tangman99
New member
I have had a lot of trouble with bubbles bursting in my refugium and getting splash and salt creep all over everything. I found some nice professional solutions on this site made from acrylic but I've never tried my hand at acrylic and I just did not have that much time. So I started looking around for a cheap and easy fix and this is my humble solution. It works great and cost me a total of $1.79. I do have to give credit to Melev for his beautiful designed solution that gave me the inspiration to build my cheap version.
This is my bubbling sump before I did anything.
You can see the splash and salt all over the rim of the fuge.
I went to WallyMart and bought this straw dispenser that they were selling for $1.50 that is made of a very sturdy plastic.
After pulling out the insert and all 150 straws, this is container that you have left.
I used my dremel to cut a hole in the bottom for my 1" pvc pipe to fit through. I drilled it close to an edge so it would fit up close to a corner of my fuge. This is it with a piece of pipe to test fit.
Another view:
I them dremmeled a slot at the side of the top for the air to escape toward the center of the fuge.
I then cut my drain pipe off about 1 inch above the water and placed it in the bubble dissipator and I then used a .29 cent 1" coupler to hold the dissipator up on the pipe. This keeps the bubble catcher from slipping down the pipe and keeps splash from escaping through the top hole.
I then put a "T" inside for most of the bubble to escape inside the bubble catcher. I then extended the pipe out the bottom to get the water flow to tumble my Chato. I was still getting a few bubbles out the bottom, but they were few and far between. Most of them rose right up inside the bubble catcher.
As my flow is not really enough to tumble my Chato, I just ended up putting an elbow under the "T" keep all the bubbles inside.
The air then rises and escapes out the slot so no more splash and salt everywhere.
This took me about 30 minutes to do even with taking all the pictures. Just thought I'd share in case someone wanted to try a cheap, fast and easy fix.
This is my bubbling sump before I did anything.
You can see the splash and salt all over the rim of the fuge.
I went to WallyMart and bought this straw dispenser that they were selling for $1.50 that is made of a very sturdy plastic.
After pulling out the insert and all 150 straws, this is container that you have left.
I used my dremel to cut a hole in the bottom for my 1" pvc pipe to fit through. I drilled it close to an edge so it would fit up close to a corner of my fuge. This is it with a piece of pipe to test fit.
Another view:
I them dremmeled a slot at the side of the top for the air to escape toward the center of the fuge.
I then cut my drain pipe off about 1 inch above the water and placed it in the bubble dissipator and I then used a .29 cent 1" coupler to hold the dissipator up on the pipe. This keeps the bubble catcher from slipping down the pipe and keeps splash from escaping through the top hole.
I then put a "T" inside for most of the bubble to escape inside the bubble catcher. I then extended the pipe out the bottom to get the water flow to tumble my Chato. I was still getting a few bubbles out the bottom, but they were few and far between. Most of them rose right up inside the bubble catcher.
As my flow is not really enough to tumble my Chato, I just ended up putting an elbow under the "T" keep all the bubbles inside.
The air then rises and escapes out the slot so no more splash and salt everywhere.
This took me about 30 minutes to do even with taking all the pictures. Just thought I'd share in case someone wanted to try a cheap, fast and easy fix.
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