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.

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.

Wow, great idea.  I've been trying to think of something cheap like this.  I think I may have to steal your idea.

Let me know how it works over the next little while.  I guess I would worry about the styrofoam breaking and cracking over time.

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.

Like Marcus I keep the fuge separate from the sump so that I can run a slower rate of water through the fuge.  I know he probably mean totally separate, but I run about half my overflow through the fuge and half through a sock in the sump.  This way I keep the sand out of the pump and also keep most of the Caulerpa out of the pump.  What little bit of Caulerpa makes it out of the fuge into the sump and through the pump is fair game for my Tangs and Angels.

I'm going to leave the stryrofoam unless I notice it breaking down.  1) I couldn't think of any reason it should and 2) I'm sick of messing with this thing.  I just want it to sit there and look good for a while.

What I didn't say in the initial post was that in doing this project I did a couple stupid things, (like leaving running water while I ate dinner), and ended up with 80 gallons of water on the carpet.    Then I tried to fix something else the next weekend and created a leak in my overflow that left another 40 gallons of water on the carpet.  Sufficeth to say, "I'm sick of cleaning water out of the carpet."  I promised myself that I would not mess with the water except to top it off for several months.  The only thing I'm doing to this tank in the near future is adding MH lighting.   WoooHooo!!!  (That doesn't involve messing with the water.  I Hope...)

Anyway, while I had such a mess on the floor, I figured it was a good time to tear down my tank, which I had been planning to do in a couple months, and recreate my reef structure.  It used to be one big mountain of rock.  Now it looks much better in my opinion.  I'll post some pics in a few minutes if I can get some good ones.

Here's some pics...

It could be the UV from the refugium lights that causes the degradation...

jfinch wrote: It could be the UV from the refugium lights that causes the degradation...

I would have to agree with you Jon, I think this also causes PFDs or life jackets to go bad.  I have also noticed that the styrofoam they use for floating docks is covered with a black plastic to keep out the light and they seem to last for years.

Speaking of $0.02...

Isn't that about what a styrofoam box costs.  Maybe at that price he would be able to replace it before the two years are up and it disintigrates.

It might me a little cost prohibative but I'd be willing to bet that he could fork out the cash for a new one every month.

Are you ready to spill 20 to 40 gallons of sea water on the floor every month wsinbad?       oops... sorry, that's isn't funny is it.  I'm going to be worried about your carpet degrading before I worry about that refugium falling apart.  But dont' worry.  I have personally discovered that carpets can hold a good 50 gallons and still be recovered.       I hate overflows.

I don't know where you guys are getting your styrofoam boxes, but mine cost around $70.  My wife would kill me if I spent that much on a box every month.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it came with several fish and corals in it?

I really wouldn't mind having more of those every month.

So Will,

How about an update on this?  It has been almost 4 months.  I asked you about it Thursday night and you said it was holding up fine.  Can you give us any more details?  Do you every get little bits of styrofoam floating around?  I'd like to see a picture or two.

Jared, The refugium is doing great.  I have not noticed any problem at all with degrading.  This is not to say that it still won't,  but everything still looks fine.  I actually have about 20 small hermits in it now and was afraid that they might pick at it, but so far they don't seem interested and they've been in there for over a month.  As far as light or UV degrading it I haven't seen anything there either, but I recently took out a Home Depot light that was on the opposite side of the sump from the refugium and replaced it with a 55 watt PC I had kicking around, placed right over the refugium.  I don't know if this will cause a problem for the sump, but I would guess not since any light or UV would have to penetrate the Macro Algae that is now growing rather well in there.

I'll post some pics when I can get some, but I guess my wife took off with the camera this evening.

Richard L., sure the box is free, but the stuff the LFS wants you to put in it can be pricey.  I've gotten several of these boxes, but each time I've purchased $70-$140 worth of "stuff" to put in it.  Is there anyone who can honestly go into an LFS without spending too much money?  If there is it's not me.

Cool.  I really like the floating refugium idea.  Thanks to your experience I'll be able to do it on purpose instead of by accident.  

I hope you can get some picture up soon.

OK Jared!  It took me two months and another request by Bugzme, but I finally got more pictures.

My floating refugium has been in the sump now for around 8 months.  It seems to be holding up well, but I have had macro attaching itself to the sides and that seems to have started to break down the styrofoam a little.  Not enough to worry about though.  My tank has never looked better so if it is putting stuff into the water it must be "good" stuff.

Here's the full sump.  As you can see I've added a skimmer since the last pics.

Here is the Protien skimmer side of the sump.  this side also houses the return pump.

This is the filter sock side.

The filter sock side of the refugium I use as a frag area.  When it's not overgrown with Macro.

Each side of the refugium has 6 holes drilled in it near the top.  I have to clean the macro out of them every once in a while to keep them flowing.  Also here you can see the deterioration on the top lip of the styrofoam box.  I believe this is caused by the PC lighting that is on 24 hours now.  Not to mention the Hermit Crabs that seem to love crawling around up here.

The other side of the refugium seems to grow macro very well.

All of this keeps my shy guys...

and their roudy friend, very happy.  (Couldn't resist the extra pics.)

(P.S. sorry for the long download for all those with slow internet connections.  Hope it was worth the time.)

5 years and still floating.  Cool. I'm pleased to be wrong.