DIY Refugium

hey super

There are many different sized rubbermaid containers that are cheap and work perfect, its what I use. You could do the DIY overflow posted on this site by Covey, very cheap, and get a small return pump. Would be a peice of cake to do.
Good Luck

 

I heard of a rubbermaind container, but wasn't sure how it was built. Does it still need to have dividers, such as an intake side, macro area, and outtake side like most refugiums do?

 

This is what I will probably go for, with the sump and refugium. I have at least 26 inches in length to fit a tank, the problem is just getting it to be less than 8 inches depth. If I can build it like that I don't find it to be real difficult. My skimmer doesn't take up a whole lot of room, it just makes it hard for me to fit my glass covering on my tank, and make my lighting fit in a better spot.

 

Good plan you just have to make sure you have enough room for extra water.

 

My fuge is just a 10g no baffles. I have a 100 micron filter sock on the overflow outlet to catch the bubbles. My light is a spiral compact. I have a remora skimmer that also dumps into the filter sock. My return is a OR 2500. It has been working great and no micro bubbles in the display. Right now I just have cheato but has worked very well and the pods are doing great.

 

I might do a double fuge, maby still planning, part 10gal, with sep. 5gal tank. not sure though.

 

Right now the hard part is finding the right size tank. I am looking for the biggest tank that can fit below. I can fit a tank that is 8>width and 24> length. I might need to build my own too.

Here is how I am going to do this. The intake will be on the right side with the overflow from the tank leading into here, then it moves to the left into the skimmer, then after the skimmer is the fuge area, and after the fuge area it leads into the pump where water is sent back into the tank. Anything I need to do or remember when building?

I am mostly confused on how much area each section should have, and what types of tubing i will need.

 

Is an overflow good for transporting water to the fuge from the tank? I read somewhere that the surface is not good to put into your fuge or something like that.

Other than that I need to know if there is any specific sizes or lengths each section of the fuge would have.

Lastly what would I use to divide the refugium other than acryllic sheets? its wierd I don't know what they are called lol.

 

One thing to think of is making your return pump chamber as large as you can because you will see all the tanks evaporation there. If you are putting an auto-top off in then you won't have anything to worry about. Just something to keep in mind because you will burn a pump up with no water.

 

I will probably make the return chamber larger then. I do not have an auto-top off system though, wasn't really planning on getting one, but I will consider it. Thanks