External Fuge for Solana

[NavyNano212]

Greetings:
I am toying with the idea of an external fuge for my new 34G Solana...not one that hangs off the side, but rather sits on the floor behind it.
Any thoughts, suggestions...absolute no no's? Was thinking of a 5 gallon tank to act as the fuge.

My concerns or questions:
How do I successfully run water in and back to the main tank without it fillling up or spilling out?
Do I even need an external??

So many questions...

On the other hand, I did find one on line that hangs off the back of your tank...looks pretty sturdy and efficient.

http://www.aquacave.com/aqua-fuge-2-hang-on-brrefugium-small-by-cpr-braquatic-649.html

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I wouldn't go with anything hang on, I don't trust them and there are lots of overflow threads from over the years about malfunctioning hang-on's to steer me away from them. Also you can mod the second chamber in the back of the solana to be a fuge all you would need to do is clean it out and put in some cheato and Velcro a light to the back of the tank to do this. The tank is good and really doesn't need an external.

 

[Dj Orion]

I agree, those cpr hang on fuges are problematic. The macro algae tends to grow and ultimately clogs the chamber, causing a lack of flow through the fuge. You need to constantly trim and wash the macro algae (esp chaeto) in order for it to work somewhat. You can easily mod out the solana if you really wanted to. check out melevsreef.com for some fuge plans. You would have to drill the back wall of the tank tho, and that in iteself may be reason enough to not want to do it.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Plus from my understanding the water level doesn't go as high as the top of the tank in the rear chamber.

 

[NavyNano212]

Actually, the water can go pretty high if you want it too...found that out by accident.
I was toying with the idea of using of the chambers as a fuge, which is what I will probably do.The center chamber has some LR rubble and my chiller pump, so I might mod the return chamber and inset an acrylic container to act as protector for macro and pods to grow.
What type of light and how many watts? Something straight from home depot? That seems to easy, but I am surmising that it doesn't need major wattage.

thoughts?

 

[Sandyp1]

I have a JBJ 12 gallon and modded the center chamber for a fuge. Cut off the protective black decor on the back and used velcro. Bought a small Coralife mini-aqualite fixture with 2 x 9w bulbs from Nanotuners.com and put live rock rubble and Chaeto in there and my chaeto grows like wildfire. I have 1 sponge, a bag of Chemipure Elite, Purigen and filter floss in the first chamber. My third chamber has the return pump and the chiller pump in it. Whole thing works great !

 

[Dj Orion]

I have a JBJ 12 gallon and modded the center chamber for a fuge. Cut off the protective black decor on the back and used velcro. Bought a small Coralife mini-aqualite fixture with 2 x 9w bulbs from Nanotuners.com and put live rock rubble and Chaeto in there and my chaeto grows like wildfire. I have 1 sponge, a bag of Chemipure Elite, Purigen and filter floss in the first chamber. My third chamber has the return pump and the chiller pump in it. Whole thing works great !

Alot of ppl also use moded LED's also for lighting. The light doesnt have to be super bright. You can prob find people selling LED mods, or just make one yourself. check out nano-reef.com also, I bet you will find a ton of mods that you can do to that tank on their forum.

 

[rookie07]

I had a hang on cpr fuge for my solana...I ended up getting rid of the hang on, and turning the middle chamber into a fuge, just as chief said, velcro a light to the back, clean it out, throw some rocks and algea in there(some eggcrate will cut to a perfect fit), and put the carbon above that...I also added a tiny PH to increase water movement

 

[NavyNano212]

Thanks for all the info...does the light need to be "special" type or just a regular fluorescent from Home Depot?

Rookie recommends moded LED, someone else says coralife...

thoughts?

 

[Killerdrgn]

it has to be the blue packaged "Daylight" bulbs.

 

[NavyNano212]

Blue packaged "daylight" bulbs...from LFS or Home Depot...sorry, a tad lost in the answer. Thanks

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I have a small CF light

 

[Killerdrgn]

Blue packaged "daylight" bulbs...from LFS or Home Depot...sorry, a tad lost in the answer. Thanks

Home depot, they're the spiral flourescent ones.