In my basement fish room, I have space for three tanks to create the refugium & filtration part of my system.
The water comes in via beananimal style drains from the floor above, and will be plumbed into my existing Aqueon Proflex 4 sump. The display is 220G and this sump is about 50-60G. If things are going wrong, I want the ability to isolate the sump+display from the refugium, so my plan is to have the returns draw water from the bottom of the refugium and pump it back upstairs, with a float switch to note low water level in the sump for top-off.
Underneath the sump I have two shelves that are about 20”x32”, each of which could hold a 22” high tank. My current thinking is to get tanks custom made to fill this space, and they’d be 19.5” x 31.5” x 22”, which would make each tank 58G. The top refugium tank would be drilled and drain into the lower tank, which would contain a return pump to the sump that would fill it beyond the fill line of the disconnected setup and have it overflow down into the top refugium again. If this pump should fail, the refugiums would merely wind up disconnected from the main tank. Overall water level for the system would be controlled by the level in the bottom refugium tank.
My goal is to grow significant quantities of macro algae in the extra 120 gallons provided by the refugium tanks, in an effort to outcompete any algae in the display.
My questions: custom tanks turn out to be expensive; is it worth it for the extra water volume? What other options would you suggest?
What should I grow/stock in the refugium? At the most extreme, I wondered about keeping seahorses in one of these. Perhaps a little less crazy is just running a live sand+rock+chaeto setup in the basement.
Any option also requires lighting and I’m keen to hear what people are using to light their refugiums.
Thanks in advance for your feedback/questions!
The water comes in via beananimal style drains from the floor above, and will be plumbed into my existing Aqueon Proflex 4 sump. The display is 220G and this sump is about 50-60G. If things are going wrong, I want the ability to isolate the sump+display from the refugium, so my plan is to have the returns draw water from the bottom of the refugium and pump it back upstairs, with a float switch to note low water level in the sump for top-off.
Underneath the sump I have two shelves that are about 20”x32”, each of which could hold a 22” high tank. My current thinking is to get tanks custom made to fill this space, and they’d be 19.5” x 31.5” x 22”, which would make each tank 58G. The top refugium tank would be drilled and drain into the lower tank, which would contain a return pump to the sump that would fill it beyond the fill line of the disconnected setup and have it overflow down into the top refugium again. If this pump should fail, the refugiums would merely wind up disconnected from the main tank. Overall water level for the system would be controlled by the level in the bottom refugium tank.
My goal is to grow significant quantities of macro algae in the extra 120 gallons provided by the refugium tanks, in an effort to outcompete any algae in the display.
My questions: custom tanks turn out to be expensive; is it worth it for the extra water volume? What other options would you suggest?
What should I grow/stock in the refugium? At the most extreme, I wondered about keeping seahorses in one of these. Perhaps a little less crazy is just running a live sand+rock+chaeto setup in the basement.
Any option also requires lighting and I’m keen to hear what people are using to light their refugiums.
Thanks in advance for your feedback/questions!
