pizzaguy January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 My display backs the wall to my garage. I was thinking I c would go to petco for the sale and get a 40 breeder for a fuge. What would be the easiest possible way to incorporate the fuge directly on the wall behind the tank. Fail safe of course. Looking for some ideas and suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 Werent you concerned about fumes and sprays in the garage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 We have other members that have or have had fuges and sumps in the garage. Looking forward to hearing from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 4, 2014 Author Share January 4, 2014 Alan. Yes but I'll have to lay down the law with my son. Haha I don't think it will be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 4, 2014 Author Share January 4, 2014 I really wanna keep this as simple as possible but very safe at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 Put a big drain bulkhead in the side ofit to drain back inside with fuge tank up on a stand at about display tank height. Pump water from inside sump with a powerhead through the wall into fuge and it will fall back into sump. Have the hose coming back end underwater and you wont even hear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott_LM January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 If your garage is anything like mine I think you will run into heat and cold issues in the winter and summer. I would build a cabinet and insulate it or somehow tie it into the house via HVAC. Make sure the cabinet is sealed which will help with the son problem and temperature issue. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 4, 2014 Author Share January 4, 2014 I can add a heater if need be. Cooling could be an issue but I guess I can deal with that if it becomes an issue. We keep the house pretty cool in the summer and it's a rimless tank so might be ok. I have 0 temp swings the way it is right now in summer and winter. The gravity drain method seems simple enoigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 Id have the fuge drain into the display with a dump bucket or some other surge device. You can eliminate all in tank circulation (mp40's,etc) and get readily available live food to the fish without being chopped up by an impeller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 Id have the fuge drain into the display with a dump bucket or some other surge device. You can eliminate all in tank circulation (mp40's,etc) and get readily available live food to the fish without being chopped up by an impeller. Now thats a cool idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w January 4, 2014 Share January 4, 2014 Unless you are going to put a chair in the garage and watch your refugium, how about a bigger approach? Put a big plastic tub out there with a lot more gallonage at the same height as your display tank, light it during the night to stabilize your pH, and watch thousands of amphipods flow back into your tank to keep your anthias happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Rob. Awesome idea but you just threw simplicity out the window. I want a fuge for a lot of reasons but ultimately the most important factor for me is to get my nitrates way down and under control. 2 boxes of salt a month on a 150 gallon system is getting out of control. I just got the 40 breeder from petco so gonna hopefully have it running by tomorrow night if I can find some glass bits to drill the return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 My ph is on point ever since I ran my skimmer intake t h rough the wall into the garage. Went from 7.7 at night to 8.1 and 7.9 to 8.0 during the day to 8.4 now. Best change I've made so far for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Get This Fuge Done And figure out why my Di resin exhausts so fast and hopefully I can set back and enjoy a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 why are you changing 400 gallons a month on a 150? That's crazy just for the work involved. Why not get a Biopellet reactor and watch the Nitrates wither away to near zero in 2 months? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 Besides, my proposed set up is super easy- build very tall stand or shelf to put 40br on, put light above it, throw crap inside it to grow, make a gravity drain from the fuge to the DT, no dumpbucket or surge device and you keep your Mp40's. Bigger pump needed to lift water to fuge unless you're already like most people and have too much pump. Tremendous flow through system not needed as long as in tank circulation is high. Almon has a similar system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Long story short. I've had nitrate issues from day 1. Don't know why. I have a ton of sps so only way to keep from killing all of it was to change enough water every week to keep them down. That magical number was initially 2- 75 gallon changes every week. That's not a mis print. Did that for about 4 months. It's getting better but slowly. Currently I'm changing 50 gallons every 5 to 7 days. Nitrates were around 15 last night. I recently added bio pellets in a reactor at about 70 percent recommended dosage at this point. So between pellets and adding the fuge if this doesn't solve my problem it's hammer time. Literally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Besides, my proposed set up is super easy- build very tall stand or shelf to put 40br on, put light above it, throw crap inside it to grow, make a gravity drain from the fuge to the DT, no dumpbucket or surge device and you keep your Mp40's.Bigger pump needed to lift water to fuge unless you're already like most people and have too much pump. Tremendous flow through system not needed as long as in tank circulation is high.Almon has a similar system. This is exactly my game plan without the surge bucket. I only use mag 9.5 for return throttled back pretty far since I have plenty of in tank flow already. I'm gonna try to get away with using a mag 5 for this project. Hopefully it's big enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 what's the issue with 70% of recommended dosage? I'd start off with a reactor than can hold a half gallon of pellets and go from there. Never heard of a recommended dosage before. Having 'too much' pellets will allow for slower consumption rates and can't hurt anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldReefer January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 I used to have a 90 gallon fuge above a 180 display. As Rob says, putting a fuge up high draining into your display is a great way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 I bought the pellets a long time ago and never used cause I was scared to. It's the tlf brand. It was the bag designed for 100 gallons. So that's all I had. And none of the stores around here carry them. So a trip to the city is in order to get some more pellets. A year ago it was nothing but Horror stories about algae outbreaks or something if you didn't take it slow with introduction of pellets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Ok. 2 of you have said up high. I'm trying not to have to build anything just sit it on a stand I have in the garage which is higher then the sump by maybe 2 feet. Is that gonna be sufficient as long as I have a way to control the flow from the pump to slow it down if need be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pizzaguy January 5, 2014 Author Share January 5, 2014 Another question on fuge light. I have a 150 watt clamp on halide and a reef breeders led light. Which do you think is gonna work better for fuge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 Not a true refugium, but I wanted all noise in the garage, not in the house. My overflows go straight to a 60gal tank in the garage from which I skim, dose, big ol return pump, but I partitioned off a third of the tank on the far end to do nothing but grow cheato, keep a couple of 10k t8 bulbs on that small section 24/7. It doesn't feed my tank with pods, It doesn't balance my pH. But it "is" quiet and it does suck up what few phosphates may be in the water column. Tried to attach pics but seem to need to renew first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami January 5, 2014 Share January 5, 2014 Piper, there are no picture benefits for members if I recall correctly. You may just be bumping up against attachment limits. It's much easier to embed links to photobucket or a Wamas gallery which don't take up the modest attachment allocation. Do you do anything special in your setup to manage temperature? Sent from my Rezound on Tachyon using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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