fuge construction

[Ne0eN]

Guys,

 

I need some help designing a new fuge. I'm deciding between 15 and 20 gal tank. It will sit on a shelf just above my main 60 gal reef. Do I just drill 2 holes in the back for intake and overflow? Where can I get the glass drilled? Also, what size pump? I have a spare Maxi Jet 900 - will that work? Pumping water from the sump into the fuge and then draining into my reef - is that basically it? As far as so the contents of the fuge: Live sand, Cheato, LR? What am I missing? Any other advice?

 

Thanks,

 

-Rob

[steveoutlaw]

Well, you need a couple of things. First you need a pump to get the water up to your sump/fuge. I think you would want at least 600gph going through it, depending on the size of your tank. You're going to need some bubble baffles to kill the bubbles from the water being pumped in. Then just have the water gravity drain back to your main tank.

 

Steve

[xeon]

If it were me, I'd drill only one hole for the overflow. The line for the pump going into the tank I would just run over the edge. If you run it over the edge you want to keep in mind syphoning in a power out situation.

 

A MJ900 might be fine for now as you don't need a ton of flow in a refuge. In a refuge in that size range I'd shoot for something like 300-400gph. I'm with the "low flow" refugium crowd. You might also add a baffle, overflow box or some other type of device to keep macros in the sump and out of the overflow plumbing. On my old refuge, I used a section of 1" PVC with notches cut out of the top... kind of a surface skimmer. Here's a picture of the setup.

[Ne0eN]

Does anyone know where I can have a glass aquarium drilled? It's a 20 gal long that I'm gonna use for the fuge. Thanks.

 

-Rob