refuge pics please

daceman89

Member
Can everybody post there refuge pics please.And any comments on what to put in refuge will be well appreciated. I just started a refuge sump and i will like some input on what to put in there. I want some plants for ph balance that won't go sexual. I have 40lbs of live sand and am curing about 30 pounds of live rock. Any plants and inverts i can put in there will be great. And don't forget a fish.
 

hurt

Active Member
Chaeto, that's what I put in mine because I didn't want to worry about it going sexual. I just have LS, LR, and the chateo in mine. I tried to put some of my hermits from my DT into it, but they kept climbing the silicone in between the baffles and getting into the wrong chambers. Here's a close-up of my fuge when I first set it up.
 

daceman89

Member

Originally posted by Hurt
Chaeto, that's what I put in mine because I didn't want to worry about it going sexual. I just have LS, LR, and the chateo in mine. I tried to put some of my hermits from my DT into it, but they kept climbing the silicone in between the baffles and getting into the wrong chambers. Here's a close-up of my fuge when I first set it up.

very nice.
 

hurt

Active Member
Here's a larger picture of my whole system. It was really easy to do. I just bought a 20g, then went to Tru-Value and had 5 plexiglass baffles cut to size, then siliconed them in. I then bought a pump, overflow, and some pipe. Sorry about the glare, cheap camera.
 

hurt

Active Member
Daceman-I bought my chaetomorpha on E-Bay for about 10 bucks. Just type in Macro Algae. For an 80g sump I would buy 3 or 4, I bought one for my 20g. The chaeto in the picture was taken when I first got it and in the two months since then it has double in size.
Joker-I have a 65watt power compact fixture with a 50/50 bulb. It's over roughly 15g of water which is about 4.3 wpg. Everything I've read says you should have 4 or more wpg for macro's if you really want them to take off.
 
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tizzo

Guest
I just don't understand the plumbing... I "know" how it's supposed to work, but I can't make sense of it in my head. I see you have an overflow box right? that's the part that confuses me the most. OK, do me a favor. Can you tell me what you have and maybe I can try to just replicate it and understand it later?? I have a 29 gal, that I wanted to install as a sump/fuge but I never quite got the whole plumbing thing...
 

hurt

Active Member
Tizzo, the overflow in the upper right drains the DT down into the right chamber in the refugium where my protein skimmer is, it then flows under the bubble trap into the actual fuge area. Then it flows over and under another bubble trap into the left compartment which then goes through the pump back up to the DT on the left. The water level in my DT stays the same because of the overflow. The water in the fuge fluctuates because it it under the DT. All I did was take a 20g and buy 5 plexiglass baffles cut to size, then siliconed the bubble traps in. In the picture there are 2 on the right and 3 on the left. If your fuge is below your tank, have the baffles cut to 65%-75% the height of your fuge. You dont want to have full capacity in your fuge, because when the power goes out, the pump stops pumping water back up to the DT, but the overflow will drain to the top of itself, which in my 55g puts another 2-3g back into the fuge during power outages. This takes the water level in the fuge from about 15g to 18g, with 2g to spare. If there's anyelse you don't understand just ask.
 
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tizzo

Guest
Well, I finally understand what a baffle is...
One more thing... I know exacly what the overflow looks like, I know how the water gets into the first chamber, I can even somewhat understand how it's syphoned through the U tube to the otherside, BUT... when the power goes off and all the water in the OF box goes down into the sump, and then the power comes back on, how does the syphon begin again?? Or do you hafta do it yourself??
 

hurt

Active Member
No problems at all, the overflow has two chambers, one inside the tank and the other outside. Once the water drains into the chamber inside the tank it's siphoned with a U-tube over the tank into the chamber outside the tank. The reason it doesn't lose its siphon is because the outside chamber's drain to the refugium is higher than the drain of the U-tube on the inside of the overflow. Thus the U-tube will always hold its siphon because the H2O level iof the overflow is always above the the inlet and exit on the U-tube, thus the U-tube will never get air in it and lose its siphon.
 
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tizzo

Guest
But...Wouldn't this part drain out in the event of a power outage?? I apologize for my ignorance, but this is one of those things I just haven't gotten yet...(Kinda like cooking)
You know what?? I just got it!! YOU are a stinkin' genious!! I guess I never realized that the tube going down into the sump sits so high in the box. This is great!! I feel...well like you did when you first got it!! Well, maybe not... I don't get out much and it don't take much for me. But all in all...THANK YOU!!
 

hurt

Active Member
Sorry if I was a little confusing, it was late last night. But that is exactly the reason it does not lose siphon. Because the drain tube to the sump is higher than the inlet or exit on the U-tube. Therefore the H20 level in the overflow will always be higher than the openings on the U-tube and this will never allow it to break it's siphon.
 

daceman89

Member
Originally posted by Hurt
Daceman-I bought my chaetomorpha on E-Bay for about 10 bucks. Just type in Macro Algae. For an 80g sump I would buy 3 or 4, I bought one for my 20g. The chaeto in the picture was taken when I first got it and in the two months since then it has double in size.
Thanx
 

daceman89

Member

Originally posted by TheFishGuy
i just got some good pics of my fuge but i have to develop them.... maybe in a few days..

Please post when you get a chance
 

thefishguy

New Member
i will it looks realy good right now i just re did it avtualy the hair algea became a big problem.. so i had to cut out the pvc and everything to eliminate it.. re did all of it
 
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