Please critique my set behind refugium plans...(Picture)

[STUMP]

Hi, I have been planning a refugium to set right behind a 10 gallon AGA. Below is a picture of what I have come up with so far.

 

First, the water is pulled in via a powerhead located in the far right hand chamber. This will also be the chamber where my little counter current skimmer will be sitting along with the California Reefs float switch. There will be a small overflow box in the main tank for the supply plumbing for the powerhead to sit in, and to skim the main tank water surface.

 

Next, water will flow through a set of baffles to rid the current of bubbles. The heater will be positioned among these baffles for maximum circulation contact.

 

The water will then enter the refugium area. A 13 watt pc light will be sitting on top here.

 

The water will return to the main tank by a gravity fed overflow, much like the CPR Aquafuge I believe. The over flow will have a ramp leading back down to the main tank, which is sitting directly against this refugium/sump box.

 

 

I plan to construct the entire box out of 1/8" acrylic. The box will be 5 1/2" thick.

 

So, does anyone see any problems here, Im sure I'm overlooking something ???

 

TIA,

Jeff

 

 

 

*****THIS PIC WAS LAST UPDATED ON 3-8-03******

(This is how the final sump/refugium turned out)

 

 

(edited to add updated picture)

[STUMP]

Well, I already caught one mistake. The float switch will have to be in the main tank instead of the refugium box. I guess I would have to build the overflow to be big enough to incorporate it? Is that right?

[lizbeth]

Ok, here we go. You don't need that many baffles, save that space for more sand and critters. The first partition should be up off the bottom and go almost to the top of the tank. The second should be to the bottom with the top being slightly below where you want your waterline to be. Basicly reversing the first two partition you have drawn.

 

Yes the top off switch will need to be in the main tank.

 

I like where you are planning to put your heater, that will work out great.

[STUMP]

Thanks lizbeth, I appreciate your input. I guess I did get a little out of control on the baffles. I've removed one of them, but left that last miniature one just to give a small amount of flow down and act as an extra bubble trap, just in case . I know, it's probably just redundant, but it doens't take up any extra space, so it shouldn't matter should it? And the current caused by the donwflow won't be that great, so I wouldn't think that would be a problem either.

 

The intake pump will be a Maxi Jet 600.

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

(Picture in my first post has been updated to show these changes)

[lizbeth]

LOL, thanks that picture is better. Looks good.

 

If the little down wall makes too much flow you can always yank it out. Oh and is 1/8" acrylic strong enough?

[STUMP]

Originally posted by lizbeth

.....Oh and is 1/8" acrylic strong enough?

 

Hmmm, well, I was originally thinking it was....but, now you have me thinking. I built a sump/refugium for my 55 gal reef a couple years ago with 1/4". It is much much bigger than this one, so I was thinking 1/8" would be fine. I just went and played with some 1/8" after you mentioned that, and now I'm not too confident in it. I think I'll change the walls to 1/4", leave the baffles and main tank's overflow box 1/8".

 

Wow, thanks again for another good point!

[jimmie51]

What will something like this cost you to make. I have been checking into making one myself and I can buy one for not alot more than it will cost to build. I am more into the hobby of this so building it is the fun part for me, but I would rather spend my money on corals, and critters and things. Don't take that wrong I would rather build it if it is cost effective.

[STUMP]

Well, I'm not really looking at this as a major cost savings, more of it being custom made to my liking exactly. The canopy I build is going to stretch all the way back over the refugium and down the refugium sides sort of. Therefore, I wanted to be able to dictate each dimension in the refugium's overall size. The completed project will be sitting on my desk at work and there were a few things I wanted, and a few things I wanted to avoid.

 

The 1/4" acrylic is going to cost me $38.32+tax for a 3'x4' sheet. I already have the saws and blades, so no extra cost there. I also already have (2) tubes of Weld-On #16. I think the 5oz tubes, which (1) will probably take care of it, were only like $6 each anyway. Now, I might have been able to find the acrylic 1/4" much cheaper if I would have shopped around a bit. But, I've dealt with the place I'm getting it from on several occasions and like them, plus they are going to give me a 2'x2' black colored sheet of 1/8" acrylic for my main tank overflow box when I go in (would have been cheap anyway, probably about $5, but still very nice). Another major reason I will use this place without shopping around...., they are on my way home from work

 

As far as the 1/8" acrylic for the baffles goes, I have a good bit of it sitting in my garage, so no charge there.

 

I really just enjoy doing what I can when I can. I find working with the acrylic can be a pretty easy task, even for beginners. There's also just that much more satisfaction when the tank is complete. I might save a few bucks over a premade one, but I'm not sure if the cost savings would justify the amount of time I will be putting into it, if that's a consideration for you. Whether you build yourself, or purchase a premade one, they'll both accomplish pretty much the same thing for you. If you build, just be prepared to spend some time with it, go slow, and have fun.

