diy refugium

[titanredmg]

how do you build a cheap refugium, i only have a 30 gal , but i plan to set up a 75 or 125 this spring. so i want to try a small one first and see how it works out. thanks for any help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hotdamnman1]

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f13/hotdamnman1/Fuge2.jpg


Just have 4 pieces of glass cut to fit a tank you allready have,and some silicone

[marinelife]

From the picture it looks like you are on the right track

[Cloran]

I would highly advise using acrylic and weld-on

[satch12]

be careful when you use acrylic as baffles though if you dont get thick enough acrylic the acrylic could bow and blow the sides out of the sump/refugium just a heads up never happend to me but i have read many horror stories of that happening. like hotdamn said go with glass and some silicone but again get at least 1/4" glass for the same reason. good luck and keep us posted on how the refugium comes along.

another good CHEAP refugium is a rubbermaid but they dont look as cool and you cant really look into them to see all the little critters but its a very cheap way to set one up.

[Cloran]

Didn't know he was talking baffles, i thought he meant from stractch. For baffles i would use glass in a glass tank. Although sometimes 1/4 glass can be real pricey! I just went to our local Ace and got their double-strength glass. For acrylic from scratch use atleast 1/4" and make sure to have some sort of top piece.

[hotdamnman1]

I had a broken house window and went to my local do it center and had some cut it was $1.00 per glass and it worked great.

[Cloran]

1/4"?

[hotdamnman1]

No it was very thin I even filled the fuge side of the tank before the rest just to see if it could hold the weight and it did.

[Cloran]

Oh, your talking baffles. I'll post pictures of mine shortly!

[titanredmg]

actually i did mean building one from scratch. if anybody has any pictures that would be great. thanks for all the reponses, i should have been more clear on what i meant sorry.

[Cloran]

http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html
Thats where I got my ideas for mine

[titanredmg]

i will use a 10 or 20g tank for the sump. when you guys are talking about baffles ,do you just need to space them about 2-3 inchs apart and attach them to alternating sides, and how many do i need for 10-20g sump,would 3 be enough.

[Cloran]

Depends on the setup, look at the pictures of others and judge for yourself

[marinelife]

You would not need then that far apart.

[titanredmg]

is about an inch better. and if i use a 20g would 3 baffles be enough.

[Cloran]

the size of tank doesn't really matter when it comes to baffles. The baffles are to contain items and control the amount of bubbles. I used to have a 10g sump with 6 baffles, so it all depends. You need to lay out your sump first then come up with baffles, don't do baffles first then try and fit everything you need. I'm my DIY one I don't have any baffles at all.

[titanredmg]

moving on to overflow boxes,with continuous siphon, if the power goes out will it cause my tank to overflow.

[Cloran]

if your using an o/f box, then probally not your sump won't overflow but your tank might

[titanredmg]

are there any kind of battery backups that would keep the pump running when the power goes out,because about every time somebody farts in my town the power goes out

[marinelife]

Are you using a hang on the back overflow or is this a built in overflow?

[titanredmg]

hang on

[marinelife]

If your sump is large enough there should not be an issue with flooding.

[satch12]

use a check vavle. an APS battery back up would work really well in power outages

[titanredmg]

i have decided to use just a simple plastic tub 18gal. already have 10lbs of live sand and 5 lbs of lr ruble , going to get some macro algae from coral ranch next week when i have a day off. havent got the overflow set up yet wanting to know,what the difference is between a cont. siphon overflow box and standard and also i bought a used berlin turbo skimmer and was wondering if i could t-off from the pump that came with it to drive both the skimmer and the overflow since the skimmer is set up to do a much larger tank than a 30g.

[marinelife]

Pictures??

[titanredmg]

i,ll get some pictures in a couple days. what about the overflow box,whats the difference between a continuous overflow and standard?

[marinelife]

I am not sure about the difference, maybe someone else knows.

[Cloran]

maybe just the fact that the standard contains a U-tube where the other is molded

[marinelife]

Yeah I am not sure at all on this one.

[titanredmg]

i finally got my overflow set up , i found a used dual overflow on another forum for $25 shipped so i grabbed it quick. i can only get one side to siphon for some reason,but its only a 30g tank and the sump is 18g . didnt need baffles i run the output through the filter bag that bought from one of our other members so i dont see any bubbles. got some nice macro from coral ranch in dayon,loaded with pods!!!!!!!. about 15lbs of live sand and 5lbs of rubble. put everything down in the sump except for one internal filter for extra flow. i talked before about splitting off from the pump i had with my berlin skimmer,but it isnt working right,impeller rattles and doesnt want to work all the time. i found a fountain pump i had used for an outdoor small pond i had last year and cleaned it up real good and it works great.

[marinelife]

Sounds great, you may only get one because your return needs to be bigger to push enough water over two tubes. One should be enough for you.

[titanredmg]

i can adjust the flow on the pump if i need to. but do you think that with only a 30g that im better off just using it as it is?

[marinelife]

Well hmm, Really just depends on the amount of flow you need in the tank.

[titanredmg]

it seems to be pretty good,plus i left 1 internal filter inside. .its hard enough to keep the food from getting sucked in now.

[titanredmg]

would a rio 200gph venturi be a good choice to run my berlin skimmer?

[Cloran]

i would think you need something alot bigger then that. My dad ran a Rio 2100 on his.