Leaving the light unattedned for a night - fire hazard?

[Reefyone]

Call me paranoid, but I'm feeling very strong about risking to make a fire in the not observed area, the basement, especially at the night.
Fire alarm is good, but I prefer not to start the fire in a first place.

Now it will be beneficial to one of the tanks in the basement to have the refugium, lit 24/7. The problem is, that the uncovered light will not allow the fish in the tank across to sleep.

And if I'll make an enclosure without holes for the heat escape, that will allow the light escape too, and not from the solid metal sheet, there is some risk of fire. You may call me paranoid, I'm perfectly OK with that.

I know that most of people have the light on refugiums inside the aquarium stand, without any problems. No place below my tank, side sump/refugium, and the light has to be covered somehow.

Any advice?
Thanks.

[seasalt dreams]

Why would it be a fire hazard? If its properly done, and with metal, and cooling fans, you should be ok. ... also, why leave it on 24/7? You will have crazy algae growth if you do that.

[Alice]

Actually, the photosynthesis process works best when plants have a "rest" period, so it wouldn't need to be lit 24/7.

Lighting the refugium opposite the tank hours will help keep your pH levels up overnight.

[Geoff]

get rid of the refugium, it is not doing any good anyway.

G~

[Tasher80]

Geoff,
Are you the founder of the ANTI REFUGIUM COALITION?

[Geoff]

I would like to be!!

Friends don't let friends use Refugiums.

G~

[Hop]

Originally Posted by Geoff

I would like to be!!

Friends don't let friends use Refugiums.

G~

LOL. Some of us still rely on them to help export a little junk and grow pods for our fishy friends As much as I agree with you, I just can't convert to the BB theory. I would rather rebuild a tank every few years than look at a tank with no sand(in my house, I'll look at BB works of art all day long on the net!).

But yes, alternating the lighting schedule will go a long way for not only the macro growth, but the pH stability as well

[Geoff]

what kind of light is it? fluorescents do not produce enough heat to worry about. i would however turn the lights on at least for an hour or so to give the algae a downtime. that is unless you are using Caleurpa, in that case you are hosed anyway. Chaeto., Gracia, and Halime. will grow better if given a downtime. have this downtime in the middle of the day after the main lights have been on for several hours and several hours before the main lights go off in order to give the algae time to ramp up to battle the onslaught of CO2 coming from the sand bed when the lights go out.

Hop- ahh, yes the food for fish myth. put a net on the outlet of your refugium and let me know how many pods you catch in 24 hours. then let me know how your fish are going to survive on that number.

G~

[Hop]

Originally Posted by Geoff

Hop- ahh, yes the food for fish myth. put a net on the outlet of your refugium and let me know how many pods you catch in 24 hours. then let me know how your fish are going to survive on that number.

G~

It's a matter of size isn't it Much the same reason why Steve Weast took his down as his research in his system indicated that the 80 or what ever gallon he had was insignificant to benefit the system and removed it. I recall a conversation he had with a buddy of mine and I think he suggested that it would need to be the size of his display to make an impact to the system worth keeping, but the negatives outweighed the positives in that situation.

I have a 4 gallon bucket which grows nothing but chaeto and allows me to syphon the crud that settles out of there. If I shake the chaeto out I get thousands of pods that are distributed into the display. So I believe that the small amount of realestate allows me to grow pods and export a bit of waste, plus gives me a place to clean out crud with little to no negatives on the system. You wont see me adding a 1000 gallon tank with a DSB to export stuff. I understand that it adds to the strain of the system as much as it helps. Especially in the long run

[Reefyone]

Actually, these are the two separate questions:
1. How to make an enclosure for the refugium, that blocks light (so the light can be left on at the night), with attention to fire prevention.
2. Is the refugium worth all this troubles.

I can add some food for thought even more:
3. How to keep refugium clean, without red slime, dinoflagellates and acoel worms.

About them:
1. Will the thin plywood box on the wood frame be safe enough, or it should be the sheet metal box? How to prevent the light from escaping from ventilation holes on the top? How to construct the box for making maintenance of the tank possible - doors somewhere or remove all bulky box as a cake cover?

2. I have BB tank, still have nitrates and phosphates. Will use any means to improve water quality.

3. Take a deep breath and try to follow me:
Somehow I wasn't able to keep any refugium without red cyano, acoel worms and dinoflagellares for long
- The big refugium, 20L with DSB, has one fish-refugee, that was fed,
- the small, 5g Duplex, or cryptic refugium, not fed, all the same,
- the separate 5g tank, not connected to anything, not fed at all (a drp once not every week). Still the same, at lesser extent.
Flow was 20x+turnover, from one end - to another.

Eventually disconnected from the main display - the fish suffered.

What to do for keeping the successful (at least healthy and clean) refugium? Any tips or tricks?

Illustrations:
The whole complex, "T" shaped (why not inside the stand - low ceiling, 11" height clearance only):

Previous refugium, 20XH, that had suffer the same fate:

20L DSB fuge, before and after:



5g Dupex, or cryptic zone refugium, before and after:

[Geoff]

Mercy, have you made this hobby complicated.

where he cyano is forming is where all of the nutrients are settling. remove everything from this tank and leave it empty. this is where you will do most of your detrital removal when you do water changes.

explain how your fish were suffering?

how much skimmate are you pulling out?

G~