cmoreash Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 I'm gonna be DIYing a refugium for my 29 gallon tank soon, with acryllic. I'm gonna support it with some hooks on the refugium, and a wooden stand built with 2x4s for support from the bottem. I pieced together a crude picture of the general idea. Can you DIY experts critique, evaluate, improve this idea? TIA Oh...and what would be a good GPH rating for this powerhead i'm gonna use? Link to comment
glazer Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Looks good cmore.... Instead of your "hook" thing I would put an acrylic piece/lip if you will the entire length of the 'fuge. It would be strong enough, well if you do it right... that the entire thing could be supported on the tank edge, no added stand needed. As far as your pump for it... up to you I suppose but I would be looking for some decent water movement through it... you have basically a GIANT HOB filter.... think about that AquaClear mini pushing around 100gph... on your setup I would look for a powerhead in the 300 gph range minimum. EDIT: Oops, looked at your diagram again... I think you might want to add a third baffle on the 'fuge side of the two you show now. Doesn't have to be very tall(this baffle from the bottom up) only a little taller than whatever depth of sandbed you plan on putting in it. Water will then be flowing up and across the sand as opposed to down onto it. Link to comment
cmoreash Posted January 28, 2003 Author Share Posted January 28, 2003 ah ok, thanks. any preference on how far apart i make the baffles? thanks for the help Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Actually, you could just eliminate the second baffle instead of adding a third. They are just redundant and waste space. Link to comment
cmoreash Posted January 28, 2003 Author Share Posted January 28, 2003 well, what i'm seeing, the first one will make the water flow out near the top, not circulating near the bottom. THe second, as glazer pointed out, will make it flow downwards, but mess up the sand. A third would make it downwords, but Not interfering with the sand too much edit: and this lets me have a compartment for filter media too Link to comment
glazer Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 cmore, Shouldn't need any more than 1/2" in between them in fact 1/4" oughta work just fine. If there's no chance that your skimmer is going to be putting bubbles back into the fuge either by the nature of it's design or if the output sits higher than you water level dictated by the return bulkheads and is "pouring" back in, then by all means...as Wet said, just go with the single baffle. EDIT: Saw that you posted again cmore... no, the third baffle is attached at the floor and will give you water movement an UPWARD movement... your water will just be making a big U Link to comment
cmoreash Posted January 28, 2003 Author Share Posted January 28, 2003 Yea i kinda fumbled my words there, it'd be better going up though, from the bottom, than up right away though, i think, so it would circulate the 'fuge better...am i right? Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 like i said... Actually, you could just eliminate the second baffle instead of adding a third. They are just redundant and waste space. you should do your sponge somewhere else if you want, letting your fuge process the crap, instead of making the sponge into a bacteria bed. I made a fuge very similar, with extra room on the intake baffle side for a skimmer. And the flow doesnt need to be that high...200gph is plenty...or he fuge might as well be a fluidized bed. The one I built is 24"L, 18"H, 6"D...and I used a pump in-overflow out method like a CPR Bak Pak. If I could only figure out how to post a picture here I could show you...but every time I try it says my photo size is too big...how can the cap be 102400bytes???? I see people post milti-MB pictures here!! Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 the picture didn't work. i see what you are saying about the water flow...one baffle is fine, your water level should be well over the first baffle, because it has to get up to the output's level...the first baffle is just to keep your substrate from the first baffle...it only has to be a little taller than your substrate depth, like 6". Instead of a sponge or other filter, i would just fill the first area around the skimmer with bio-balls if anything. Micro bubbles can be eliminated by adjusting skimmer outputs...or by putting a small sponge there. Link to comment
lizbeth Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Just reverse the up/down position of the two baffles. Geesh you guys make everything so complicated. Link to comment
jflysmooth Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Bravo! I was reading through this thinking the exact same thing. Link to comment
glazer Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Just reverse the up/down position of the two baffles. Geesh you guys make everything so complicated. Liz darlin', It's what we DO...lol Like pulling over to the gas station for directions... TOO simple, where would be the fun, the excitement, the Lewis&Clark'ness, of that!? Hell, I say baffles for everyone!! ( pssssssst, you so smart :love: ) Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Sheeesh Liz, You ruined all of our fun. We knew that, we just wanted to be "creative". And I was just going to post that I figured it all out: a seventeen baffle system to direct water. Men Men Men, Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm, Men Men Men, Men are better than......:*( Link to comment
TheIceberg Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Since I am assuming that you are basically copying the CPR Aquafuge with this fuge, I am going to throw out a question in this post that I have had for awhile now. Basically I just wanted to confirm my speculation about the their placement of the two baffles in the Aquafuge. They have one on one end, where the water is pumped into, and one on the other, where the water flows back into the main tank. I am assuming they have the “flow back into the main tank” end baffled off in order that one can do an siphoned overflow u-tube back into the tank. But, as we have seen from the design in the picture above, that compartment is not necessary if you are simply going to drill and bulkhead the fuge to the main tank with a short length of pvc or something. Do I have this right? Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.