Spray Painted PVC in Refugium

I understand that it won't be "pretty". I am using a 10gal tank for the fuge. My stand is for a 75gal drilled. I tried to find ways to make it fit like having the fuge on the top left and the sump on the bottom right but with pluming and all, just not enough space under the stand so I don't have much of a choice at the moment. Eventually I will upgrade to a MUCH larger tank but at the moment a 75 will do me fine. The drain bulkhead from the tank goes down to a union I added to make things easier down the road. I then "T" that off with a ball valve on both sides of the "T", one side will go to the fuge, which the valve will be partially closed to restrict flow. The other valve will be open at all times to the sump but is there if I ever need to do maintenance for some reason. My current 55 gallon tank has an overflow box so I am going to use that on the other end of the fuge to drain back down to the sump. If mangroves will be a problem in a low flow environment then I will hold off on those. I will get pictures of my current plumping setup today when I go home. All of your input has been great and I really appreciate it.

 

Ok Pictures! They aren't the greatest but here is what I just took. The first is an overview of the tank and it's beefy stand structure. The second is a close up of the plumbing under the tank showing the drain coming down to the "T" then the ball valves separating the fuge side from the sump side. You can also see where my return will plumb up. The last just shows the plumbing in the overflow i made a stand pipe with a slip fix union and my return fixture will plug right up to the nipple on the right.

 

I read a ton on this before setting my fuge up, i had the same issue as here where it had to be in the open due to space issues. Mine has only been up about 3 weeks so obviously i havent seen all the nastyness that will occur. but there are plenty of nitrate eating macros/plants that look good. My "display fuge" has oar grass in the sand bed which so far at least has beaten out the cyano for sand real estate( and in pictures of other fuges i've seen that have been running many months still seems to win), and chaeto and Red Gracilaria don't look too bad either if kept pruned. throw a sponge and some mangroves in and you have a nice looking but effective fuge. mine does not even have mangroves and its dropped my nitrates from about 10-15 ppm to a value low enough my test does not show any.

the glass does require cleaning since it gets nasty GHA all over it

all that being said i didn't bother painting the PVC pipe I just wrapped some chaeto around it and called it good

 

HEY!!!! SSssshhhh.......almost got reamed. Anyway, go for what you know Dan. Look in the DIY forum & even google it for ideas or to affirm YOUR build.

p.s. Check out PackLeaders thread on his fuge....awesome!!

 

Dan, I just ran across your post on a quick search and figured I'd comment on something unrelated ;D

I'm a little worried about your stand, because from the picture it looks like the 2x4 frame directly below your plywood base is purely decorative. The 4x4's are screwed into the inside edge of the 2x4's top and bottom, therefore the weight is really resting on a handful of screws. You should consider adding some 2x4's against the 4x4's so something is supporting the vertical force other than screws. I'm not guaranteeing that it's going to collapse one day, but it won't evenly hold the weight so I wouldn't guarantee that it wouldn't collapse either.

 

The Top and bottom frame are made of 2x4's. The frame is held together with 16 penny nails and each corner of the frame is attached to the 4x4 posts with 4 16 penny nails. I am still in the middle of the build though. The frame is going to get some vertical 2x4 supports to make the corners flush and extra load bearring support. Then, I am going to mount 1/2" board to the front and sides. My current stand for my 55 is merely 1/2" particle board and tiny screws and it hasn't shown the first sign of stress so I figured this setup would easily hold the extra 200-300 lbs.

 

1. 2nd on the concern for your stand. 75 gal tank can weigh in at 750 lbs minimum. you definitely need some support between the upper frame and lower frame to directly transfer load, rather than bear it on nails/screws

2. what are you doing for flow in your display tank?

3. i have same set up (75 dt, no room for fuge under tank). the fuge is gross. if you're going to paint anything, paint all four sides of it, so you don't have to worry about whats going on in your little septic tank.

 

Like I said, I am half way through the build I plan on adding 2x4's for vertical support. The tank will weigh well over 750lbs that is the weight with just water and tank, with sand and rock it will weigh much more. For flow I have my return which after head pressure and 90s will probably only be about 600 GPH then I have 2 Koralia 2's and a couple of maxijets.

 

while you're building, i'd recommend considering more flow - 600 for sump thruput should be good, but then if you're doing coral (esp sps) you're going to want alot of flow in that 75. i had 2 koralia 4's in my 75 and they made nice flow right around them, but there were lots of dead spaces thru the tank, resulting in cyano patches and other issues. i recently had to break mine down, so i'm drilling for a closed loop now.

 

Yeah, that is why i bought some temporary maxijets to place around the tank to clear dead spots. When I get my tax return I hope to look into a couple of those vortech powerheads with the controllers. We will see if my wife will let me get them she is generally pretty good about letting me get my toys ha ha ha.