Refugium Mod

As mentioned above, one of the mods of the Nano Cube is to make a refugium out of the back middle chamber. For other newbies here, a refugium is a 'refuge' or protected area away from the main tank. One desirable reason to have a refugium is that you can keep macroalgae back there. Macroalgae do wonderful things for a SW aquarium, mostly remove phosphates and NITRATES. However, macroalgae can take over your live rock and become a nuisance. Hence, people like to keep it in a refugium. Macroalgae require light, so, if you keep it in the back, you have to figure a way to get light back there. Many people wire small 13Watt CF lights over the back. I was looking for a way to avoid all this 'retrofit' biz. So..my experiment is:

Placing a submersible 10W quartz halogen light in the back over the middle chamber. Requires no rewiring.
a) advantages..ease of placement; waterproof
cool.gif disadvantages...heat, low wattage, light spectrum (3000K), unknown right now if it will support the macroalgae

Well..here is the light:


Here is the mod:


I've run the cube most of the day today with the hood lights on and the 'fuge' light on. There was no heat rise. Looks like this is a go for testing.

Another refugium DIY that some people use is to actually cutout part of the back hood and they put an AquaClear 70 (300) outside powerfilter on the back with some modifications of the plastic media holder. Man..this stuff gets complicated, doesn't it?? Now you know where I was not too long ago.

Well....I think the test run is just about done and I'm ready for live rock and live sand. Moving along.