Refusurgium hood project

[koko]

Hey all!

I just got the frame of my new hood glued together. This will sit over my 55-gal. refusurgium. The inside cabinet sits over the overflow/surge bucket, and will house all of the wiring for my serial port 8-channel relay controller and lights.

I built it out of A/B plywood and lauan. I used Titebond III waterproof glue, and I went back and used Bondo on all of the joints and seems. This hood will house a 250w MH, a 20w NO actinic, and LED moonlites.

This unit is moving out of the basement (where my reef is) and into the living room upstairs. I will drill thru the floor and pump water up from the basement into the refusurge, and flush it back down into my reef below!!

I hope to keep you all up to date on the project, but my time is EXTREMELY limited from now thru Feb.

Peace
koko

[koko]

and some pics of the door.


To hold the main door open, the inner cabinet door opens to act as a prop.

Top is removable for access. Cabinet AND lighting area vented w/ computer fans.

[Geoff]

i would like to see pics of how you are planning on plumbing it. how high are you going to keep the water level in the display? i have thought about doing a surge tank, but i can not find a way to hide the lower water level satisfactory.

G~

[Loverotties]

Looking good!

[koko]

Originally Posted by Geoff

i would like to see pics of how you are planning on plumbing it. how high are you going to keep the water level in the display? i have thought about doing a surge tank, but i can not find a way to hide the lower water level satisfactory.


G~

My display has overflows as well, flowing down into my sump. The water level in the display remains constant, while the water level in the SUMP changes.

here is a pic of my system as it is now. All I have to do is move the upper tank (Refusurgium) upstairs into the living room.


koko

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by koko

My display has overflows as well, flowing down into my sump. The water level in the display remains constant, while the water level in the SUMP changes.

here is a pic of my system as it is now. All I have to do is move the upper tank (Refusurgium) upstairs into the living room.


koko

so you do not have a surge in the display?

G~

[koko]

The surge is in the back 1/4 of the refugiium on top. The flush enters my display, but then drains immediately down to my sump. As it dumps into the display, the raised water level floows over the overflows and down into the sump. The refugium water is pumped directly from my sump (below the 'fuge in the picture) up to the 'fuge, then down to the display.

I also have a regular return from the sump to the display, which has nothing to do with the surge.

Here is a pic of of the manifold from the surge into my display. You can see some bubbles in the lower end, as it's about to fire off.

I could email you a movie of the flush operating, if you're interested.

Peace,
koko

[Geoff]

what form is the video in? i think you can post them here as attachments. what size it? i am always interested in seeing pics or vids!

G~

[koko]

Originally Posted by Geoff

what form is the video in? i think you can post them here as attachments. what size it? i am always interested in seeing pics or vids!

G~

Geoff. It's a MPeg format, 14.2 MB 1 minute 3 seconds

Mpeg isn't listed in the Valid file extensions for attachments.

I'm trying to figure out how to edit it down to a more manageable size.

[PaulKlug]

you could download windows media encoder from microsoft.com. Just search for it. Then convert it to a smaller (worse quality) size.

[PaulKlug]

also you can then zip it up so it will shrink it down (very little). Then upload it.

[koko]

Just got my Serial Relay module this week! This little unit will hook up to an OLD computer and run all of my tank,s timed functions. It's smaller than I had expected. I put a quarter on it to show scale.

[koko]

New installment of the Grand Project:


I Just moved the Refu-surgium from the basement to the living room, having drilled thru the floor. I pump water fron the basement to the 'fuge, and gravity and my carlson surge does the rest, flushing downstairs to my display.

The hardest part was getting the 'fuge down from the shelf unit it was sitting on. Moving the fuge upstairs has DRAMATICALLY increased the force of my flush, which is great! The sound of the siphon breaking at the end of the flush, however, sounds like a shotgun going off every 3 minutes. I'm looking into an electrical ball valve to turn the flush on and off when I need it

Eventually, I will be putting seahorses upstairs.

some pics,

[koko]

Hey All!

I just wanted to update all of you on the project. I got it painted up just before Christmas. I used Rust-oleum Epoxy spray paint for the white interior, and regular enamel for the blue cabinet interior, and the flat black exterior.

I then installed the MH light and the 2 florescent fixtures. Luckily, I work in theater, and a good buddy is our Master Electrician. He was intrigued by the relay box, and we wired it into a bank of 9 outlet boxes. I have 6 channels wired into the top 6 boxes and 3 boxes just wired hot, for various transformed circuits that I want to run.

I got an electrically operated ball valve for Christmas (what a geek am I!), which will prove to be the single most expensive component to the whole system. It runs upward of $220!

I went into the shop on New Year's Day to futz around with final touches, and to actually bench test the box w/ the computer, and then install the works into the hood.

Here are the pics!

Notice the desklamp on in "control.jpg". that is being controlled by the realy box via computer!

[koko]

More shtuff!

"installed" shows how the boxes fit inside the hood,

"ontop" shows it on the tank, door open

"look" shows what it will more or less look like in its natural state

Then there's the new inhabitants!!!!!!

Peace!