. I'd make sure you have some filter floss/sponge before the area with actual rubble to limit the amount of detritus that ends up sitting in the chamber, otherwise you'll find yourself cleaning it out regularly. When I've used this method I put the rubble in a loose mesh bag (not a fine mesh though, as you want stuff to readily be able to go in and out) so you can readily pull it all out for maintenance. Better than picking individual pieces of rubble out with tongs lol.

 

What does the rest of your AIO compartment look like - have you got any bio blocks etc in there? They never hurt either, though not always needed 🙂

[jedimasterben]

As long as it isn't a huge amount then you luckily don't have to worry too much about gunk buildup - and if it is in a media bag then all you really need to do is shake it every once in a while to loosen anything on it and it should be good. My sump is filled with rock under my protein skimmer and there must be half an inch of just sludge down there, not to mention what is in the rocks themselves. 

[DevilDuck]

Here's a good how-to I found: Copepod / Amphipod Farm | The Reef Tank

 

[tidepooldreamer]

4 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Yeah sure plenty of people use chambers of their AIO to house stuff which is beneficial to the tank such as inverts, pods and bacteria - commonly using rock rubble, bio balls, bio bricks or similar. In time you get cool little sponges and stuff in there too. I'd make sure you have some filter floss/sponge before the area with actual rubble to limit the amount of detritus that ends up sitting in the chamber, otherwise you'll find yourself cleaning it out regularly. When I've used this method I put the rubble in a loose mesh bag (not a fine mesh though, as you want stuff to readily be able to go in and out) so you can readily pull it all out for maintenance. Better than picking individual pieces of rubble out with tongs lol.

 

What does the rest of your AIO compartment look like - have you got any bio blocks etc in there? They never hurt either, though not always needed 🙂

Thanks!

I have a media basket with 3 layers - top is running floss, middle is carbon currently.

Not sure if I'd put the rubble in the bottom section here yet or in the middle chamber over (it's an IM peninsula so I have 3 chambers - intake with the media basket, middle currently empty, then the return). I would like to put my heater in the middle chamber eventually, the one I have currently is too large so it's in the display for now, but it works so replacing it is not top of my list.

Glad to hear my plan is pretty much in line with what others do!

 

26 minutes ago, jedimasterben said:

As long as it isn't a huge amount then you luckily don't have to worry too much about gunk buildup - and if it is in a media bag then all you really need to do is shake it every once in a while to loosen anything on it and it should be good. My sump is filled with rock under my protein skimmer and there must be half an inch of just sludge down there, not to mention what is in the rocks themselves. 

Thanks for the advice! Hopefully it shouldn't get too gunky, I don't find much stuff on the chemical media so I think the floss does a good job. Fingers crossed enough gets through at least to feed the pods; there's certainly plenty of pineapple sponges and fan worms on the glass back there so I imagine they're finding something to eat.