Another 10G homeade refugium

Wow that looks fantastic. Great way to filter a nano! I love it. Major k+ on that one.

 

Thanks! I just got my new pump in since the one in there isnt strong enough for my tank so I am using the old one for the ATO I made. The floats came in the other day and I made brackets for them and they work great. I need to pick up a bucket and lid tonight and some 3/4" hose and then my system will be complete... lmao not even close. But at least I can have 2 gallons worth of RO ready to be pumped into the sump when it gets low.

Did I mention that the pod colony has taken off like crazy? I need to get some stuff in the DT to eat them.

 

ok so its been going strong for about 3 weeks now. I got my new pump in and it is great! My main problem now is the overflow. I used a 2" pvc pipe to drain into my fuge and it was sucking air liem crazy and ejecting huge air pockets out into the intake chamber of my fuge making it slosh out onto the floor. I ended up having to re-plumb it with a 1" breather coming off the back and going up above the overflow. Now it no longer spits huge air bubble up but there are still alot of bubbles. Does anyone have any sugestions?

 

i have a butt load of bubbles from the durso overflow whenever there isnt enough water draining from the dt. I just add more water.

 

Wow that looks good. I have a spare 10 gallon sitting around and I'm really tempted to use your design minus the fuge.

Did you use glass to make those partitions? Did you keep them in place just using silicone or did you use some sort of adhesive? If so, did you use a special drill bit? I may just end up using some plastic I have lying around (from Real Estate signs from my old house).

 

Thanks! I used thick acrilic. I cut the 4" pieces first and glued them to the back wall with tank safe silicone and just made sure they were all at 90 degree angles. Once they set I added the 20"x11" thick acrilic and siliconed it in place. My biggest mistake was glueing it before I drilled the holes. Be sure to drill all holes first. Once that set and cured for 24 hours I tested each chamber and they sealed perfect.

When using the silicone just be patient, you have plenty of time. I put the silicone on the edge and bottom of the 4" pieces first then set them in place and I used my finger to clean off the extra then cleaned my finger each time so I wouldnt get glue all over. I then let those cure for a couple of hours. To install the 20" long piece I put glue on the sides of the 4" piece that the 20" piece will sit against then I set the 20" piece on it and let it set. Once that was secure and somewhat dry I ran silicone on each side of the seem for the 20" piece and ran my finger along it to force it in the seem and smooth it out. I let it all cure for 24 hours and its done.

 

There is no way to add more water to my DT. I could turn the water presure up some from the sump to pump more to the DT but it makes it even worse and then my ATO kicks in and puts more RO in the sump and my SG drops.

 

I just made one myself. Thank you for posting the diagrams, it helped a lot.

All in all,

10 gallon aquarium (free), I had it lying around
All the acrylic (aka plexiglass) was about $14 cut. The dimensions of my pieces differed slightly from yours since I wanted my wet/dry to be slightly larger. Overall I'm very pleased with the outcome.
Silicone was $6.50. Just make sure you get 100% silicone with NO additives (i.e. anti-fungal)

When drilling the holes that allow water to enter the refugium, be VERY careful and use small drill bits. I managed to crack a corner of the acrylic when I tried to use a big drill bit.

Total was $23 and about 2 hours of my time. Getting the silicone right is pretty tough, and VERY messy so take your time, and preferably do it in a garage because that stuff smells TERRIBLE. To compare to something, it's just as bad as gear oil as far as odor.

Still letting the silicone cure, but I plan to test it tomorrow afternoon.

Again, THANK YOU for the diagrams O.P.

Please excuse the terrible camera phone picture.

 

You are more than welcome. I am glad people are enjoying and getting use out of my idea. Mine is now perfect... almost lol. I ended up using a 3/4" pvc with a ball valve for the drain and all my micro bubble problems are now over. The macroalgae is really thriving and the DT water is crystal clear. I had a cyano outbreak that is finally under control and most of it is in the fuge now but the macroalgae is starting to use more nitrates and phosphates so the cyano should be gone soon.

On a different note, I removed the bio-balls and now have the cheato in that chamber for now and I also have a filter with carbon in it to help with a couple of the problems I was having. I may end up putting the cheato back in with the caulerpa and putting a protien skimmer in that bio-ball chamber.

You may need something on the fuge return to keep it from splattering alot because the pump will suck those bubble in real quick. I used a spair piece of acrylic and have it sloping down toward the bio-ball chamber return so the water all drains on that side softly instead of several holes pouring all accross the return pump chamber. There are a couple of modifications I may do in the near future to improve it but other than that it is working nicely and the front fuge is nice to look at.

I updated my first post.

 

Could you please post an updated schematic of your refugium with measurements?

Also, could you please show how you replaced the balls with the macroalgae? I'm having a hard time seeing it in my head. Thanks.

What a great looking system!