Ideas for a refugium
- Thread starter reeforme
- Start date
From what I have read you are going to want to make a compleetly seperate chamber so that the Refug has minimial current flowing through it. To much current is usless hence why a lot of the products out there are no good. Do a search (I have no clue how to do a search) and you will find lost of info.
i have a 20 and im gonna make a 5 gal fuge for my tank...using an old Tidy cats litter container..(will wash out extremely well before use) a friend is giving me a water pump..ill have to use a power head to pump the water back into the fuge since im not gonna have my tank drilled...its already up and running(has been for over a year)...Ill be using LS and LR to cultivate pods and will be gettin a PC 25-55W PC to light it for the Macro algae...i imagine you would want to let the sump overflow into the fuge via sectioning...and as for skimming, thats gonna depend on the skimmer...ive never used a sump so i could be wrong...easily...but thats how im gonna set up my fuge...lots of people like to use aquariums but anything that will hold water will do....
What I had in mind is to have a refugium inside the sump to save on space. Maybe I can built a box inside my sump and route the water coming out of the skimmer to it and the rest go around it to be return to the tank. I would have to built a bigger sump.
For my 75 Gallon I bought a standard 20 Gallon tank and put a 1/4" plexiglas divider right in the middle.... I kind of wish I had moved it back a bit more now.... but it does ok.
The top of the plexi is 1-1/2 inches below the top of the tank (for water to flow over. I later drilled a couple holes an inch below that as well. At the top I carved out a few "grooves" with a Dremel.
From the out of my tank the line comes through 2 90 degree turns down to a T then 90 degrees down to sump side.
to the refugium side I connected a ball valve (to control how much water was flowing to the refugium) then a straight pipe with a cap on the end. I drilled about 12 -15 small holes in the pipe for water to gently "pee" out of into the refugium where it overflows into the sump side.
I attached pix... please excuse the chaos that is currently under my tank as I try to organize and work out skimmer issues.
The only things that bothered this setup was the sump side is a little too small for all my stuff, water from the tank outlet creates A LOT of bubbles and fizzing. I should have only reserved 1/3 of the 20 Gallon for a refugium. Top offs and changes are touchy. only a gallon or so of water REALLY changes the water level in the sump I mean by like 2 or 3 inches so I have lines drawn on the tank and when they hit a certain level (about every 2 days) I hook up my RO/DI to top off- an auto top off setup would eliminate this issue.
To solve the TONS of bubbles I cut a hole in the bottom and top of a 2 Litre soda bottle and "surrounded" the outlet thus containing 80% of the bubbles and keeping them from my return pump and ultimately storming through my tank.
I am happy with this setup and would really only change a couple of little things. Soon the refugium will have Macro Algae and a little LR in it. Right now it's housing some fresh coral frags.
As a note I made the refugium line removable as well as a couple of other pieces so I can easily remove them to clean. I thought I may end up with silt or who knows what getting hung up in the capped pipe side.
The top of the plexi is 1-1/2 inches below the top of the tank (for water to flow over. I later drilled a couple holes an inch below that as well. At the top I carved out a few "grooves" with a Dremel.
From the out of my tank the line comes through 2 90 degree turns down to a T then 90 degrees down to sump side.
to the refugium side I connected a ball valve (to control how much water was flowing to the refugium) then a straight pipe with a cap on the end. I drilled about 12 -15 small holes in the pipe for water to gently "pee" out of into the refugium where it overflows into the sump side.
I attached pix... please excuse the chaos that is currently under my tank as I try to organize and work out skimmer issues.
The only things that bothered this setup was the sump side is a little too small for all my stuff, water from the tank outlet creates A LOT of bubbles and fizzing. I should have only reserved 1/3 of the 20 Gallon for a refugium. Top offs and changes are touchy. only a gallon or so of water REALLY changes the water level in the sump I mean by like 2 or 3 inches so I have lines drawn on the tank and when they hit a certain level (about every 2 days) I hook up my RO/DI to top off- an auto top off setup would eliminate this issue.
To solve the TONS of bubbles I cut a hole in the bottom and top of a 2 Litre soda bottle and "surrounded" the outlet thus containing 80% of the bubbles and keeping them from my return pump and ultimately storming through my tank.
I am happy with this setup and would really only change a couple of little things. Soon the refugium will have Macro Algae and a little LR in it. Right now it's housing some fresh coral frags.
As a note I made the refugium line removable as well as a couple of other pieces so I can easily remove them to clean. I thought I may end up with silt or who knows what getting hung up in the capped pipe side.
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morganjl - In simple terms a refugium is just a separate tank or area away from the main display tank. It can be used for different purposes, such as growing copepods and algae that would normally be eaten in the main tank. You can then take some copepods and/or algae and use it to feed the fish in the main tank. It can also be used as a form of additional filtration. You can put a deep live sand bed in it, and live rock if you choose, to suppliment biological filtration. You can also grow large quantities of macroalgae to filter the water of nutrients that would otherwise cause outbreaks of nuisance algae in your main tank. Most people like to use their refugium for a combination of these reasons. Some people like to display their refugium, either on top or below the main tank. There are also hang on refugiums you can buy, that hang on the side of the main tank. More commonly, though, refugiums are a dedicated part of the sump. HTH
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