DIY HOB refugium

Nice work.

Kevin,

I got the dark grey fittings at the local Lowes. They have a whole section of schedule 80 fittings. It was located by the sprinkler section. Kind of pricey but I thought it was worth it. They had fittings from .5 inch to 1.5 inches. I really can't believe that companies charge over $100 for these HOB refugiums.


Edited by Fatso - May 22 2006 at 11:19am

do you have some sort of spillover thing, like if the outlet cloggs for some reason then the water has a way back into the tank instead of overflowing out of the fuge?

sshm,

I haven't really thought about it overflowing. It would be really easy to modify it to allow the water back into the tank. The return pipe sits about 1/2 inch off of the bottom of the fuge. I had a frag tank plumbed to my sump in a previous tank with the same concept for return and never had a problem with it overflowing(not saying it couldn't happen). I think putting a piece of eggcrate between the last baffle and the return compartment would stop anything big enought to clog the line from entering. Anyone with these HOB fuges had any problems with overflowing?

taylorwaldron,

I just slip a piece of vinyl tubing over the maxijet nozzle and that will fit snuggly into the 1/2 inch pipe(not the fitting). If it doesn't fit tight enough you can wrap the vinyl with teflon tape. Just cut the 1/2 inch pipe to where you want the pump to sit in the tank. I also built a pre-skimmer box out of 1/8 black acrylic and the maxijet sits in that pulling water from the surface. I ended up using a RIO 800 because I had it laying around. I intalled the fuge and added about 15-17lbs. of oolitic aragonite sand (5-6 inch bed). I am going to get rubble rock and chaeto algae today. I also purchased a $20 27watt PC light at HD that I am modifying. The bulb is a quad bulb and is only like 6 inches by 4 inches, perfect for the 9X5 inch compartment. I say go for it. The hardest part was gluing the acrylic and that wasn't terrible.

I don't think you will have to much of a problem with spillage except the first time you turn it on. The design is very similiar to the CPR HOB refugiums, so I'm thinking it would work similiarly. JMO

taylorwaldron,

Don't mind at all. Just give my cell # a call to give me a heads up. The more time the better. (702)217-7394.

Kevin F,

You're right. When I first hooked it up and plugged in the pump the water level rose to almost overflow. I had to unplug the pump and plug it back in a couple of times and when the air was out of the return line the water level dropped and stayed constant. I did base it off of the CPR models just changed the dimensions to suit my needs.

Mark Peterson,

Not sure if cleaning would be hampered or will be neccessary. If it is neccessary the return pipe is not glued to the 90 degree fitting and can be removed. I know a lot of protein skimmers have the return really close to the bottom to prevent micro-bubbles. Kind of what I was trying to achieve here since I have a air driven skimmer in the first compartment that doesn't keep all of the bubbles in the tube. I have tried a straight outlet fitting(eliminating the elbow and submerged pipe) and because it sucks in air with the water as it returns to the tank I get some serious bubbles. This is eliminated with the submerged return.
    I have the pump in the skimmer box for access reasons. I don't have to worry about skimmer box running dry. I have 4 suction cups mounted to the back of the pre-skimmer box. I have a DIY auto top off that I made. It consists of a 10 gallon aquarium in the stand plumbed with 1/2 inch CPVC and with a CPVC gate valve. A maxijet 1200 sits in the tank and pushes the water into the main tank. I have it connected to a digital timer that goes off for 1 minute every 4 hours. I just found where I wanted my water level in my tank and measured the evaporation after 4 hours. I then turned the pupm on for 1 minute and adjusted the gate valve to the desired amount. After I found the water level in my tank I just slid the pre-skimmer box where I wanted it(suction cups). Works awesome and tank level stays constant. The one thing I will say is at night when the fans go off the evaporation is less. I have the water top off inlet positioned so it sits 90'd into my tank with the opening about 1/16-1/8 inch above the water level I desire. At night as the pump goes on the water level will fill up a little past the opening and when the pump goes off it will back siphon about 1/2 cup of tank water until the sipon breaks and that is where my water level should be. I have checked my salinity each week before my 5 gallon water change and have not noticed any drops in salinity.

I have had the fuge running for about 1 week and the chaeto has already been mowed once. I will update this with new pictures of everything in action. Sorry for the long post.


Edited by Fatso - May 31 2006 at 1:14pm

It sure looks sweet!

Tim, I Have since sold the tank and the fuge so no current pics are available. I wasn't trying to re-invent the wheel when I built the fuge, I just didn't want to pay the price of retail. I also just made the dimmesions custom to what I wanted. The rest of the design just came from the CPR HOB fuges that they charge $150 for. I think it cost me $40 total. The tank I had it on was a 37 gal and I was afraid to hang it on the back because of the weight so I supported the fuge with a piece of 3inch PVC pipe. The only thing I would change is to cut slots in the top of the last baffle before the return. Water would flow under the baffle and once in awhile I would get build up on the top water layer. Kind of like tanks without overflows (nothing to surface skim). The fuge still worked great despite me not being pleased with the baffle. I will post a picture of the fuge in action.

Edited by JS - September 08 2007 at 11:18pm