Biocube as a refugium

[krash7172]

I'm sharing what most people would not do and feedback is welcome This is a bit of a long story but I'll share the short version. I made a chaeto ball refugium from a 16 gallon biocube.

 

[James M]

Interesting setup....How is this connected to your DT ?

 

[krash7172]

It is on top of my sump. I put the pump that came with the biocube in the sump. Drilled the overflow. Simple. There is a small power head in the cube to make the ball roll. 10 days in. I set the biocube to 15 hrs daylight. Chaeto has tripled in size and turned dark green. Too soon to know if it will make a real impact on DT. I might need to get a larger pump from sump to refugium.

 

[Lloyd Williams]

I’ve been contemplating doing something like this with my 32 biocube when I move to a peninsula. Connection has been a worry

 

[krash7172]

Ok. If there is interest, I'll share details. For the overflow, I went to the hardware store and bought a 1-3/8" diamond hole saw and 1" threaded fittings. I used a rubber washer and some plastic as a spacer to get the seal. I think I bought the rubber washer there as well. It's been a while. There is probably a bulk head fitting that would be better but since it's just overflow and no pressure, this works. I also didn't even glue any fittings since it is over my sump and leaks should drain back in. Leak free for months.

For the pump, I just bought some tubing like what came with the biocube but longer. I ran it out the hole in the back of the hood. BTW, you can pull the hinge pins out of the biocube hood to make this stuff much easier if you are tight on space. I plumbed it right to the existing nozzle.

 

[krash7172]

I removed all the other bits from the back of the biocube and drilled holes in the plastic with the hole saw. This was originally a frag tank and I had some small fish shrimp, snails and crabs. They could hide in the back without needing rock for them. The small power head is also in there.

 

[cracker]

Hey Krash , as long as it's not leaking & designed not to overflow Why not ! I like it !
Could we see a full shot of the Bcube refugium & sump?

 

[User1]

I have two empty cubes both 29 gallons. When I considered doing this the plan was to drill the back of the tank, chamber two. Three 1" holes and make it a bean animal style so you have a primary, secondary (backup) and an emergency drain. This way if I ever wanted to re-purpose the tank I could add a sump, return, and have no external visible plumbing. Or, just sell it and let them do with it as they see fit.

Yours works and there is nothing wrong with re-purpose. I would have used the back though but that is just what I was going to do.

 

[krash7172]

I could only use the side to keep everything inside the footprint of the sump in my setup. Here is my tank room.

 

[User1]

Gotcha. No fish room here but I can see why you did what you did - makes sense now.

 

[krash7172]

BTW, this is my original overflow setup. I pulled it because it blocked some light from the chaeto ball.

 

[krash7172]

Quick update. I haven't noticed any difference in DT. Chaeto grew to a dark green dense 6" ball in just a few days but seemed to stop growing. It's healthy but didn't turn into a big ball like I expected. I cut it in half to see what would happen. Also, the little pump in the 16g biocube may not be providing nutrients to support more chaeto. I swapped pumps from my 32g as a test. The 16g pump says 700 on it and the 32g pump says 1000. I am assuming I will get ~40% more flow.

Quick question. If I were to try a chaeto mat, how would I get the ball to turn into a mat? It's a ball rolling around on the bottom of the tank now. Just turn off the power head and fluff it up a bit?