I have been wanting to get macroalgae to be part of my setup, but without a sump, with no room for a HOB 'fuge and 3 hungry tangs in the display, it's either do something in-tank or not have it.
If you've shopped, you know the market price for these is $40-$50+ depending on size, maybe even more, not counting the powerhead to force flow.
I had an old glass top and started thinking I could make my own box. I've had a tube of aquarium silicone forever, so why not give it a shot? I took a trip to the local glass shop and bought a piece of 3/8" scrap glass for $4. My wife does stained glass stuff, so she had the cutter, glass pliers, grinder etc and very kindly helped me.
I made a 3-sided box like a horseshoe 4" tall, 4" deep and 16" wide. I used small pieces of glass to make a bracket that I could slide a removable screen into on both ends. I wanted to be able to clean the screens easily or even just toss them and replace them if I had something cheap and easy. A trip to Hobby Lobby found me a sheet of vinyl mesh that's used for stiching stuff. (Slightly larger holes than what you seen for stitched Kleenex tissue box covers)
I cut the screens to size and then let the refugium sit for a few days to cure.
The next part to figure out was how to hang this across the back inside of my tank. I considered clamps, wire etc, but decided to mold some "hangers" out of scrap acrylic. I cut strips about 1" wide and 16" long while a pot of water came to boil. Using pliers I'd warm the acrylic in the water and then pull it out and mold it into shape against my granite countertop. I got the 2 hangers reasonably similar in shape, then went to work hanging the 'fuge.
The weight of the glass made the acrylic flex too much to hold the fuge square. I cut another piece of acrylic and made a thin "U" clip that I slid over the center brace and under the cross support piece on the fuge.
I then adjusted the output from my Fluval 405 to point into one end of the fuge to force flow. After I had Chaeto in there, I noticed that the flow didn't seem to be good enough. The powerheads in the tank were causing too much pressure at the back end of the fuge making the water inside stagnate. I readjusted one powerhead a bit and "bingo".
I will post a picture of it here shortly. It's not a work of beauty like what you'd see from tcfab, but for about $6 I now have Chaeto in my system and hopefully a good 'pod population there too before long.
Edited by vadryn - January 21 2011 at 3:16pm
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