bergzy
New member
here is a 5g bucket fuge i made about two years ago. it worked amazingly well and grew chaeto almost as fast as rosie odonnels beard:
what i did was cut a square hole near the top of the bucket, used an old plastic milk carton and siliconed it in place. it was fed by a mj1200 and powered with an loa 65w 6500k $10 light.
the mistake i learned from my first bucket fuge was:
1) the siliconed milk carton eventually leaked. no big deal cuz it was in the sump.
2) i had sand on the bottom of the bucket. over a short time...it just became a smelly, disgusting settling chamber
here is my updated version:
improvements are:
1) i drilled two holes into the side of the bucket. a 1/2" and a 1" unsieal 'bulkheads' were then securely siliconed in place.
2) did not put sand in it this time
3) made an eggcrate cage to cover the input and output to prevent the chaeto from plugging the hole and causing an overflow.
4) drilled ventilation holes over the light bulb (before, it was just the ballast area)
5) i placed the light on eggcrate so that it will decrease the chance of it falling into the water
6) plumbed a mj1200 into the 1/2" uniseal input.
observed performance? yep! having the pump hardlined directly into the bucket rather than using a vinyl hose and feeding it to the top seemed to improve the flow dramatically. plus, the first bucket fuge had clear vinyl tubing which constantly clogged up with algae. with the opaque pvc...no algae grwoth inside is possible.
hope this helps with anyone thinking of doing a bucket fuge with a total cost breakdown of:
$5 bucket
$5 total for both uniseals
$8.50 lights of america (complete with ballast, housing and bulb...got it at costco)
left over parts i had lying around:
pvc pipe and various plumbing parts, eggcrate, zip ties for tying the eggcrate overflow cage together), mj 1200 and spare electrical cord to wire the light together with...oh yeah...about 6 inches of electrical tape!
what i did was cut a square hole near the top of the bucket, used an old plastic milk carton and siliconed it in place. it was fed by a mj1200 and powered with an loa 65w 6500k $10 light.
the mistake i learned from my first bucket fuge was:
1) the siliconed milk carton eventually leaked. no big deal cuz it was in the sump.
2) i had sand on the bottom of the bucket. over a short time...it just became a smelly, disgusting settling chamber
here is my updated version:
improvements are:
1) i drilled two holes into the side of the bucket. a 1/2" and a 1" unsieal 'bulkheads' were then securely siliconed in place.
2) did not put sand in it this time
3) made an eggcrate cage to cover the input and output to prevent the chaeto from plugging the hole and causing an overflow.
4) drilled ventilation holes over the light bulb (before, it was just the ballast area)
5) i placed the light on eggcrate so that it will decrease the chance of it falling into the water
6) plumbed a mj1200 into the 1/2" uniseal input.
observed performance? yep! having the pump hardlined directly into the bucket rather than using a vinyl hose and feeding it to the top seemed to improve the flow dramatically. plus, the first bucket fuge had clear vinyl tubing which constantly clogged up with algae. with the opaque pvc...no algae grwoth inside is possible.
hope this helps with anyone thinking of doing a bucket fuge with a total cost breakdown of:
$5 bucket
$5 total for both uniseals
$8.50 lights of america (complete with ballast, housing and bulb...got it at costco)
left over parts i had lying around:
pvc pipe and various plumbing parts, eggcrate, zip ties for tying the eggcrate overflow cage together), mj 1200 and spare electrical cord to wire the light together with...oh yeah...about 6 inches of electrical tape!
