starting a refugium

[11fishes]

ok ok ok i know i'm a little late but i really need help with this i'm am in a position (rock and a hard place) i have been doing water changes every other week and yet i am cused with high levels of nitrate and low levels of pH, my question is this, i need help building a fuge i have no idea what all those pipes are for in other peoples fuge pics and i think i really need one if anyone could give me some simple set-up techniques or diagrams. I dont have alot or any money unfortuately. PLEASE HELLLP!!!!! send me a pm if you want

 

[Blown 346]

What type of fuge do you want? there are several types or should I say setups you can go with.

1. one being a sump/fuge.
This will be a sump and a refugium together, so you dont have to purchase another tank, and you can still use your skimmer and return pump in the same sump.

2. Two being a gravity fed fuge, this will require another tank strictly as a refugium. This tank will be above the main tank.
You will need a powerhead in the main tank to feed the fuge water, once that is done the fuge is now getting water form the main tank. Then you will either have another power head in the fuge to send back that water to the main tank. Or you can have the fuge drilled for a bulkhead and place some PVC from the fuge to the main tank. That is a actual graivity fed fuge. The waterwill fill the fuge up and it will overflow out of the fuge into the maintank on its own.

 

[11fishes]

cool but there is one problem i dont have a skimmer (per say) i have a skilter filter400 part skimmer and filter my tank doesn't have a uhh grate thing for a sump filter. i only have one powerhead and its a POWERSWEEP226it goes back and forth moving the water

 

[mg426]

I would use one of the above, they will both work great. If you allready have a sump, mabe you could install a DSB. they are great at nitrate reduction.

 

[Blown 346]

Since you dont have a sump, I would go with the fuge that is above the main tank, and use a power head in the main tank to feed the fuge water, and a power head in the fuge back to the main tank.

 

[djacob]

If you are going to do the gravity setup with the fuge above the tank, make sure you have the tank drilled and use a overflow method as the return to your display tank, using a powerhead to return the water back to the main tank is a bad idea being if the return powerhead fails the powerhead feeding the Fug will keep running and will overflow the tank all over causeing disaster.

have the tank drilled and put a bulkhead in with pvc return to the main tank. that way if the powerhead feeding dies(which is the only one) then it just stops the fuge and does not cause a flood.

just my 2 cents

Thanks
Dave

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6923276#post6923276 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Blown 346
Since you dont have a sump, I would go with the fuge that is above the main tank, and use a power head in the main tank to feed the fuge water, and a power head in the fuge back to the main tank.

 

[mille239]

DJACOB is absolutly correct.. you do NOT want to try and match two pumps; one pumping into the fuge, and one pumping out... it won't happen I promise you. even the same brand same model, will vary slightly in performance, and when you take into consideration the head height of the pump feeding up to your fuge, it will be even further off.

With that said, yes, the best method is to have the tank (fuge) drilled, so when the water is pumped up to the fuge, it can just flow back down to the tank at the same rate as is being pumped into the fuge.

Alternatively, a hang on overflow can be used, but I prefer the drillig path, because you don't have to worry about u-tubes or siphons breaking.

HTH, and keep us posted on your project.