Advice on hiding a refugium

[Kayotic5011]

Hey are you after a refugium to add more water volume or for chaeto? If you want it for chaeto and its benefits you can always gret a reactor and put some lights shining into it and put the chaeto in there, that would eliminate the need for the entire setup of a refugium. I personally don't think it would have 100% the same effect as there's a ton of benefits to having a full out refugium but with it would work fine to rid your tank of nitrates. If the chaeto is healthy you shouldn't have algae growth in there I wouldn't think...well not bad growth anyway...but imo if something goes wrong and your chaeto goes and you start growing bad algae growth in that reactor it could send it all over the tank same as a poor refugium.........Anyway with all that said I suggested that because it looks like you have a uniquarium so it looks as if you have the filtration covered and in which case a reactor with chaeto would help do what you want in a fug...somewhat.

 

[flat6guy]

My goal is to remove nitrates and have a place to have a healthy pod population.

 

[Kayotic5011]

word,
What kind of space are your working with?

 

[Kayotic5011]

The picture of that little tank in your stand it looks like a 5 gallon, yes?

 

[flat6guy]

it's 2.5 gal. Not sure that will work without drilling the tank again. Not out of the question though

 

[Kayotic5011]

lol dang 2.5 huh, pictures dont really do stuff justice and i guess its true it looks bigger in camera hahaha...okok, imo thats going to be way to small because you will want to keep your return away from the chaeto area due to clogging and such so theres one baffle there easy, youll also want a buffer from your incoming water flow to slow the water through the refugium...so thats 2 baffles. I think that would be a bare min but wouldnt be what you want and would quickly see the value in baffles in refugium. In the pic I sent earlier in thread shows a 40 gal and I was able to manage 13 1/2 inches long by 16 inches wide for a refugium space. Now granted I used a 5 inch space for my return and those baffles leading up to it take up 4 inches total, 3 baffles spaced 2in, and I used a 7 inch space for my incoming water flow, filtration area and have a protein skimmer in it as well....I also just added another pump in there for the reactor so its feeding out of there too.....anyway the baffles leading away from the filtration area are 6 inches 3 baffles spaced 3 inches. I did this because I have bio balls in between them as a place for them to do there job and they look good there.

That is an example of what goes into the thought of making a refugium....I have been able to do this in something as little as a 10 gallon but..... I could only use 2 baffles per side and the incoming water was strong enough to still disturb the refugium side even through filter, on top of that the intake side was really crappy and it left my filter in the water at all times (which you wont have a issue with with your uniquarium), but defeated my filtration, my return side was fine....Those are some mistakes Ive made. Now with that all said in my honest opinion with the space you got you can make a 10 gallon aquarium with 3 baffles on the intake side to slow water flow and two on the return side so you can save space.......now your wondering why only this many baffles why cant I put as many as I want....well you can and the more you have the better....but when it comes to building your own and using 100% silicon to glue it up (or what ever you choose) you run into the issue of being able to fit your hand in between the baffles to give them a good seal...and anyone whos tried to make there own will tell you if you dont make them well the silicon will come off the glass and acrylic or lexan causing a failure in your refugium/sump.

I hope I have been some help or given you some incite on what to do and what to expect so you don't do like me and run into those issues when they happen. Also about the reactor suggestion, I just bought this one and I think you could put a little sand bed in the bottom of it with some chaeto and grow your pods and chaeto with out having all the extras, but I don't know for sure. Ive heard of people running a substrate bottom in them, and the phosguard I have in mine now doesn't tumble so any substrate bed would stay un turned and allow life, not to mention they should just hide in the tangle of chaeto and be happy there if im not mistaken.... But this is a theory of mine based on hearing what others do with there reactors and they way this specific one I have runs. heres the link if you wanna check it out, its a 5.5 inch Dia and its a good size, can do up to 200 gal but I believe a little more.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYG54ZU/ref=psdc_2975472011_t1_B00GYG54O6

 

[Kayotic5011]

The bigger the better when it comes to this, making these things mini is hard work....because as mentioned by others in this thread, you have to also govern the rise and fall of water in a power outage or failure situation and thats no easy with a small easily over flowed refugium.....also please don't take any thing I say is discouragement I hope you can prove me wrong, I'm just giving you places to start and run from due to experiences I have had and read about.