Fuge pics

[FireWater]

So that I don't hi-jack CoryDude's thread I will post a new one. I am interested in seeing some different pics, ideas, and set up variations in refugiums. I currently like the way mine is set up but, always like learning new ideas and researching them. So feel free to post pics, ideas, and discuss different techniques. Ping referenced algae scrubbers and that has got me looking. Also, looking at cryptic, reverse light cycle, normal cycles, and 24 hr lighting - as discussion points to their benefits or drawbacks. Here is the link to CoryDude's original thread in reference to DSB or mud - http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?60869-DSB-or-Miracle-Mud-Setting-up-first-refugium

Everyone has an opinion and there is always more than one way to be right.

[allan]

Just tagging to remind myself tonight to post a few of my fuge.

[Ping]

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic89570-4-1.aspx

long read...

[Neptune@gabesfish]

cheato, culerpa, mangroves, barebottom

STANGCHRIS
http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/uu357/stangchris/CIMG3819.jpg

http://i663.photobucket.com/albums/uu357/stangchris/CIMG3817.jpg

[Ping]

I followed the Marine Depot thread from the beginning. The AWS went through many evolutions and improvements along the way. It will take alot of reading to get to what was found to work best.

Knitting screen and PC bulbs w/ built in reflectors are the best method invented so far. They take time to develop and do not need seeding from another source. within 2 months there will be alot of exportable algae.

I have looked at the AWS algae under a microscope many times and they do produce quite a lot or microscopic plankton. I saw no pods (mandarin food) and I also do not think much of the plankton is released from the algae to feed the coral and other life forms. This may be true because plankton would only be leaving the bottom portion of the screen as they live among the strands of turf. Also no pods leads me to postulate no pod eggs to the tank.

The water leaving an established fuge does contain a lot of micro life.

However, I have never examined the water draining from the bottom of the AWS.

Pods in this context = higher, visable plankton

[FireWater]

Interesting and I look forward to the reading. Thanks Ping

Thanks for posting the pics on here Chris

[allan]

Okay, let's walk this dog. Gonna take you from the beginning to the end...

Okay this one is the back shot of my display tank looking down at the back end of my fuge... wow, I have GOT to arrange my wires a bit better.

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-48.jpg

This pic (sorry, using iPhone) is of the water coming in from the tanks. Two from the display, and one from the frag tank...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-49.jpg

This pic is of the second chamber, I've got rubble rock covering the bottom. I don't normally do this since it's really a detritus trap... but I'm seasoning the once dead LR for a buddy of mine setting up a tank down the street...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-50.jpg

http://i62[IMG]http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-51.jpg

Okay, this is the third, and largest, chamber. I think it runs 24" by 24". I'm listing a few angles of this chamber since I've got about a four inch bed in there, and a 12" by 12" by 12" acrylic center island that has, well you guessed it, about ten inches of sand for that deep sand bed. Of course I've got it covered with some live rock and macro along with a few mangrove pods so I'm not certain that I'm truly getting what I intended originally.

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-52.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-53.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-54.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-55.jpg

I've got culepra, both razor and grape, Chaeto and mangroves. Somewhere in there is some red culerpra but I've not seen it in some time...
http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-56.jpg

This is an image of the fourth chamber, really an overflow. But I keep the filter media (changed every three days although I sometimes let it go longer than that, may be why I have a cyano problem) primarily for the shade it provides as directly below it is my cyrptic fuge. Full of little sponges. I lost a lot during my last tank move to retile the room but they are growing back with a vengence.

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-57.jpg

The next few pictures are of the fifth chamber, my sump return. I've got three pumps in there, two to feed the DT and one for the FT. Just installed a float valve mounted on a t-styled acrylic stand that Jack and I built the other day over a six pack... each. Took me a while to figure out why I was dumping too much water in there, turned out that even if you have the entire contraption in the water you still want to teflon the incoming line or it will steadily leak. I have a nice little set up in the closet, but this is fuge stuff, not auto top off stuff.

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-58.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-60.jpg

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-61.jpg

A final pulled back picture of the sump as seen from outside the stand...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-62.jpg

And what the sump feeds, or rather what feeds the sump...

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt295/alaviers/photo-63.jpg

There are a few things that I should do/change to make the sump really effective.

1. Take out the live rock and put it in the frag tank. Most of the live rock has stuff growing on it. I haven't done this because the FT is just set up and I'm a bit lazy.

2. Should do away with the macro in the sump, I want to get a pump and design a stand to hold a recently aquired sump up high enough that I can put the macro in there with a gently overflow into the main display tank. This would provide a steady supply of pods for the tank.

3. Number two would allow me to make the entire bottom main chamber a cryptic/DSB filtering chamber. This would mean that I would take out the little stand that currently holds my DSB section leaving me an overall six to seven inch bed in there.

4. I should really invest in a single pump that can supply all three feeds. Less heat and less piping coming out of the sump. As it is now I have to do some break dancing to get past the various hoses without knocking the pumps off the hose (which happens enough on its own).

I can type for hours if I think you'd read it all, by now I'm sure I've lost your interest. I doubt I would have read anything since I'm a "look, pictures!" kind of guy.

What do you think?

One note of credit on this sump/fuge. This baby was designed by Texreefer and built together with the Hobo. I love the design but I can't take credit for the way it's set up.

Ciao, going to sleep now.

[txmike]

allan i must see this thing in person one day to much going on to wrap my head around it in pic.

[allan]

Any time mike. It's more like a race track rather than the left to right traditional set up.

The over all box is 3' by 3' and if I remember correctly 18' high. It comes in at one corner and follows the chambers around in a clockwise direction before being lifted out back to the DT.

[Ping]

From the Marine Depot site, courtesy of SantaMonica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8KQcWjdhgU

In our closed systems we need to use carbon to prevent yellowing of the water when using and ATS or AWS

[FireWater]

I have been slowly and surely working through the report you posted Ping. It is long but, interesting.

Allan thanks for posting up the pics. That sump/fuge is amazing and I loved it when Mike(Texreefer) had it under the tank @ his house - he and Ace did a great job of laying it out. A definite must see.

[Mr Cob]

Allan, nice setup dude. The sump looks like a swamp! LOL!