My Do-it-Myself refugium

[tinyfish]

I am fairly excited about this project. I have been thinking about it ever since I started looking at refugiums. My idea was to take two small 5.5 gallon aquariums (end-to-end) and put a U-tube between them. I have a 30 gallon long display tank and built my own stand so there is only 9" width under display tank. One aquarium will house the cheato and the other will have the skimmer, heater, and return. (Please do not ask about my pump. I do not want to argue about size and flow.) (I already know about breaking the syphon also.)
I am in the process of plumbing right now. The plan is to have a split feed from the display tank so one feeds the skimmer and one feeds the refugium. I want to be able to take some of the plumbing apart so I need to go back to the store to get compression unions. Valves on both feeds as well as return.
Its too bad they don't make clear rigid PVC. I like the neatness of rigid plumbing but not the color.
I will take pictures when I am done.

 

[phixer]

Know what you mean, have you considered acrylic tubing?

 

[townsdp]

I did the same thing but got irritated with it and went to sterilite tubs with bulkheads connecting them. The tanks wouldn't balance out so I made a pvc u-tube between them and had a nozzle sticking out of the top. I connected the nozzle to an aqua-lifter pump with airline tubing. It worked well, so if u need an idea, there u go. good luck.

 

[450rguy]

Are you thinking of something like this?

It's not as pretty as many of the sumps on this site, but hey, when you're working with limited space, you gotta get creative!
Mine is actually two 10g's end to end. It sits nicely under my 55 and is working good so far. Pay no attention to the cobbled together DIY overflow feeding the fuge into the sump. I just stuck that together temporarily until I can get the fuge tank drilled. I am using an overflow becasue a u tube would balance the tanks, and I want to maintain the level in my fuge constant. I'm just cycling my tank now, so I've got some time to smooth out the details.
Do keep in mind working with small sumps that you must keep your return pump line very near the surface, or drill anti-syphon holes in the return to keep from flooding!

 

[tinyfish]

While waiting for my prefilter box, I decided to plumb the return. After doing that I thought I could go ahead and plumb the feed to the sump. After I got done I realized that OOPS, I had plumbed the feed out of 1/2" pipe. Way too small for the feed. I will wait for the prefilter and plumb according to it.
I would have used acryllic tubing if I knew where to get it and how to bend it.
I would post a picture but my files are too big and I don't know how to resize them.

 

[ironhead]

i'm thinking of doing the same setup under my tank
but i'm not quite sure how to make the u tube work
i was going to use a small pump from the sump to the refugium
and a u tube back to the sump
but how do you keep it balanced

 

[tinyfish]

Ironhead,
If you split the feed so one feeds the sump and the other feeds the refugium then the U-tube will balance them, provided of course that it is full of water.
You can see the U-tube behind the red handle of the valve.

 

[joncat24]

I guess I am missing something...not trying to be an ass. I was just wondering why you are using two tanks instead of one larger tank?
It seems to me that it would be a lot easier. If you can put two small ones in
there, why not just one big one???

 

[450rguy]

In my case, one big one wouldn't fit unless I took out the rear vertical brace, drug the tank and stand out away from the wall, then put the sump in and put everything back into place. I know I can't take out the front vertical, as it's doweled in place...I know, I built it. As of now I have removed the rear vertical brace to push the two 20g's back far enough to have some extra room up front. I would have rather had the 20 long, but after thinking more about it, if one of the tens start leaking or get broke, I don't have to drain the tank to replace the sump or fuge.
Now if I could just get the fuge drilled so I can stop worrying about it flooding....

 

[tinyfish]

Woohoo! Finally got my prefilter box in the mail and spent today plumbing for it. I had to take the coupling apart for the return to get the feed pipe in and then I forgot about it until I turned the switch on and water sprayed the underside of my aquarium. I had to laugh because it was pretty funny.
I have lots of microbubbles but that is because I don't have any baffles/dividers in yet. I wanted all my equipment placed and plumbing run to see how much room I might have for baffles/dividers (if any room was to be had).
I like the two tank setup because that was all that would fit in my stand. In hindsight, if I had made my stand different I could have used a 20 long and slipped it through the end. That would have been easy and given my a little more leeway for baffles/dividers.
Also it was kind of breathtaking to guess exactly where to put the antisiphon hole in the return line, below the water line but not too far. I got it just right now.