Rubbermaid refugium

[greatwhite]

Does anybody have pictures of their rubbermaid refugium?What size should I use for my 135 gal?Do you put divders in it.What type of light.

 

[jdamon]

I made a rubbermaid refugium for my 75, its very simple. I have a shelf inside the cabinet that is the same height as the top of my sump, and just to the right of it. The container is maybe 3 gallons, but you would probably use a bigger one. I put a bulkhead in the top left side and ran some tubing back into the sump for the return. For the inlet I have a small powerhead that has a flow restrictor to keep the turnover to a minimum, that is also located in the sump. I just use a small 15 watt circular flouresent bulb to light the refugium, and that has done very well. The light hangs via a clamp and there is about 4" of sand on the bottom of the refugium. I have two types of green algea and a little bit of red that have been growing beautifully. Make sure you make some sort of safety overflow though, sometimes the bulkhead gets clogged with algea. I made a grate that surrounds the outlet using egg crate (the white plastic grid stuff), and I cut holes near the top of the rubbermaid to act like a sink overflow, just in case(the one side of the rubbermaid actually hangs over the side of the sump). Lets just say I found out the hard way that an overflow is important. Hope this helps.

 

[sharkdude]

no dividers, 4 inch dsb, cheap pvc bulkhead gravity drain to sump, lighting by LOA #9266

very effective. grows caulerpa and critters like crazy.

I agree with Sarco on necessity of redundant drains.

 

[greatwhite]

Hey shark dude,
Thanks for the picture.Where is your main tank.Is it up stairs.What kind of light is that I do not know what LOA 9266 IS.So your water comes down from the tank overflow to the refugium and is simply pumped back to the main tank and its that simple right?

 

[Anonymous]

LOA is Lights of America model 9266. It is power compact lighting that can be purchassed at Home Depot. The water flows from the tank to the refugium,through the refugium,through a bulkhead,into the sump(or using a pump back to the tank if a sump is not used)and then back to the tank. That is the meaning of a gravity fed sump/refugium. It uses gravity to pull the water into the refuge.

You can also set up a refugium above the tank where the water is pumped up into the refuge and the water uses gravity to bring the water back into the tank.