The Battery Box Gravity-Fed Refugium: DIY Fun

You could probably flex it that little bit to make it fit lol

 

Cool idea!

How do you control how much water flow goes through your refugium?

 

Awsome DYI Matt.

 

Thanks!
Got my chaeto today... rock and roll!

@jwin - thanks! stay off your mom's account.
@xmetal - ouch 1/8" - is that width or length? can you turn it 90 degrees? shave the handles a bit?

Thanks! I cannot control the flow with this design. That said, my flow from my sump pump is not insane and being split, it works even better for this... check out the close up pic of the flow through the bulkhead.

 

I wouldn't say their flimsy, mine have 65lbs batteries in them and have to deal with shock from road travel and water travel, going across lakes in 20-30+mph winds can get pretty rough

 

Good point. It just bent a bit more than I would have liked for drilling. The lid is a bit beefer than the bottom.

 

Wow. I don't know if it is too early to attribute this to the refugium (that has chaeto in it now as of yesterday) or it was the 10 gallon water change I did 2 days ago, but I did a water test today and my pH is up to 8.4 (from 8.1) and alk is up to 5 meq/L (from 4). 8)

 

Is there a formula for

Is there a formula for determining the size of the fuge for the size of the aquarium? Looking at the fuge in the link below:

Reefugium 100M by EcoSystem Aquarium - AquaCave

Volume for this fuge would be less than 6.65Gal - and they rate if for aquariums up to 120 gallons.

 

You know I was curious about that as well. Making a guess from their dimensions I would say I am in the ballpark for mine as well. But I would love to know how they determine that as well. Anybody know?



Mine is working great, every time I look at it now the green blob is getting bigger - here are a couple pics from last week:






More tank recent tank pics here:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...ers-neo-nano-aquarium-84665-7.html#post914472

 

Update:


After over a year of service - the battery box gravity fed refugium has been retired as of last night.

It performed it's service admirably. My only quibble was a cheapo bulkhead that continued to dribble a bit. The good bulkhead never leaked.

I had to break it down because the birth of my son recently changed my perspective on it.... it was a serious hazard. Now that he is crawling he was nearly in reach of the external hoses and the refugium itself. It had to go.

I am proud of the DIY here but being external did make it more dangerous as a water hazard. One time the drain got jammed with macro-algae and it started to flood. Luckily I was home.

If I were to do it again, (I may in the stand itself)... I would use quality bulkheads and gaskets and design a better strainer over the return pipe.

Thank you for your service, battery box refugium.

matt