To DO or not to DO a mixed tank, That ! Is the question .

Should i mix my Macro's with my reef and turn my fuge into a second mixed reef.


  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .

Basile

Well-Known Member


I'm at cross road here. My system is very much in sync, by this i mean, my Reef dominated with soft corals including NPS , seafans, gorgonians and sponges ; demanding a hight nutrient rich water and and a huge 75 G display macroalgae tank

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I dose every day, for different species and different reasons. One of them is i lost species before because of lack of food. Some NPS , and having 11 sponges enough to filter my whole system of 230 G in 24 hours , i have to supplement for their health. Clam, many filter feeders, and larger polyps i choose to feed broadly because it'd be hours spot feeding.

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The resulting nitrates or phosphate goes perfectly for my huge refugium, for which i had to shut OFF my GFO to have enough food supply for it to survive and even then it almost starved, i had to supplement has my nitrate depletion and phosphate was gone so was my iron.

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This came as the macro grew , exponentially , the more macroalgaes, the more it suck in the nitrates and phosphates.

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So my solution is integration of the two and converting my fuge into a full fledge tank. In other words, putting my macro in my reef so it can be pruned by the tangs, foxface, and snais, and the same in the refugium after i buy some fishes. I've always like the look of mixed tanks.

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I have huge backwall that for grazin could be filled with some of those macro's and use my nitrates and phosphates instead of micro nuisance algaes.

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What do you think? Do you see any problems or error that could be happening in the long run.

I write big for my iphone friends

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DaveK

Well-Known Member
A lot depends upon what you want out of the system. If this were my system, I'd keep them separate. Macro algaes can quickly over grow corals and live rock. You also can't depend upon you fish to keep them pruned. If they like to eat that kind of algae, they will devour it untill there is none left. If they don't like it, they will not touch it, and that algae can over grow everything.

The bottom line is that you'll be right back to where you are now, and have even more algae to deal with.

I'd say you have a great setup now, don't mess with a good thing.

Note that I am not talking about putting some algae cuttings in the display for use as food by the fish. Use a clip so you can remove what they don't like.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
You have nearly perfected your system, I wouldn't mess with it. If you wanted to keep your algae pruned a bit, you can manually do that and add the pruned bits to the larger tank and see if your fish would like it.
 
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