New SCWD/refugium plumbing...

[Guest JFish]

Ok...It took 2 days of labor to get this all setup right...most of the work was done for 10 hours straight yesterday, however.

 

I got a SCWD (Switching Current Water Director) a while ago and finally decided to plumb it all together and get permanent plumbing for my refugium as well.  I figured since I would be getting my new skimmer on the 14th that I may as well do everything as one big project.

 

Here are shots of my completed design.  I took out all of the power heads from my tank.  The mak4 through the 3/4" PVC makes a nice flowy current but still puts out a lot of water (not a jet stream like powerheads).

 

And here they are (13 Total so be patient )

 

Here's the sump and Mak4 pump.  I redesigned the sump a little to incorporate the new EuroReef CS6-2 skimmer...added a baffle for micro bubble control as well

 

Different angle:

 

Here's the mak4 pump with true union ball valve connected on both ends to make cleaning a sinch: (the intake is a T in the water with 2 strainers on each end...then I converted to flexible tubing to make things a little easier for me)

 

From the pump the water is pushed through a "T", left goes to the SCWD, and right converts down to 1/2" and goes to the refugium.  Each side is controlled with a ball valve.

 

Going to the refugium in my closet, through the wall:

 

Through the wall to the tank:

 

Then into the tank with a dual spraybar.  One on surface one near sand

 

to be continued (message board wont let me add all pictures at once)

[Guest JFish]

And here's the rest:

 

Going to the left then up to the SCWD

 

Top view...you can see it going the left and right then up the back of the tank

 

Different angle, also showing the intake

 

Then left return:

 

And right return (also showing where water overflows from refugium):

 

And just a little shot I got of my 3 new blue-eyed cardinals:

 

Thought you all would enjoy...

 

I found that this pump (I thought it was going to be way too much) is perfect for what I had planned.

[Larry Grenier]

Great work jfish!

 

Also, I've heard that those cardinals are great schoolers.  Where did you get them?

[chideloh]

Looks great jfish.

 

David

[Guest JFish]

I got the cardinals at exotic aquatics up near baltimore.  They are always within centimeters of each other...you can't even see the 3rd in the pic because he's right behind the other one.  I am thinking I should get 3 more or so to make a better school.

 

I like the SCWD so far.  Only been running since yesterday.  One thing I'm unsure about though is my photosynthetic gorgonian, which is usually so full of polyps you can't see the stem, has retracted all of its polyps ever since I started this thing up...nothing else seems to be effected...time will tell, hopefully they come back out.

 

I have no idea what kind of caulerpa I have.  I got it for free from someone last year at my first WAMAS meeting.  I put some in my schools tank and some at the works EcoSystem filter.  When I setup my refugium in the closet I just stole some from work and it has taken off.  It looks like corkscrew vallisineria (a freshwater plant) but a lot wider leaves...I like it whetever it is...I also have some feather caulerpa in the back that I just got last week too.