Fuge question

[G Santana]

Refugiums are new to me, I have understood the concept since I heard Julian Sprung speak about them some 25 years ago but actual application is another story.

My biggest question is, once you establish your fuge and it pulls enough waste to lower your phosphates and nitrates to where you need them to be to the point that it's unable to sustain itself because it is so efficient at its job, why add 'fertilizer' to keep it going?

That seems counterintuitive.
It's like my DIY ATS, the first week it was up it grew a complete screen of algae and lowered my nitrates to the point that the Salifert test kit can't read anything and my phosphates have been cut in half and still dropping.
My ATS in its second week has only made half of the algae it did in the first week (less nutrients available) but I wouldn't think to add any algae growth juice just to keep it going, so why add it to the fuge?

This vexes me lol

 

[Tamberav]

I don’t add anything to mine. Only dosing is calcium and alk. I just feed the fish. I use the fuge to breed snails, pods and microfauna as well. I consider this part to be more important then the nutrient control. I couldn't even tell you what my nutrients are anymore as I stopped testing for them awhile back. I figured it's pointless to test as I would not do anything about it regardless what the # reads as the coral is happy so I am not going to chase numbers.

A person can just adjust the lighting period to dial it back if it's growing too fast.

Seems to work great for me. Very low maintenance.

it’s probably no difference that you don’t want to overdose carbon dosing or other such and drive nutrients too low. Size your fuge and adjust lighting period to the bioload of your tank.

Everything can be done.. improperly.