Need help with hob refugium

simsimbalabim

simsimbalabim

Member
Hi everyone!
I found this hob filter sitting on the side of the road the other day---SCORE!!! It had some bioballs and filter floss, but I think I want to make it into a little refugium.
My idea is to hang it off the back of my 29 gallon, use a pump in the tank to pull the water into the refugium, hopefully flow thru it, and drill a hole in the side and have it gravity fed back into the tank. I'm sure it's not that easy, though. It has an overflow box, but I'm not really sure where it goes and how it works. If this will keep me from drilling a hole and keep water off the floor---more power to it! Help! I don't want to mess this up.
 
simsimbalabim

simsimbalabim

Member
Sorry, the pic is so small to make out the details(darn size constraints!). The black box on the left is a pump from the tank, then it flows over some live rock, thru the baffles, into the right side with calurpa. The green dot is the hole back to the tank.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
You could try a U tube siphon instead of drilling the fuge. Set up the pump like you have but for the water return, make a U tube out of flex tubing or PVC. Fill the tube completely with water and cap the ends with you hands so that nothing leaks out. Then set the U tube in your tank and fuge like in the pic.
Make sure the U tube extends deep into the water so that there is no chance of it getting air up in it and breaking the siphon. You could even make it long enough so that when you do a water change it still doesn't get any air.
Now when your pump draws water out of the tank and into your fuge, the fuge level will raise while your tank level drops. The siphon will start flowing to level out the water. If you turn off your pump then the siphon will stop because the water level between the two tanks equalizes, but it will not have any air in it. Then turn the pump back on and the siphon will start again.
Put the intake of your pump high in the main tank. That way if somehow the siphon stops because it gets air in the tube, the main tank will only drain out to the level of your pump intake then stop. This will keep your entire tank from being pumped into your fuge and then spill onto the floor because of a faulty siphon. You could even raise your fuge up to the level that without a siphon, the water would drain from your tank then stop and your fuge will be full but not overflowing into the floor. This way you won't have any water spill on the floor no matter what happens to your siphon.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
:happy:
This is the scenario that would happen if the siphon were broken for some reason.
 
simsimbalabim

simsimbalabim

Member
Wow, Sly! That's so much more than I asked for. Did you just whip up those diagrams? Thanks! I like the second idea, and I think that's the one I'm going with. Thank you very much!
But one question, I don't need the overflow box then, do I?
 
unknown

unknown

Member
Yes you will need the overflow box!! It is vital. You will do as Sly said but instead of the U-tube going directly into the tank it has to been in the overflow box.
And Sly on your second pic the U-Tube will keep syphoning untill air gets in there and stops the flow.
That was the problem I was having.
Vince.:happyfish
 
simsimbalabim

simsimbalabim

Member
Ok, so I just came up with this:
--Water is pumped into the fuge with a pump with the intake up near the water surface in the main tank.
--The water levels are equal in the main tank and in the fuge connected with a siphon.
So...if the siphon breaks, the pump will only pump until the intake from the main tank runs out of water. Hopefully, there will be enough room in the fuge to hold the excess water.
It just seems like to much can go wrong. I'm seeing a lot of overflow boxes, but I guess I just don't understand how it works. What about my original gravity fed hole? Does anyone use anything like this?
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Actually I use a gravity fed hole. :D
In my fuge I drilled a hole in the side so that when the water gets to that level, it spills out back into the tank.
However, my fuge is under the tank and spills into my sump where it then is pumped back into the tank.
The first idea would work, but like you said, it could be tricky getting set right. There are things that could go wrong as well. But it would work and wouldn't involve you drilling anything.
 
zap800

zap800

Member
ok drawing on my at home plumbing experiance lol. i would say use a u tube and drill a 1/4" hole about 1-2 inches below the water line of the main tank. this will break the siphon if something like the power goes out!!!!!!!! the water drain into the fuge then a pump will return the water to the main tank. place a ball ---- or a waste gate valve inbetween the pump and main tank to controle the water flow back to the tank. if i am correct in my plan for you if the power goes out and the pump stops pumping the water back to the tank then the water will drain into the fuge until the water gets to the hole and the siphon action will break and then nothing. this plan will only work if there is enough room in the fuge for the extra water going into it. does this make sense? anyone else agree with my idea for him?
but thats my $.02
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I like the idea, but regulating the flow so that things balance out (like a ballvalve or other regulator) can only lead to problems. It will work at first but as it gets buildup or other crud in it, the flow will change and things will not be balanced anymore. These valves do not provide perfect water regulation and can only fail requiring constant adjustment.
What you need is a setup that is self regulating. Like with a U tube siphon, the only time water flows out of the tube is when water first flows into the fuge creating an imbalance. If the water flow ever changes, the U tube will change also. A gravity fed overflow tube or a spill sube drilled into the side of the glass will work too. The only time water will exit the fuge is if the water level is high enough for water to spill out the overflow or side tube. If the water flow increases or decreases for some reason, it will also self adjust in that water can only spill out as fast as it is pumped in.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Pic has to be resized to be 500x500 pixels or smaller and has to be less than 10000000 bytes.
After you finish the BMP, open it in a picture editing program like photoshop and convert it to a 500x500 picture. Save it as a jpg.
There are some free file converting programs out there if you don't have photoshop. I use Micrografx Picture Publisher (not free).
 
chris17

chris17

Member
Sly
Do you think I could email it to you, and you possibly resize it for me??? I cant get it to work for me.......please.....
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I'm going to break it up so I don't get spammed by search bots:
Jesuitson@
hotmail.
com
 
sly

sly

Active Member
Maybe it's not as big of a deal, but there are programs that search out message boards and such for email addresses. When they find one, they add it to their mailing list. Usually spammers have to randomly create emails, hoping to guess a valid one (if they don't buy a list from another spammer).
 
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