Pics of Refugium on 12 gal Eclipse

[bobioden]

I am very interested in adding a refugium to my 12 gal Eclipse. I was just wondering how much the hood had to be hacked up?

 

Do anyone have any pics of a Eclipse 12 with a refugium installed on it? Preferably from top or side? Appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

 

???

[bobioden]

Very hard to believe that NO ONE has added a refugium to a 12 gal eclipse..... ???

[technoshaman]

Bob - I haven't seen one - I don't think you could do it without cutting the hood. You might have one that drained directly into the area where the biowheel/filter is perhaps.

 

I really like eclipse design but adding stuff to them is a real pain. I'd look at the dimensions of the CPR aquafuges or one of the knock off ones from EBay and see what kind of cutting you'd have to do to make it fit.

[bobioden]

Thanks for the response. I know that the back of the hood will have to be altered. I was just hoping that it would only be where the inlet and outlet tubes are located. If the stock filter is removed then I think one of the ones by CPR or Acyliccity's could possibly be used. I was hoping someone might have already done it and had some shots.

[tow-up]

bob i have done this i will explain it to you tonight as i am in a hurry right now. best of luck

sean

[jgt246]

Sean,

 

I'm looking at the same Eclipse 12 + CPR fuge combo so very interested in hearing about your experience.

 

Also wondering about lighting options; what's the maximum wattage that can be retrofitted into the hood?

 

Thanks,

 

JT

[tow-up]

sorry for the late response. what is was was an eclipse 6 gallon drilled with an overflow raised above the 12 gallon. used a milk crate. i used a powerhead to pump water up and gravity to bring it back down.

[gnubbs]

I have an eclipse 12 with an aquafuge 12 on it. The fuge works great, but is a bit of a hack to get in there. I don't think that it would be possible if you were still running the overtank filter. To do this, you have to do some serious mods to the hood, but since you are keeping a nano you must not have too much of a problem with that...

 

You will have to make three cuts in the hood. The first is expanding the existing opening in the back for the return line. Next, there is the hole that needs to be cut for the input line. These are both big cuts, but no big deal. The only problem is the brace that runs up from the middle of the fuge. For this, you have to make a narrow cut from the buttom to almost the top of the hood. If you don't cut all the way to the top, the hood will rest up a tiny bit on the brace and flex a bit. This causes the flap in the hood to not fit perfectly anymore.

 

That said, all the mods are not visible from the front of the tank. The top of the fuge sits pretty even with the top of the hood. They work wonders as well. Hide your heater and any probes in there, use it to add additives so they are mixed with water before hitting the main tank, etc. I went from having tons of cyano and diatoms in my display to having a gnarly looking fuge but a crystal clear tank.

 

It is worth the money and effort. I will post pics today or tomorrow if I can.

 

gnubbs

[gnubbs]

As for lighting above a system 12... I currently have a JBJ 36 watt power compact where the original light was, and the original 13 watt cemented to the inside of the flap on the hood. I am going to add another 36 watt power compact in the coming weeks. Plus one of the Azoo 13 watt clamp ons above my cpr fuge.

[jdsabin1]

I would really like to see pictures of that fuge on the Eclipse 12. I currently have two 32 w Supernova Smartlamps with the under hood filter removed on my 12. I think an auto-topoff is in my future but want to see what a fuge looks like.

 

Thanks....

[gnubbs]

Here are some pictures of my tank, hood and fuge.

[gnubbs]

From the side. On the opposite side, I had the fuge drilled and installed a microchiller. Works quite well.

[gnubbs]

From the top. Sorry that the pics are so low quality, but the fish are already asleep, so lighting was low.

[gnubbs]

Hope this helps everyone. You can see from the first pic that you have to do some extensive cutting, but it is totally feasible. I would strongly recommend this combo, it is not quite plug and play but worth the effort.

[jdsabin1]

gnubbs,

 

Thanks for the pics . Can you tell us what equipment was used for this? Where and what is being used for the fuge, the tubing, the lighting, the plants, etc and how you run it?

 

That would be a great help also!

 

Thanks,

 

-Jeff

[gnubbs]

The fuge is a CPR Aquafuge 12, that includes all of the plumbing, pumps, etc. Just hang it on the back, plug it in, and you are ready to go (it is almost that easy, not quite.) It is being lit by an Azoo clip on 13w PC 5500k light. I am currently lighting my fuge 24 hours a day.

 

The fuge houses my 150w Ebo Jager heater and my microchiller (sorry I couldn't get a shot of that, but you can have the sump drilled and mount it on the intake side).

 

In the sump is about 2 pounds live sand, a clump of some unidentified dark green macro, a clump of small bubble algae (some variety of Calupera), and a snail or two that got to aggressive for my main tank. I actually have some sort of red microalgae that I have never seen before growing on my macroalgae. Algae on algae -- much better than algae on coral. I am currently harvesting about a handful of Calupera a week.

 

As far as making the cuts in the hood, all was done with a dremel and a rotary cutting bit. Unless you are super careful, you will not end up with anything pretty but it gets the job done. Plus, it is on the back of your hood so it doesn't need to be pretty.

 

gnubbs

[jdsabin1]

One last question and I will leave you alone gnubbs .

 

How does a filter play into all of this? I currently have an aquaclear 150 HOB filter so would the fuge go beside it? How does the water from the fuge get back into the tank then? Via the filter or?

 

I really like the idea of a fuge though.

 

Thanks!

[gnubbs]

The fuge takes up more or less the entire back of the tank, so I doubt that you would be able to fit your HOB filter there as well. I personally only use my fuge and LR/LS for filtration. So far so good.

 

As far as water return, the there is a siphon that flows from the return chamber of the fuge back into the tank. I don't think there would be any graceful way to route this return through your filter because of the design of the fuge.

[bobioden]

Gnubbs

 

Thanks for the posts and pics. I really appreciated it. That was exactly what I wanted to see. I knew I would have to cut the back of the hood, but am glad the hood dosen't get to destroyed.

 

Thanks again.