Worlds First Floating Refugium?

OK, maybe not the worlds first, but I've never seen this before so it's time I show the world what I've done with my refugium.

Some Background info:  I bought Suzy's 180 gallon tank with all of the equipment she had on it.  I have made some small changes to the setup but nothing big until recently.  She had a little homemade acrylic sump that was doing a nice job, but I simply wanted something bigger.  After seeing Eric's (Fireshrimp's) sump I was inspired to do something BIG.  At first I was saving money to purchase the acrylic to put together exactly what I wanted.

After thinking about it for a while and trying to decide exactly what I could do that would fit in the space avaiable it dawned on me that I had a HUGE Rubbermaid tub that I had purchased to use as a temporary sump on the tank at my office.  It was sitting in my garage doing nothing.  After measuring it I found it was exactly the size to fit in my stand.  I now had an 80 gallon sump.

The only thing I needed to figure out now was how to do a refugium inside that tub.  Not wanting to go out and buy anything I found a styrofoam shipping container on hand that would fit great in the tub.  I drilled 6 holes in each of 2 sides of the foam container for water to overflow through.

"Before I put this under the tank I'd better make sure it works and that the Rubbermaid still holds water."  So everything in the bathtub and fill it up with water.  "Crap!!!"  Why didn't it dawn on me that the Stryofoam container would float?  Well, maybe it will be OK once I have the substrate and Live Rock in it. 

So I set it all up and here it is...

The most interesting thing about this as I found out when I turned the pump on and off several time to make sure I didn't have any overflow problems was that the sump can be extra full while the tank is running and if the power is cut and there is more water than the sump can technically handle the refugium will float.  Thus adding extra capacity to the sump.  This may be only 3-5 gallons, but that can mean the difference between a gallon of water on the carpet  and none at all.

Any comments on this setup or any helpful criticizm would be gladly accepted.

Edited by wsinbad1

Suzy, in order to get it in there I had to cut out the front support between the doors, put the tub in and replace the support.  It was a bit of work, but I think it was worth it.

I like the "floating" aspect - in that you get more volume in case the power goes off. Great idea!

That is similar to my sump except that my refugium doesn't float.  It is a plastic container sitting on top of a pvc frame I built.  Check it out here http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1434& PN=2&TPN=2

Very cool Kevin.  I think I've seen those pictures before.  Mine sump is a rather flimsy rubbermaid compared to yours.  Yours looks more like the ones we use for our horse troghs.  Very sturdy! Doesn't yours hold more than 80 gallons?   I love your setup but I have nowhere to put that kind of stuff except under my sump.  If I tried to take up more space for my tanks wife wife would be my ex-wife in a real hurry.

Sorry, but styrofoam degrades in the water. I advise not using a piece that size as it may have bad effects after a while. I once had small pieces in my sump for some reason that I cannot remember now The pieces seemed to lose about 20% of their mass during about a year.

To be frank, I don't see the big deal with separating things. It seems like people want to complicate things. The biggest concern is not to have sand sucked into the pump. Simply setting a powerhead on some rock or adding an elbow and strainer to an external pump inlet solves that problem.

Setting the pump inlet higher in the sump also helps prevent the sump from pumping dry thereby overflowing the main tank, if for some reason the main tank overflow were to clog up.

Sometimes the Skimmer needs to have a higher water level but often can sit on the sand.

It's a fun idea but the amount of sand and rock in the styrofoam box above could easily be piled in only one corner of that tub. There is room for a lot more good stuff in there without the floating box.

My 2 cents

It looks nice.  I find it very creative.  By the way I wouldn't worry too much about the styrofoam degrading.  Do a search on styrofoam and you'll find that it has an excellent resistance to  water, water vapor, acids, bases, brines, alcohol, and even resistance to wet freeze-thaw cycling.  On the other hand it has poor resistance to hydrocarbons, olefins, napthas, ketones, and vinyl esters.   Anyways it would still be interesting to see how it holds up.

Edited by leviwin

Here's some pics...

leviwin wrote: By the way I wouldn't worry too much about the styrofoam degrading.  Do a search on styrofoam and you'll find that it has an excellent resistance to  water, water vapor, acids, bases, brines, alcohol, and even resistance to wet freeze-thaw cycling.

How do I say this, uhmmm .... you evidently have not used styrofoam in an active refugium for a year. I have and I would not use this floating box concept except as a temporary thing. [edit] Perhaps, it's not only the chemical properties but the biological action that degrades it.


Will has an artistic flair. The aquarium looks fantastic.

Edited by Mark Peterson

COOL! Very To'tM!!