- Joined
- Feb 10, 2018
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 75
I recently bought a house and hopefully don't have to break my system down for a while. After 10 years of moving from place to place, I was excited to do a custom build that will stay put. I took my rock out and put it on life support while I built my new system.
I took my 29 gallon Biocube, cut the back wall out, plumbed an internal overflow with a herbie drain system, and built a custom stand that would hold a 20 gallon display refugium to the side. I made custom baffles for the display refugium so the front and right side is all refugium in view forming an 'L' shape with two chambers behind that. The water enters the first chamber where my skimmer is, spills under into the refugium section, spills over a single bubble trap, and into the last chamber where my Mag 3 return is.
I made the stand out of 1/2' finished plywood. My friend engineered it and there was minimal internal bracing needed because of the way it's constructed. If you use a craig jig and good glue, the outer boxs' shell provides all the structural integrity needed. I sanded the stand and topped it with real teak vaneer (good water resistant tropical wood).
These are the pictures of my new systems start up. I've done a lot since these pictures and I will update soon.
I've since:
-Seeded about 25% more dry rock
-Added a new fish (Purple Pseudochromis)
-Changed my refugium light to CFL (the cheap Ebay LED lasted but a month)
-Added a shelf in the stand
-Built a 8 relay DIY reef controller using a Raspberry Pi and ReefPi which I will go into detail on in a DIY thread soon
I took my 29 gallon Biocube, cut the back wall out, plumbed an internal overflow with a herbie drain system, and built a custom stand that would hold a 20 gallon display refugium to the side. I made custom baffles for the display refugium so the front and right side is all refugium in view forming an 'L' shape with two chambers behind that. The water enters the first chamber where my skimmer is, spills under into the refugium section, spills over a single bubble trap, and into the last chamber where my Mag 3 return is.
I made the stand out of 1/2' finished plywood. My friend engineered it and there was minimal internal bracing needed because of the way it's constructed. If you use a craig jig and good glue, the outer boxs' shell provides all the structural integrity needed. I sanded the stand and topped it with real teak vaneer (good water resistant tropical wood).
These are the pictures of my new systems start up. I've done a lot since these pictures and I will update soon.
I've since:
-Seeded about 25% more dry rock
-Added a new fish (Purple Pseudochromis)
-Changed my refugium light to CFL (the cheap Ebay LED lasted but a month)
-Added a shelf in the stand
-Built a 8 relay DIY reef controller using a Raspberry Pi and ReefPi which I will go into detail on in a DIY thread soon