Fuge/pod farm build thread

[NewbReefer]

This will probably be a short thread but I thought I would stick it out there for anyone else ever thinking of adding a fuge.

heres some pics. i should have the DSB and saltwater in tomorrow and the plumbing done and all ready to start cycling through the tank. any comments, suggestion or questions are of course welcome the eggcrate divider is not fixed in place so i can move it.





more to come tomorrow

[fatman]

Is all this in a room separate from your display tank? If so then appearance isn't so much a barrier . If that is the case I would put the refugium above the height of the tank and pump water to the fuge and return it to he tank by gravity. This would allow a nice set up where you could run a fed refugium pod culture system. You would just drip feed phytoplankton in to he refugium. This would give much better pod multiplication and growth and the overflow back into your tank would keep pods going into tank constantly. The phytoplankton water you dripped in would just be regular tank water any way and in such small amounts it would not effect your salinity as you could just remove that amount of water every time you put in new drip water. It would work with dead or live phytoplankton. Even shrimp napulii could be added to refugium to feed on phytoplankton and feed the pods. Any that went through to your display would be readily accepted by your fish.

[NewbReefer]

i've seen some pics of refugiums over the DT and love how some of em work and look but for my current setup that would be a bit tough and take lots of planning and i'd for that kind of setup i'd rather purchase a used tank for the fuge to show it off to others looking at the tank. If i ever build a larger reef that is definitly something i'd look into doing. my sump and refugium is in a closet on the other side of the wall that my DT is up against

Thanks fatman

[daugherty]

lookin good.

[NewbReefer]

more pics. it's all plumbed, filled with sand and saltwater. Should be ready to start cycling it through the sump tomorrow.











4" deep DSB, was hoping for 5 but this will work.


Got a small powerhead and heater in there to get it up to temp before i start running it through the sump.

[fatman]

You definately took some time and care drilling out the PVC for taht overflow. I think it actually looks better than the commercial strainers. Good thinking and excellent work. I like the conduit straps also. Did you come up with theidea for the PVC anti spreaders for the tub. I have not seen that done before either. Even put the vinyl tubing over the PVC pipe instead of using those constrictive barb fittings. Lots of unions and valves. Good work NewbReefer. I would order plastic clamps to replace the stainless steel ones thpough. Heck, I just had to be critical about some thing or people would think something was wrong.

[NewbReefer]

LOL, well if hose clamps is all your gonna be critical about i must be doing a pretty good job the drain only took about 5-10 min with my nice dremel, i wanted to make sure that if the water raised an inch or 2 due to some cheato getting through the eggcrate or something other it could still drain.

I took the tub and filled it with the hose when i had first bought it and knew right then and there i needed to do something to keep it from bowing so i came up with that pvp brace.

i'll have to look harder at homedepot for some plastic hose clamps or something that would work similar. if they dont have any i may be able to come up with something at work.

[fatman]

They sell them in catalogs like Marine Depot but only to 1" and some of the time auto supply places such as Napa have them in stock in larger sizes. I got mine from Sentry Hardware.

[Bifferwine]

That looks great! I want one!

[NewbReefer]

well i woke up this morning and checked the temp and salinity and all was good to go so im now running it through my system and all looks good. i'll post more pics after i go to home depot and get a light. on my local reef club forums people have been lighting there fuge with a light that supposedly blows melevs light outta the water.