My DIY Tetra Whisper 'fuge, advice appreciated

[Prodigal Son]

So I started a new project tonight, and figured I'd post up my progress. I'm very new to marine tanks, but I'm a quick learner. Any advice or pointers would be much appreciated!

So the goal is this: build a tiny refugium for the 5.5 gallon nano reef using things I have on hand. I had a pile parts from Tetra and Marineland filters sitting around, so I started hacking and cutting with the following results.

The fuge is based on a Whisper 40 HOB filter, which is very similar in design to the more popular Hagen filters.

http://www.fish.com/ProdImages/P56207.jpg

First I made a "gate" to put in the outlet of the filter. Hopefully this will slow down the flow and help keep things where they should be. I used a piece of a Penguin 200 filter cover, cut to fit. In the photo below, the cut piece is shown next to a Penguin 100 cover for reference

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks026.jpg

It looked more like this when it was fixed into the filter

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks033.jpg

Next step was adding a sponge filter. Luckily, Tetra provided just the pieces I needed. For those of you not familiar with these little "gems", the bio filtration is just a loose piece of black foam meant to be placed after the filter. It's really pretty bad at it's original job, but I think it will suffice here.

We start with this:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks035.jpg

And turn it into this:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks036.jpg

The larger section was then fitted into the filter like this.

First the cage

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks037.jpg

Then the pad

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks038.jpg

That's about as far as I've gotten. There are two possibilities for where I can put the heater, which is a very compact Tetra HT10. It fits nice and snug in the tiny area next to the impeller, but the top of the heater sticks up above the level of the lid. The element would stay submerged, but I'd really like to be able to use the cover, so the heater will likely end up sitting in the fuge chamber.

The only thing left is to add a light, which will probably end up being a desk lamp. I'm waiting for the new tank for the reef before I use this guy, but at 16"x10"x10" I'm pretty sure I can find something that can sit on the table behind the tank overhanging the fuge. The cover has a vent section, which will just be removed. If I need to I'll enlarge the hole more, but I'm thinking it will be good enough. The pic below shows the cover, with half of the vent grid already removed

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o27/prodigal_son_photo/DIY%20fuge/Tanks041.jpg

So what do you guys think? Anything I should consider changing? Any advice on how much light I should be looking for? I would imagine a cheap desk lamp would be around 10-25wt.

[K' Family Reef]

you have the right idea - might recom removing the sponges!

regards

[JaredWaites]

Not a bad DIY for smaller tanks. Good job.

Ok my 2 cents.

Ditch the cover. Or as you said, make sure to enlarge your surface area for light to contact whatever your growing in there.

Your not going to put sand in there are you? If you are, your going to need to be sure that there is a low volume of water being pushed into the 'fuge' area or you'll end up with a milkshake in there. Plus you also are going to have to worry about your impeller and the sand, over time its going to eat away at it, if you don't have it properly sealed. So the sponges are going to seperate the pump section from the fuge section? All in all you did a great job on a small HOB nano refugium IMO.

By the way, welcome to reef central!

[Prodigal Son]

Thanks for the replies!

Now as for the sponge, it's a really loose grid which I'm hoping will act more like a diffuser than a filter pad. It was originally intended as a home for bacteria, not a detrius trap, so it's very free flowing. It also seperates the pocket by the impeller from the fuge in the odd case I want to put a little bag of media in there from time to time. In case it does fill up with crud, it also comes right out for cleaning.

Agreed on opening up the cover more. I really want to use it to cover at least the impeller area, as well as the front side of it to act as a splash gaurd for the outlet. The back of the new tank is going to be black, so it should all blend in really well. I'm waiting on a trip to the hardware store for a finer tooth saw blade, and maybe a bit of weather stripping to finish the edge.

Now as for what to put in it, I'm not really sure. I've seen live rock and sand, although there is plenty in the display area. Should I add a bit more to the fuge? Maybe some LR rubble? Any recommendations on what to put in here when it's done? I have a small ball of cheato which has been acting as crab food, but that's about it so far.

[JaredWaites]

Do a little mini DSB if you can and some chaeto. :)

Keep the flow slow and maybe it'll actually be beneficial.

[Prodigal Son]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I fitted an impeller out of a Whisper 10, so the flow rate should be down to the 90gph or so that the little filter manages. There's an adjustment knob at the top of the J-tube if I need to crank it down even more. I also found a little flat bendable hydor heater I can cram into the impeller area on the right side.

I still need to pick up a desk lamp and modify the lid to let more light in. I was thinking about adding a foil lining to the inside of the filter box to keep the black housing from soaking up the light. Would salt water ruin tin foil? I could dillute gorilla glue and line the chamber. Worth it? Safe?

The main hope for this thing is to make a food factory. This is going on my 16" x 10" x 10" custom tank tank that I'm going to transfer the contents of my 5.5gal. That's about 15lbs of live sand, 10lbs of LR, and a few softies. There's a blob of cheato that's in the display right now, but will be moving to this fuge on the new tank. I hadn't planned on a DSB, but I'm not opposed if you guys think I have the space.

The sponge is just to seperate the two sections and keep everything where it should be. It was originally intended as biomedia, so it's nice and free flowing. If hoping that the sponge and the exit gate will diffuse the flow in and out of the fuge.

I don't want to feed any of the animals since it can pollute the tiny water volume so fast. There's more than enough pods to keep the neon goby well fed, but I'd love to add a mandarin. We'll see.