I am planning on setting up a refugium.I have a 55gaquarium.There is no room to do one above the tank so I'm going to have to put it under.I would like the water to siphon down there and pumped back up.It is about 3-4 feet down.I cant figure out how to work the head loss calculator.Do you you think this will work.I was wondering what is your input on this and what would be the best pump to do this.
DIY refugium?
- Thread starter mandrin13
- Start date
milkshake
New member
I am in the pocess of doing the same type of setup. I have a 40 gallon tank and have a used 20 gallon tank that will be used as a refugium. My setup will only consist of these 2 items. The return pump that I have is a Iwaki MD 20RXLT. I figure that the return at 4ft. will be somewhere between 510-540gph. The overflow box will be a CPR 100.
My question is, with this setup, will it work to where I can put Chaeto in the refugium without it getting blown out or into another part of the refugium? Is this too much flow for having just a refugium type setup. If so, how could I incorporate something to where there is not too much flow. There will still be that 510-540gph at 4ft. to the returns. All on floor.
My question is, with this setup, will it work to where I can put Chaeto in the refugium without it getting blown out or into another part of the refugium? Is this too much flow for having just a refugium type setup. If so, how could I incorporate something to where there is not too much flow. There will still be that 510-540gph at 4ft. to the returns. All on floor.
GROSSR
Active member
Milkshake, sorry about the PM. I didn't see this. You will have to put in some baffles to slow the flow into the refuge portion of the sump and water can flow over the refuge and into a chamber where you will have a bulkhead feed the IWAKI. IWAKI's are external pumps.
You can use glass and silicone to create a center section of the 20 where water will flow over your sandbed/refuge and will do a simply exchange and not be to turbulant. Excess water can then flow into, say the last chamber, to feed the pump.
The CPR matches well with the pump. 4ft of head is about 500 or so gallons.
rich
You can use glass and silicone to create a center section of the 20 where water will flow over your sandbed/refuge and will do a simply exchange and not be to turbulant. Excess water can then flow into, say the last chamber, to feed the pump.
The CPR matches well with the pump. 4ft of head is about 500 or so gallons.
rich
GROSSR
Active member
Here is another thought, you could put a 5 gallon bucket, or whatever fits inside the 20, make sure you have some room around the side of the tank and drill some holes in the side of the bucket where you want the water level to be. Put in a T so water can flow into the 20 as well as into your bucket. Now you don't need baffles or anything.
The down side is you can't see into the bucket, you light can go on top of the bucket and you are done.
rich
The down side is you can't see into the bucket, you light can go on top of the bucket and you are done.
rich
HornetMech242
Premium Member
I just got done doing this with a 20g tank for my 26g tank. I built a stand for the fuge so that the top of the tank is about 2" under the bottom of the CPR overflow. I put a set of baffles bfore the return. One 3/4" drain from the overflow, and one 3/4" return. The return pump is a RIO+ 1100 and is rated at 300 GPH 4 the head pressure i have on it. To keep thesyphone going i ran a air linetubing from the air outlet on the overflow down to the fuge. When setting the depth of the tank you need to set the overflow on a slight angle going up towards the air outlet. Put the tube on it and start a syphone, this will suck out small air bubbles before they get too big and slow the flow. I have had this running for about two weeks now and it has been flawless. The overflow drains at thesamerate as the return pump. You need to compensate in the fuge any water that will syphone out of the tank when power is out. I did this by getting the overflow running then unplugging the return. I let the tank drain down as far as it was going to and measured the gain in the fuge. So if power goes out my fuge can handle the water untilthe syphoneon the return line is broken. The syphone on the overflow never breaks. It stops when the water level in the tank drops below its intake. so when plugged the pump back in, it blew the air out of return line and the water level went back up to the overflow intake and it wentback into action. I DID NOT TEST IT WITH THE AIR DRAIN TUBE. I think if the pwer went out with the tube, it will break the syphone of the overflow causeing the tank to overflow when power comes back on. I typed this pretty fast. Sorry if some of it does not make sence.
Chris
Chris
