Who Wants to Help Design My Refugium?

Nate82

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Hey guys I'm getting back into the hobby and in the planning stages for my 45g cube. I was hoping you guys could help me design my 10 gallon refugium. I made a quick rendition of what I'm planning in my head. Let me know what you guys think or would change. The overflow into the fuge will be t'd off into the sump with a ball valve, to keep it low flow. I plan on keeping various macros on the right side and keeping the left side walled off with egg crate for chaeto and rubble for pods. Enough talking here's the picture..
FugeDesign.png

Any input is greatly appreciated!
 

Aquaph8

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That looks really cool. I cant wait to see it finished. What kind of critters will be included to turn the sand bed?
 
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Nate82

Nate82

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Thanks Aqua! Not 100% on what's going in there. At least a handful of snails but I kind of want it to put a cool invert in there that I couldn't in my display. I was thinking about a white spotted hermit crab, or maybe a dwarf angler. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 

Tabasco1

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Looks pretty good!! Have you used an ATS before? I am curious, playing with including one in my sump, but had not thought about it for a while. Love the mangrove section. Will the sump be in the stand under your display or in another location? Where will your return be? I would just want to make sure it is in a location that is not going to draw sand from the DSB into the intake.
 

scott26

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Looks good but I have heard that an ATS can starve other plants like mangroves and cheato since it takes up the majority of the nitrates that they feed off of.
 
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Nate82

Nate82

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Hmm I've heard the same thing. So would the ATS be all I needed? Should I just scrap the fuge and put the ats on the overflow to the sump?
 

Hahnmeister

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Use buckets with clamp on lights that overflow into a larger sump and get fed with the overflow. Easy to dump sediment and reseed, keep macro spinning for good flow as it just spins in place and gets constand light from all angles (cheeto or that brown/red grassilaria tang heaven macro that grew like a weed for me). DSB/Plenum is best kept in the dark, maybe a cryptic fuge. Keep the macro and mangroves, ditch the ATS... too much tinting of water with ATS's. If you really want low nutrients, look into pellets/lith/zeo/prodibio methods.

I prefer one large sump with removable containers/buckets for ease of breakdown and cleaning while leaving it running. No akward baffles or dividers to reach in between. Over time, you cant see in half the crap or reach inside anyways to clean or get stuff out. At most, one large baffle to maintain a high side. Then with buckets, easy to lift out and clean on the fly. Sounds ghetto compared to acrylic, but its better. If you really want, make acrylic buckets...lol.
 

Troylee

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while your drawing looks great your gonna find out in reality you don't have much room with a 10gal tank.....is there any way to go a little bigger??? honestly i don't see any equipment in there is everything a hob like skimmer etc???? and a fuge so small will prolly not add any benefits only make things worse..:( hth
 
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Nate82

Nate82

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while your drawing looks great your gonna find out in reality you don't have much room with a 10gal tank.....is there any way to go a little bigger??? honestly i don't see any equipment in there is everything a hob like skimmer etc???? and a fuge so small will prolly not add any benefits only make things worse..:( hth

No room to go bigger, because all the equipment is in my 15g sump also in the stand. :bigsmile:I'm using a SWC Xtreme 150 BMK Protein Skimmer. I'm just planning on filling the sump with Live Rock. I'm not planning on adding the fuge anymore, at least initially. I'm going to keep it simple and just have the ATS go directly into the sump from the overflow.
 

Tabasco1

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I don't know what your budget is like, but I kindof had the same issue. I have a 45 cube and a 20g high was just a smidge too big for the footprint under my tank and I didn't want to go down to a 10 or 15 so I am building a custom out of acrylic. So I am able to make it wider than the standard tanks even though not quite as long as a 20, so it will have about a full 5g fuge and then I can have a baffle system for my skimmer to keep the water level stable in that section.

It cost about $170 for the acrylic. Luckily there was a place that cut it all for me so I just had to get them very precise measurements. I did measure one piece wrong and so will have to cut that this weekend, but planning to put the whole thing together this weekend.

Let me know if you want the plans for that. I am planning 3 sections. A fuge on one side, skimmer section on the other and the return in the middle that both side flow into.
 
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Nate82

Nate82

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Hey Tabasco. I appreciate it but the tank actually came with a custom built sump. I would've done some things differently without a doubt, but I don't think I should scrap it just because it's missing a fuge chamber. Here's some pics of it, I'm not planning on keeping the sponge don't worry.
6381c14e.jpg

22b9f52e.jpg

The skimmer will sit next to the Mag 7 and my ATS will enter on the right and pour onto LR rubble. Now that I look at the pictures... Realistically I could make the first chamber a fuge if I wanted..
 

Tabasco1

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Cool. Got it. No need to scrap!

Do you really need a fuge section with an ATS though? I might skip it or see how your tank does and then add it later.
 

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