My DIY above tank refug

killingseed

New member
thought i share how i endded up with it and put it to gather.

i had a couple tanks 6 year + ago, and things where diffent then from now. after chating with a good LFS and read a lot of info here on RC thing have changed on caring and equipment on SW fish and reefs.

i was going to make a sump and fill it with bio balls , "this was before i started reading here" i have a glass display case just sitting around thought it would do great and it was free for me.

but after chatting with LSF and he tells me that i should not do bio balls, and should try doing a refug instand. so i did a lot a reading and looking around the web. lot of good info out on the net and is where i fond RC and lot of related topics in on bio ball V refuge. this was like 3 to 4 months back.

i didnt want a sump/refug in a place for my littles ones to play with or get in to . so i thought above tank would be a great place to keep from little ones getting there wet or magical thing found them selfs floating around in the sump/refug


i cut a 3 peices of glass and drilled a hole in the buttom back corner as you can see in the image link below. the far left is dead space where i plan to add more LR the middle which is a little lower then its left side is where i have some kent Marine Biosediment, (my LSF said i didnt really need it and had other options) but i once again did a little reading and thought it might be good for the refug. about 2" layer of that and 2" of CC and abour 1" of LR. with grape algea which as more the dbl sense i have had it in that tank. the light is the 20" hood that came from another 10gal i had and added 18" Power-Glo Fluorescent Tube.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/123477atrefug.JPG

Cost Tank walmart 10.00
Penguin Powerheads 660 170GPH going about 2 FT up 20.00
Power-Glo Fluorescent Tube 15.00
kent Marine Biosediment 20.00

out from tanks
the reast of the stuff i had part left over from when i had other stuff running on past tank. some 1/2 " tubing and 1/2" PVC elbows and a inlet tube from a 350 can filter which i used to run a line form my powerhead up to my tank


out from refug
from the hole i drilled 1" with a 1' pool baffle i had from my old DIY sump "which i am to this day not sure what i did with it"
1" PVC and 2 x 1" PCV elbows (the pvc cost me about 8.00 maybe not much at all)

with the power off on the power head this is very little water that returns to my main tank.


and i have thought about putting it under my stand but after reading a couple post on RC about powerhead on return pumps might kill a lot of pods when returning to the main tank. and for some scooters and Mandarin pods are a great food source. i bought a red scooter and he has cleaned out of lot of the pods i used to see in the main tank. but with that refug i know there is replacement allways on there way to him.

in the furture i plan on getting a 20gal long and redoing it with the glass i already cut "saves time and cutting" and makeing the refug area bigger and adding my skimmer to it. so i dont have to hang it on my tank. adding a bigger pump to feed the skimmer section of the sump area of the sump/refug.
 
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