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refugium design

Joined
Mar 13, 2010
Messages
263
Location
Northern NJ
i purchased some bulkheads and a pair of 27gal sturdy storage bins at Home Depot this past weekend. I also purchased some pvc with which i fashioned a pair of air-driven skimmers to put in them, or one of them.
I am thinking deep sand bed, macro-alge w/24hr lights, and open space for settling. without getting too intricate, does anyone have any suggestions for how i should arrange this? im planning to set it up above my sump, which will contain a return pump dedicated to the fuge, allowing the fuge to just overflow back into the sump. thats the extent of my decisions thus far. i dont know if sand, skimmer or algae should come first, or what order they should be arranged, or if it even matters. thoughts?
 
I have seen a very nice design but I couldnt make it work with my sump at all because of the size... 2 overflows coming down on each side... one side holding your skimmer or what ever and the other one holding your refugium... in the middle you have your return. If I ever get to up grade my tank thats what I plan to do... If the skimmer goes first then all the food for pods and what not gets cleaned out before it gets to the refugium and if the skimmer goes second then all the pods you hope will end up in the tank end up being eatten by the skimmer. So one on each side with the return in the middle was going to be my plan... dont know if that would work with your design but thats my 2 cents.
 
you are the *PERSON*. i just figured out how to get away with not having to purchase a new pump by splitting my water feed that goes to my sump in two. a ball valve will adjust the fuge flow to the appropriate rate and it can just fall right into my sump after that. the flow over my bio ball tower wont be as high, but im way over doing that as it is. THANKS!!
 
any pics? I'm thinking of hooking up a refugium and have been trying to figure out a way to avoid buying a pump.
 
Problem is if the pump you currently have isnt very strong when you split the pipe it wont have a high enough flow to maintain the water and something will over flow. Same thing if the pump is to strong then it will flood the tank. If you have a good size pump already then a 45 angled pvc piping which splits off to a different location then it should work well. If its to strong then a 90 degree pvc connection should work. If you want to figure out your flow with joints and elbows look here....Head Loss It will give the head loss of the pump.
 
I'm going to tap into the drain line coming back from the tanks, upstairs. The pump will have already done it's job by the time the water hits the fuge. It's going to be a rainy day tomorrow, so I'm going to finally get a chance to put all this in motion. I'll take pics along the way and post up what I do. Everyone just has to promise not to make fun of my cobbled, macguyver-like system.
 
MacGyver away. You have missed some of our fun discussions on attempting to keep siphon for non-drilled tanks and plastic drawer sets to make convenient filters. During the Atlanta MACNA, Sedna made a major point to attent the lecture on just this concept. You have to remember that Instant Ocean is only just over 50 years old. The aqualung was not invented until 1943 and prior to that not too many people had a clue what was under the water. Besides, it is fun and stimulates thinking :biggrin2:.
 

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