29gal reef tank mini project

[dragonfisher33]

I'm going to redo the layout of my regular 29gal reef tank, especially since i upgraded my tank to Taotronic LED and a new Reef Octopus BH1000 HOB skimmer, and add some macro algae into the tank through a DIY in-tank refugium in order to reduce nutrient and host the pods population.

 

[dragonfisher33]

1st thing 1st will be the DIY refugium.

I'm not the most handy person in the world. in fact, i've never touch some of the tools prior to my reefing experience. I measured and used a table saw to cut out the pieces of acrylic according to my need and drill holes in those pieces.

putting the pieces together using acrylic cement

 

[dragonfisher33]

depending on how i'm going to have the refugium in my tank, i added 4 suction cups just i case if i want to secure it against the back/side glass of the tank. i chose these suction cups because they fit through the holes that i drilled AND the fact that they have threads where i can i screw them together.

install the suction cups like so

 

[dragonfisher33]

a quick mounting test of the refugium on the glass of the tank and see if the suctions cups at least hold up to the weight of the refugium. water buoyancy should make everything that goes into the refugium lighter when i'm ready to put it in the tank. it seems to hold up nicely.

 

[dragonfisher33]

i applied the acrylic cement this afternoon and the instruction indicates 24-48hr for permanent joining of the acrylics. so i will leave it alone for now and tomorrow morning i will perform a leak test to make sure it's water tight as least on the base of the refugium.

 

[nelix10]

Neat! It will be in the water so leak test is kinda pointless!

 

[dragonfisher33]

Neat! It will be in the water so leak test is kinda pointless!

my mistake. the phrase "leak test" can be a little misleading. what i meant to say is that i'm going to make sure that the joints on the bottom don't have any gap. my room wasn't lit up so it was hard for me to tell whether or not the cement got into places where it needed to go even though i applied the cement twice on all the edges with 30min between each application. can't be too careful in this hobby.