DIY: HOB power filter fuge

It actually looks like there is more in if from the side shot. If you look down from the top there is still plenty of room for it to grow. Once it does I'm planning on removing some for another DIY project. ;D

 

Wow, that looks great. After seeing this one I kinda wanna go by an aquaclear and switch mine out. Great job.

 

Appreciate the compliment. I'm happy with the way this turned out as well. I like the AquaClear filters due to the housing being clear, so you can see what's going on inside of it.

I had an impossible time finding the proper bulb for the clip-on light I bought, so I just bought a 14w 5500k CFL bulb and installed it into a hood that came with a 1 gallon tank my daughter used at one time.

 

Yea, the clear sides are awesome. After seeing that cheato I'm disappointed with mine. Mine doesn't seem to be such a bright green.

 

I'd give it some time to "settle in" It's probably going to adjust over time to your light, water, etc. Mine was just added yesterday, so the coloring of it shows the quality that was sent to me. I'm only hoping I can maintain that level of quality.

This may be a different strain of chaeto than you have as well.

BTW, make sure you add some pics to your DIY thread, since someone may be able to advise you on your chaeto.

 

I just decided to look at the glass in my tank with a 5x magnifier, and there are TONS of tiny white pods crawling all over the place. You can't see them without the magnifier. Not sure of the species but I'm super excited.

 

I recently (last week) did the same thing with a penguin marineland 250 filter (slightly smaller compartment than the aquaclear) but my LFS gave me a huge thing of cheato for it, but he gave me a HUGE ball on the house. I was wondering though, my filter is PACKED with cheato... is that bad? I also got a bottle of copepods also and injected them into the cheato before turning on the filter, but in the morning i can't seem to see any and I don't see any in the tank... Do you think they aren't able to thrive in such a packed environment?

I should also add that the filter is not see-through so i can't see anything below the surface, but I haven't seen any pods in the tank other than when i first turned on the filter (at which point my firefish went crazy and feasted haha).

Thoughts? Maybe I should take out some of the cheato and buy some more pods or do I just need to give it time? My nitrates were on at 5ppm before hand and have been zero for the past week now.

EDIT: Might be helpful to know I have a small clipon grow light that is 6500K output... it's actually more powerful than my tank lights (its a FOWLR converted from FW)

 

Look at your glass with a magnifying glass at different places. I did that and see tons of pods crawling around. Like you, I also see none in my chaeto, but I'm sure they are in there.

The chaeto needs to have water flow through it, so make sure it's not still in a tight ball or some may need to be removed.

I'll post an update about my DIY fuge tomorrow.

 

sorry i missed this... i have pics of my fuge here: http://www.3reef.com/forums/refugium/display-fuge-pics-93259.html and my chaeto for sale thread here: http://www.3reef.com/forums/sale/f-s-chaeto-92320.html#post939337

 

Just a quick update about my DIY fuge. At first I noticed TONS of pods all over my glass, but never saw any in the actual fuge compartment. I did see some very small snails in the chaeto though.

I now hardly see ANY pods on my glass, except at the suction cup of my thermometer. If I shine a light into the tank at night with the lights off, they also no longer flock to the light as they did before. Anyone have ideas if they might have died off, went to the rocks, etc.?

I also noticed that is seems to be less chaeto in the fuge then when I started. It is still nice and green. In HOB filter I modified, the water flows up the inlet tube into one small chamber, and then into a larger chamber from the bottom of a divider separating the 2 chambers. It then flows out the spillway, but some also goes back into the smaller chamber via slots in the middle of the divider. The chaeto was being pulled to those slots by the water flow, so I blocked them off somewhat to keep that from occurring. I believe it seems like less chaeto because the water flow pulls it all together.

I am using a 5500k CFL bulb that I leave on for approx. 8 - 12 hours per day.

Also note that since adding the chaeto, I added a Yellowtail Damsel and Three-stripe Damsel as my first fish.

I'm keeping an eye on the situation and will update accordingly. Thoughts or comments are appreciated.