HOB refugium

[steve r]

the more i read, a refugium sounds like a good idea. can anyone suggest a product to buy or a link to make a small HOB refugium for a 29 gallon. correct me if i am wrong, i can put some sand and macro algae in it and it will provide a home for pods and the macro algae will eat up phosphates and nitrates so algae doesnt grow as readily in the main tank. i do not have a sump system. i would like some thing that hangs on the back like a skimmer.

steve r

 

[austinsdad]

Check this thread out.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=35554&highlight=

 

[steve r]

did you end up buying one? could you put your heaters in this? i saw that someone made thiers out of an aquaclear 300. i assume this is a filter/biowheel that they gutted

steve r

 

[nodoubt471]

yea i used an AC500, but the flow is a little strong, if you use the 300 you can interchange the intakes from the smaller pumps to decrease the flow. however in a 29 i dont think that the AC500 would be too much flow, and the size is nice- plenty of room to conceal the heater and to have a sand bed and macro.

HTH

 

[steve r]

after looking at pictures it looks like the AC500 is the same design as a HOB refugium. it brings water in and lets it overflow into a holding area where your sand and macros are. it then just overflows back into the tank. is there and reason you couldnt put your powerhead on the inside of a HOB refugium to suck water in? that way you wouldnt have a powerehead dangling in your tank. could you put both heaters in your refugium? one in the input side baffle and one in the ouput baffle?

anymore thoughts would be appreciated.
thanks for all the info so far

steve r

 

[RocketSeason]

how would a very small refugium benifit a small tank????

 

[steve r]

my theory is that i can add water volume to my tank. you would then have a 34 gallon instead of a 29. you would also have a little more live sand and rock and the macro algae you put in there will help control algae in your main tank. it also gives a safe place to grow pods that will then "leak" back into your tank and supply a food source for fish and some inverts. thses are just my thoughts. i might be wrong but it sounds reasonable

steve r

 

[austinsdad]

I'm having second thoughts about the HOB I showed you. It's only 5 gallons of water. I've seen recommendatations that fuges should be about 10% of the volume of the main tank. I've got a 75g main.

Anybody got any thoughts on whether I should do this one anyway? I have absolutely no room beneath or beside my tank for one. An HOB is about my only option.

 

[tripper]

I think the one issue you may run into with a HOB fuge bigger than 5 gallons is the weight. A 5 Gallon tank is going to push 50lbs and all that weight will be hanging on the outside of the tank. I'm not sure that a 75G tank can take more than that hanging from the top of the tank. Just my $0.02.

 

[austinsdad]

The weight issue makes a lot of sense. Heck, just the enjoyment of more life in my system may be enuf.