Building a refugium

[tbittner]

Thanks Lynn. Yeah, I had put in a ball valve to control the flow from the pump back to the aquarium and I just ended up leaving it wide open. Everything leveled off and is staying that way.

The pipes from the aquarium flow through a filter box that I currently have a bag of Purigen and a bio bag full of matrix active charcoal. I'll be taking the charcoal out in a week or so though. This box is inside the first compartment. Then the chiller pump will pump out it's capacity through the chiller and I'm thinking that bringing the water back into the refugium would be best to give the chaeto a chance to "purify" it.

I'm estimating that I'm getting around 1200 gph flow through the refugium currently but it's looking like the water is flowing over the top of it. Doesn't look like there is hardly any turbulence what so ever in the refugium. I thought chaeto works best if it's tumbled around so I figured using the water coming back from the chiller would add some movement in the water closer to the bottom of the refugium.

What's everyone else's thoughts on this idea?

Thanks!

Terry

 

[sasquatch]

ITS ALIVE!! so no leakies? 1200gph is probably ok, for me id get it back to 300 to 400 in the fuge, I like a bit of dwell time and its a little easier on the pods, if its adjustable then just let it run a while and see what works for you.Steve

 

[tbittner]

Ok, I put a pump in the first compartment and pump the water through the chiller and bring it back into the refugium. I put a bag of Purigen over the intake of the pump which will keep any/all bad stuff out of the chiller. My water was 81, it's now 77. I'm anxious to see if it stays that way.This morning, the return pump compartment was about 4 gallons low so I added 4 gallons IN the aquarium and it brought the return pump compartment level back up to full. AMAZING!!! I don't know how I did it. It really was pure luck. Well, I did try to size everything so the flow would be about the same through out the system and I just got really lucky.

And nope, ZERO leaks anywhere.

WOO HOO!!!

I must admit, it's not the prettiest thing to look at since I had to build it under the aquarium so I wasn't able to make the edges perfect since the refugium was so big I couldn't even rotate it onto it's side to trim down the edges or anything. But it sure is FUNCTIONAL! And to me, that's what is REALLY important.

Now to sit back and relax and give it a few months to mass produce pods and THEN I can finally go get that Dragon.

 

[tbittner]

Oh yeah, the FUNNY thing is, the piece that I'm not real thrilled about it the overflow box. Sounds like a loud waterfall. Any suggestions on how to quiet it down? It uses the U-tube method, dumps into a central box in order to keep primed, and then overflows into two side compartments which has 1" plumbing down to the refugium. The noise is from the overflow from that central compartment to the side compartments.

I'm going to go buy course sponges and cut them into squares and stuff each of the side compartments so the water has to flow through the sponge in order to get to the 1" drain. I know, I know, I'll have to thoroughly clean the sponges once a week.

 

[blue_eyes53813]

I have sponges in mine too. They will help alot.

 

[tbittner]

Ok, my next project to add-on to this will be auto topoff. While I'm running new plumbing and wiring, I'm also going to run pipes for refilling after water changes.

The question I have is, if I only run one pipe from my basement and the saltwater mixing barrel pump, up to my refugium on the 1st floor, and the pump only runs when I turn it on while doing a water change, will the water in the pipe get sucked back into the barrel when the pump is turned off? The water will leave the barrel and go straight up for about 9 feet, then mostly level for about 40 feet until it goes through the floor up to the refugium. Of course, this pipe won't be in the water in the refugium because I don't want it to suck water out of the refugium IF the siphon will drain the pipe, that is.

Or do I need to run two pipes and make a loop and then let the pump run all the time to circulate the water in the pipe.

I'm guessing that the siphon created when the pump is turned off will drain the pipe.

 

[sasquatch]

check valve?

 

[tbittner]

I'm not sure I want a check valve on this pipe because wouldn't it be better for the water to drain back out of the pipe and return to the circulation within the barrel? Instead of just sitting in the pipe for a week or two before the next water change? Then when I do a water change, the pump will just refill the pipe. And how would you regulate the temperature of the water in the pipe? I think it would be best to let it drain and then let the pump refill the pipe when needed.

Same is true for the topoff pipe. I don't see it as running a constant drip into the system. I'm thinking more of using a float switch and when a gallon has evaporated (probably on average in about 4 hours), then go ahead and kick the freshwater pump on and let it run until another float switch turns it off at the full water mark.

I now have around 170 gallons in this system between the tank and refugium so I would think that keeping the water within a gallon of capacity would keep the salinity constant.

