CPR Aquafuge

[orion25]

yeah, I was thinking that myself today. I'm gonna take some sand and some rock from my tank and set it up tomorrow or tuesday. As for setting up a shelf for a bigger fuge, not gonna happen. I still live with my 'rents, so I dont think they'd be too pleased with that. They like the tank how it is, and probably get mad if they saw another tank above the main one, they'd say "that could've been more rent money". I would love to have bigger set ups, and sometime in the future I will, its just at the moment, it's not happening ya know. Thanks for the replies.


Leddy

You will be pleased with the life you get in the Aquafuge if you use sand from the Main tank and some LR. I managed to get a bristle worm and a couple of snails into my aquafuge!! As soon as I get some extra $$ I am going to get a detrivore kit from either IPSF or Inland Aquatics. I cannot wait!

[Leddy]

Just hooked it up about 20mins ago. I went to my LFS and got some rubble and mud from the bottom for his rock pool, and put some sand from my tank in there for now. It's still a little cloudy, but I'll post a pic or two later tonight when it clears up.


Leddy

[Leddy]

It's not much, but its running. There is only about 1.5 to 2 inches of sand, one area near the return baffle has about .5inch. I'm gonna put some more sand and mud from my tank and LFS over the weekend. Definitley a few more pieces of rubble, in a month or so a light, then some macro. Last night I saw a few very small bristleworms, and a few gammarus(?. I see them crawling all over my rock in the tank at night, I'm not sure what they are.) Heres a few pics.



Leddy

[drilldr]

Please read this post understanding that I'm not bashing on CPR but I have a story to tell. I have a 180 gal tank. I bought CPR's largest hang on refugium and installed it. I spent a great deal of time getting it starting and everything was going great! I had all kinds of life in that thing. I can honestly tell you it made a difference on my tank for water chemistry reasons, copepods, etc.
* I also have a VERY LARGE storage container mated to a top off system to keep up with my water loss. I am lazy and I hate managing the top off every other day. So one day I come home and found the acrylic straps that support this thing have broken off at the weld to the box and it almost fell off the back of the aquarium completely. When it fell it tweaked the box in a manner in which it put a long horizontal crack in the face of the refugium. This caused a big leak. My top off continued to run all day trying to keep up with the water loss. Are you getting the picture here. This wasn't pretty! Not to mention the water damage, the tank was now in trouble. I'm not sure who at CPR decided that these two lame, skinny acrylic "straps" would support the weight (~25 plus pounds of sand and water) this thing holds but they surely did it wrong. The company could have spent probably a whole $1 worth of plastic to add gussets and buttress these straps. If you decide to buy one of these things you MUST add reinforcement to these weak straps. They are at risk of breaking off and it's better to be safe than sorry. Just don't blindly trust that a manufacturer has done thier homework like I did. Heat and weight may eventually cause them to fail. Then you'll have a story to tell like mine. Hope this helps.

[Leddy]

Sorry to hear about that. I think they re-designed the large model for those reasons you mentioned. I guess there were complaints, so they changed support frames.(?) I don't know. So far its holding up well, sitting flush. I've read people have had theirs bow from stress. None on mine, but I think its still a bit early. I put some more rubble from my tank in there, two nice chunks. Gotta get a light and some macro in there next. I check it everyday just to make sure nothings wrong, try and prevent disaster. Don't post any more of these scary experiences, you're making me paranoid .



Leddy