Refugium/Sump DIY Build

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I would not use those trays for mechanical filtration.If it clogs you could get a flood.Its redundant if you are using the filter sock.

 

Sorry it's been awhile. We've been pretty busy constructing the stand and getting everything set up. The work is still not complete, but let's be honest the work is never complete hehe.

The set-up is working pretty well, we installed the fish tank on a wall that has a closet on the other side, so the return plumbing and all the electrical is in the closet easily accessible. The auto top off (ATO) bucket is also in the closet with 1/4" tubing running a kalk wasser top-off solution to the bucket.

We have not quite got the ATO float valve set up, just using a slow drip and adjusting with evaporation as needed. the level swings a little, but not as much as it used to with no ATO. Also the low level trip has not been installed quite yet, but both are going to be complete pretty soon.

The sump cabinet was getting very hot/humid and the tank was heating up, so we installed a 120mm computer fan blowing into the closet. This has the effect of keeping the cabinet cool and it also blows air onto the lighting by pressurizing the closet and pushing cool air out of the hole for the lighting's electrical cords.

We are still planning on building a hood on top that matches the stained cedar stand. the lights will hang from the top of the hood and the hood will be ventilated to keep the lighting cool.

Major inhabitants:
Fish:
4 Clown Fish
1 Yellow Tang
1 Striped Blenny (Poison Fang)
1 Mandarin Dragonet
1 Royal Gramma
1 Firefish Goby

Softies
Green Striped Mushrooms
Green Ricordea
Orange Ricordea
Button Zoa Polyps
Star Polyps
Carpet Anemone
Condi Anemone
Bubble-Tip Anemone
Colt Coral
Candy-Cane Coral
Trumpet Polyps
Brown Yuma Ricordea

Inverts:
Giant Feather Duster
Colonies of small red feather dusters
2 Flame scallops
2 Emerald crabs
3 Turbo snails
Bumble bee, Margarita, and various other snails as CUC
Hermit crabs
Lots of Copepods

Plants:
Chaetomorpha
Shaving Brush

I'll post some pictures of the previous 30 gallon, some build pics, and some pics of the new set up in the following posts.

 

Some pictures of the old 30 gallon tank.

Not too bad, but a bit crowded, and the stand is just waiting to fall over.

The filtration was inadequate. We had a smaller skimmer on it initially, but got the new skimmer in a bit early, that's the large black return on the left of the tank.

 

Here are some pics from the building process. The stand is quite sturdy.

We build the skeleton from 2"x4"s then cased it in finished cedar. There is a 3" reveal to set things on while working in the tank and a larger ledge on the right side where a cabinet is also found that holds all the food/chemicals.

The front has 4 doors on it. Since the tank is quite tall we are building a full-length stool that will sit in front of the stand just below the level of the top 2 doors. So the sump can be easily maintained without moving the stool, but full access is easily attained by moving the stool and opening the bottom doors.

 

Watch out with the ATO and the Kalk. You don't want it to through a lot of it in the system all at once. It sounds like you will have a high sensor and a low sensor? That could make it put too much in at one time and spike your ph. If you are able to just have one sensor control the water level in the sump that is best when you have kalk in your ato container. Not sure if I understood the setup correctly.

 

Here is the setup we have currently. The top is a 65 gallon tank, 36"x18"x24" and the sump is about 30 gallons.

got 4 T5HO bulbs on top (2 10000k and 2 blue actinic) and an LED (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...&subref=AA&cmpid=E-_-TR-_-OrderConfirm-_-PRDT)

2 wave makers.

We have a full siphon drain with a durso as emergency/trim (exceptionally quiet). The return is piped up behind the wall and comes in over the top through the wall. The sump pump is an Eheim that delivers about 600GPH at the head pressure of our system.

Fuge lighting is some 6500k LEDS and a 40W 5500k CFL.

It seems our cat also likes to watch the fish from the ledge on the right of the tank.

We're taking a bit of a break on the build with the holidays comming up, but i'll post some pics after the hood is installed. So far I am very pleased with how the setup turned out.

 

Thanks for the input Mb. So far we are only experimenting with low concentration of Kalkwasser (about 1/4 saturation concentration).
The ATO is a gravity fed float valve, and we have a regulator valve inline too to make sure even if the float valve is full open that only a healthy drip comes out.

The ATO is not fully installed yet, so right now we are just dripping at a constant rate and adjusting that rate to approximate the evaporation. We will install the float valve over the holidays.