 

[tbittner]

PERFECTION has been achieved!!! WOO HOO!!!

Water is pumped out of the first compartment of the refugium, down the drain. This is the compartment that the water coming from the aquarium flows into. Water is pumped from my saltwater mixing barrel into the 3rd compartment. This is the compartment where the water is pumped back up into the aquarium.

I turn both pumps on at the same time. Water immediately starts flowing down the drain. About 3 seconds later, water is flowing into the refugium from the new saltwater barrel. I just did a 40 gallon water change in literally 2 minutes.

The water level went down about an inch in the refugium but then filled back up and evened out during the water change.

I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[Dentoid]

I've missed a lot in this thread. Congratz on a successful project! How do you like the Purigen? I just got some but haven't put it in the tank. I was thinking about putting it in my phosphate reactor.

 

[tbittner]

Oh yeah, I also got the auto topoff hooked up and working. Had that working a few days ago. I bought a controller with two float switches from fishbowl innovations and have it controlling the level. Works great! Once about 1/2 gallon evaporates, it fills it back up with fresh RO/DI water.

 

[tbittner]

The Purigen works pretty good. It seems to keep the nitrates at zero. I like it. I have three bags of it in my refugium now. I also use their Matrix carbon and I haven't had any issues with algae or anything. Tank is crystal clear and all the corals and fish are healthy and happy from what I can see.

 

[lcstorc]

Glad things are going so well. It is nice to hear.

 

[tbittner]

Thanks Lynn.

Now I'm busy setting up the "new" 150 as a predator tank. I must say, I've never seen my step-son SO excited about anything before. He spends hours looking at different predators and researching them to see if they get along with the ones he already has.

 

[tbittner]

Ok, here are pictures of my new and improved sump/refugium. I just finished the stands today so it's very much a work in progress.

The highest tank is the where the water will flow into. It will "slow down" the water since it will be falling about 15 feet to this tank and since it's enclosed it should keep salt spray to a minimum. I'm going to put a bulkhead into both sides of this tank a little over half way up, one to flow water into the refugium, the other to flow water into the skimmer tank. I'm going to hook a pump to the existing bulkhead in the bottom of the tank to pump water down the drain when I do a water change.

The black tub is just one of the ones I'll have. I'm going to get another one. One will be a 100g refugium (with about 75g of water in it), the other will have the brand new EuroReef 250RS in it. You can see the top of the skimmer sticking out of it. I figure I'll leave them long ways like shown to give the water plenty of dwell time in the refugium. I'm not sure how I'm going to use the skimmer just yet though. Should I just let it drain back into the tub or should I raise it up enough so the outlet drains directly into the 100g sump?

I'm going to install bulkheads into the 100g black tubs and drain the water into the 100g sump tank, which you can see sitting under the wall rack. On the other side of the wall is where I'm going to sit my new sequence barracuda pump to pump water back up to the aquarium.

In the last picture you can see a part of my saltwater mixing barrel. For water changes, I'm going to pump water into the 100g sump tank and pump the water out of the 35g tank down the drain.

So, what do you think? Will it work? Any suggestions?

 

[Dentoid]

Don't have any sugggestions, but it sure looks like you are doing a great job. Build it, and you will have no nitrates! Is this going to be a sump/fuge that feeds both the 120 and 150?

 

[tbittner]

That was the original plan but after getting a lot of very sound advice from folks on here about plumbing a reef tank and a predator tank together, I think it will just be the 120 reef tank on this for now. I'm thinking about having another 100g tub with a large skimmer to run the predator water into and THEN maybe combining the water to make maintenance so much easier.

One place to do water changes, pods make their way into both tanks, both tanks get calcium maintained, both tanks get phosphates removed, etc.

And yes, I'm sick and tired of fighting the nitrate battle so I've declared WAR!

 

[tbittner]

IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!

My 120g reef now has a 300g sump/refugium. When I switched over to the new monster, and turned everything on, the water became crystal clear within minutes. The skimmer yanked out some stuff right away, and then kind of settled back down.

I had a LOT of miracle mud in my old refugium with about 50 lbs of LR and I moved that all into the new 100g refugium and of course, I clouded the water up. So I turned the water off to the new refugium and I'll let that settle until morning, then turn it back on.

None of the occupants seemed to notice much but I'll see how everyone is doing by morning. It took me three days to get the temperature and salinity in the 300g to almost exactly match what was in the reef so it really shouldn't have been noticeable to them. Other than it's like a HUGE water change.

Shew.......

Time to rest for a few months now.