DIY Refugium Questions (1 Viewer)

[Kittysnax]

I have an idea to make a Refugium for my planned Oceanic 30G cube (not a biocube) for use as filtration. It would be sitting on the same level as the tank, but would obviously be a little lower as the height wouldnt be the same. I have a few questions though that I can not for the life of me dig up through google/bing...

1.Will a 5.5 aga provide adequate filtration for a 30G? Or should I go with a 10?
2.What is the ideal sandbed thickness for a Refugium?
3.I know pods, macros, and such are good for the fuges, anything else I should consider?
4.Is lighting important for it, or can I basically use a PC light?

Thats all I can think of for now. I will obviously add a skimmer later on down the line when my bioload picks up, but for the first 6mo-year I would be using this idea unless there is a better alternative for someone on a modest budget. If you know of any sites that can help a n00bie DIY'er that would be great as well!

 

[R-BallJunkie]

I have an idea to make a Refugium for my planned Oceanic 30G cube (not a biocube) for use as filtration. It would be sitting on the same level as the tank, but would obviously be a little lower as the height wouldnt be the same. I have a few questions though that I can not for the life of me dig up through google/bing...

1.Will a 5.5 aga provide adequate filtration for a 30G? Or should I go with a 10?

10 is better, or as big as you can fit under your stand
2.What is the ideal sandbed thickness for a Refugium?

do you really need sand? what is the benifit?
3.I know pods, macros, and such are good for the fuges, anything else I should consider?

chaeto is safe, pods usually go hand in hand with chaeto

4.Is lighting important for it, or can I basically use a PC light?

cheapo compact flourescent will do, get the right one, like 6500K

Thats all I can think of for now. I will obviously add a skimmer later on down the line when my bioload picks up, but for the first 6mo-year I would be using this idea unless there is a better alternative for someone on a modest budget. If you know of any sites that can help a n00bie DIY'er that would be great as well

you can get acrylic cut to size at lowes, when you decide on baffles. melevs website has a good tutorial.

GL

C

 

[UoH_Chibi]

Did you ever put one together? I've really been thinking this over and I think I'm going to try to see about designing a canopy that will house a 5.5 or a 10 in it. I wanna see what alllil critters I can grow and don't want any of the bigger guys getting chopped up on the return pumpR

 

[Kittysnax]

I went ahead and modded my AC70 for a fuge for right now, but I was actually considering going with a stoage-bin style sump. Im not a very good DIY'er and it seemed perfect for what I wanted.

Link to a guys storage-container fuge i liked:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=224593