[TheIceberg]

I am making a fuge that is pretty much the same design for my 20 gallon. It is 6" wide by 24" long. The only real differences besides the size are:

 

1) I am using the overflow cut out as an emergency only and putting in a bulkhead with pvc pipe for the return to the main tank which will sit slightly lower. This way I will not have to listen to the water spilling noise and I will still have the hole and overflow in case the return pvc clogs for some reason.

 

2) I reversed the possitions of the first two baffels and didn't have the third. (Please explain why you have them the way you do to make sure I don't want to do that- thanks)

 

3) The skimmer I have is too big to fit in that baffel section and I am going to keep it in the main part of the fuge in the corner with a small drilled acrylic box around it. (I will have a little less room for liverock, but the sand should be able to sit underneath it and the box will allow for the macroalgae not to clog the skimmer.

 

And I am FOR SURE using 1/4" . Anyway, your design looks good. Maybe concider my bulkhead addition with the hole-overflow as an emergency placed slightly higher. And I am paying $100 for the pieces including the holes pre-cut and a lid that will go over the top and have holes for pvc, etc. and lightbox pieces to build a box for the Light of America which I tore appart and will retrofit into the box being made.

[STUMP]

Sounds like you've got a good thing going there.

 

My first baffle is making the water pass under, because my skimmer will be sitting in the first compartment. The skimmer's output is towards the top of the skimmer, so the water with the micro bubbles will be rising to the top, then down under the baffle. Hopefully, the majority of the micro bubbles will just surface in that first compartment.

 

The water will then have to go up and over the next baffle to get to the refugium. The water climbing up will probably have some microbubbles in it as well. The idea is that they will get trapped at the surface at the top of the climb up before going over that baffle.

 

That third baffle, is there just to keep any bubbles that do get trapped in the climb right there, instead of in the refugium. Any bubbles that did get in the refugium would just overflow into the main tank, that is what I am trying to avoid. Also, the third baffle will give the refugium just a little bit of water flow to it. You don't want much I know, but I also didn't want the water to just pass over top of it. Like Lizbeth said, if I find the current is too much, I can just yank it out.

 

As far as the bulkhead goes, I played with the idea for awhile about using one instead of the ramp, but decided to go ramping as you can see. The reason being was that I needed to keep the overall height as low as I could. If I added a bulkhead, the center was going to end up being higher than what my overflow is now, and I would have had to make the box just a little bit higher. It may not sound like a big deal, but in my grand scheme of things it was. My sump/refugium and main tank will share the same canopy. There will be a small cabinet covering the sides of the sump/refugium box that will connect into the canopy (will be top opening type of canopy). Well, it's kind of hard to explain and I don't have the plans completed on AutoCad yet, so I can't give you a visual reference. But, I didn't want to have to make the canopy any taller than I was already going to have to, therefore, ramp for me please. Plus, with the ramp, I really don't have to worry about a snail or something clogging the output and it's very easy to keep clean.

 

The ramp comes off the box at a slight angle, and then I've got another ramp going down at a 30 degree mitered angle from that leading to the water. I really don't think I'll have any serious noise with it, but I will have to wait until I can do a test run to be sure. I am almost complete with the sump box, will probably be able to make my test run on Friday or Saturday.

 

I've had to make a few changes to the dimensions that are shown in my diagram above. I made the overall height a 1/4" lower, brought the width of the box to 6", and I had to increase the dimension for the far right sump chamber to 5-1/2" to more comfortably fit the skimmer and intake pump. I could have made it smaller, but I wanted to be able to have access to the bottom easily. The sump/refugium is 1/4" acrylic with 1/8" for the baffles and overflow ramp. I will be using a 13w pc for the lighting for the fuge. Still deciding on which method I am going to want to use for it's mounting though. Will probably wait till I have the canopy and cabinet built for that decision.

 

Anyway, hope this all made since, haven't had my first cup of coffee yet this morning. Good luck on your fuge!

[STUMP]

Thanks for everyone's help so far (this thread and the others). Just a slight update on what I have had to do.

 

With the return pump in the sump, it of course created a siphon. Well, once power is shut off, the sump wanted to siphon back down to the main tank, flooding the main tank. If I put holes in the line on the sump side just below the water line, it would fix that problem, but created a new one. With the holes there, the siphon wouldn't restart since the pump was pulling instead of pushing, just kept sucking air through the hole preventing the siphon.

 

So, to remedy this problem, I built my overflow box in my main tank just a little bit larger than I had planned. I put a MiniJet 606 in the bottom of it and now it pushes the supply water into the sump/refugium, and the overflow box still works the same (orignal drawing of sump/refugium in my first post has been updated to reflect all changes made, except that it is 6" wide instead of the 5 1/2" that I had called for).

 

So far, I'm very please with how it is working. I now have to build the canopy and cabinetry around the tank.

 

side shot of tank and sump

 

close up of the return ramp

 

view from behind