Another 10G homeade refugium

Discussion in 'Refugium' started by opy01, May 20, 2009.

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  1. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    I am setting up a 10G FOWLR system at my house but I want to eventually make it a nano reef. I have been doing alot of research into sumps and refugiums this week and desided to make my own out of the 10G tank I have. So basically I will have a 10G display tank and a 10G sump/wet dry/refugium.

    intake 4x4x however deep it gets.
    refugium 20x10x6
    wet/dry roughly 8x4x4 then draining into a chamber
    return chamber 8x4x however deep it gets.

    What I plan is for the display tank to drain to the intake on the top right then split off to the refugium and wet/dry. Then both the refugium and wet/dry will drain into the return pump chamber. I will have a HOB skimmer sucking out of the intake chamber and returning to the wet/dry. I am not sure how big exactly the wet/dry will be or how many bio-balls I will use but I will have some sort of filter on top to catch larger particals and help the water spread evenly accross the wet/dry. I dont know how big it should be but I figure this is better than no wet/dry at all. I will probably only have Chaetomorpha in the to begin with.

    On a 10G DT and 10G sump/ref/wd how many GPH should I have and what pump should I use that will fit in a 4"x8" area?

    Any comments or opinions are welcomed and encouraged. Thanks.




    [​IMG]

    Edit: Be sure to have a bubble trap for the fuge return. I used a piece of spair acrylic right below the fuge return holes and that diverts the water towards the bio-ball chamber so any bubble will be on that side.

    Also, I feel like an idiot for doing this but I will pass my experience on. I had the intake of the return pump facing the bio-ball chamber. Don't do this, turn the pump so the intake faces the side of the tank. This way less bubble get sucked up. It took me a long to to even realize even though it is such a simple thing. Sometimes its the simplest things that are easily overlooked.

    Here is an updated picture:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2009
    opy01, May 20, 2009
    opy01, May 20, 2009
    #1

    2. Click Here!

  2. jakeh24

    jakeh24 Pajama Cardinal

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    that looks nice!
    i like how you have the fuge on the side
     
    jakeh24, May 20, 2009
    jakeh24, May 20, 2009
    #2
  3. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    Thanks! It is going to be on the bottom shelf of my 10G iron stand so I figured if it was going to be visible then I wanted to mostly hide the mechanics of it. I took about 3 different ideas from an entire days google searching and combined them. I am just unsure of the GPH I need.
     
    opy01, May 20, 2009
    opy01, May 20, 2009
    #3
  4. greysoul

    greysoul Stylophora

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    I like it. I think I'll copy you if that's cool...
     
    greysoul, May 21, 2009
    greysoul, May 21, 2009
    #4
  5. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    Be my guest. I am truly flattered that you want to use my design. You may need to adjust the w/d chamber but other than that it is a 20" lenght 12" high and 10" front to rear tank and it is drawn to scale (roughly lol). The refugium is 20"x6", the intake is 4"x4" and the w/d & return are 8"x4". I just threw the w/d in so its competely up to you if and how its done. If you find anything that can be improved feel free to post it.

    I was told that there is no room for reactors but I dont really need any on a nano reef system. If I do one or two they will be seperate and feed from the return pump chamber by a hose
     
    opy01, May 21, 2009
    opy01, May 21, 2009
    #5
  6. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    Ok, it's built and in the testing stages now. I have 2 small powerheads pumping from the return chamber back into the intake chamber so it just pumping in a loop and I think I have the flow where I want it. I get more LS and rubble this weekend and I am ordering a macroalgae kit here <head> <title>Macro Algae : Your Source For Quality Marine Plants and Macroalgae. Here is what it looks like right now except with 4 holes in the right side instead of 2.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2009
    opy01, May 28, 2009
    opy01, May 28, 2009
    #6

    7. Click Here!

  7. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    Well my fuge is going great! I have had it set up with the plants for exactly 1 week now and I have pods all over the place and the Caulerpa Floridana has almost tripled in size in 1 week. I will be doing alot of pruning lol. Here it is last week. The Caulerpa in the middle is almost twice as tall now as it was when this picture was taken.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2009
    opy01, Jun 10, 2009
    opy01, Jun 10, 2009
    #7
    1 person likes this.
  8. cdeboard

    cdeboard Montipora Digitata

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    Wow that is really nice looking. Congrats!
     
    cdeboard, Jun 10, 2009
    cdeboard, Jun 10, 2009
    #8
  9. jakeh24

    jakeh24 Pajama Cardinal

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    wow that looks great
     
    jakeh24, Jun 10, 2009
    jakeh24, Jun 10, 2009
    #9
  10. opy01

    opy01 Astrea Snail

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    Thanks guys! I made a mistake, I thought I had it up for two weeks but it has only been a week so I edited my first post. Turns out this was just a really really long crappy week and it seemd like 2 weeks lol. The caulerpa is even taller now and I will get another picture in a day or two. I have it under a 14W 5500k compact florecent from Home Depot and the only one thats not doing well it the sea grass. Of course I read that those need alot of nitrate to do well and mine is only around 10.

    This is the one thats growing like crazy and the link to where I got it in case anyone wants a fast good growing macroalgae
    http://www.live-plants.com/feather.htm

    The prolifera is doing ok but the floridana looks alot better and grows alot faster.
     
    opy01, Jun 11, 2009
    opy01, Jun 11, 2009
    #10
    1 person likes this.
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