Plumbing A Refugium?

[abbeyspal]

Im a am preparring to ad a 10 gal. refugium to my 60 gal. tank. I would like to place the fuge above the tank. My question is should I use an overflow box to return water to the main tank? And should I place my powerhead in the main tank pushing water to the fuge? Or, should I use th PH in the fuge to pull water from the main tank? Also if you are planting macro in a fuge to use up nitrites and nitrates, why can't this be considered and algae scrubber???

 

[Anonymous]

Powerheads are made to push, not pull, so you will want to place it in the main tank. When I did this I drilled a hole near the top of the refugium, and ran a rigid pvc pipe over and elbowed it down to the surface of the main tank. Worked fine, if you do that make sure you put a strainer over both the inlet and outlet, as a snail in there will cause a flood.

You can call it an algae scrubber as far as I'm concerned! I guess the term is supposed to specifically denote a system with hair algae growing on an illuminated rocker pan, but who cares...

 

[abbeyspal]

Thanks for the reply. I really don't have access to a glass drill. But, I should be able to just elbow over the lip of the fuge right? Also my lfs suggested to keep the fuge light on 24/7 to prevent the macro from trying to reproduce. Is this accurate info or is this guy peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining?

 

[abbeyspal]

Please disregard the part about the lighting. I was actually pro-active for once and found the thread on refugia lighting. Please excuse my laziness!

 

[Anonymous]

So you are going to hang the overflow box on the refugia, and flow from there to the tank? I guess that would work, but drilled is less likely to have problems losing siphon, etc.

You should call around to some glass shops, I have had no problem finding one near me that will drill the hole, and then you just need to buy the bulkhead and some pvc and strainers.

People have different opinions on the 24/7 lighting. My impression was the macros were more problematic under 24/7 than under a schedule reverse that of the main tank. Plants need a dark cycle to be healthy, and stress is often cites as the cause for caulerpa "going sexual" and collapsing. See if you can find some chaetomorpha (spagetti algae) as you will never have any problems with that stuff, no matter how you light it.