Making progress on my shed refugium! Updated pics 10-10-04

[npaden]

Well, I'm finally making some progress on the shed refugium!!

Hopefully I'll have the walls dried in and the roof on by the end of Monday.

Here's a few pics:

Front:

Angled view of side:

Back:

Here is a link to the gallery of my earlier pics:
http://padens.com/ipw-web/gallery/shedrefugium

Feels really good to be making some headway finally. Hopefully I'll be adding water to the refugium by the end of next week!

Nathan

 

[reefland]

Around here we put the windows in last....


Looks good! Keep the pictures coming.

 

[npaden]

Around here we put the windows in last....

Yeah, these were some that I got for free of the curb! For real. They had a big "Free" sign on them. The big ones are 6'2" long x 21" tall. They are'nt prehung and don't have any trim so I had to build the framing to fit them very tightly. They are just tacked in right now but I wanted to make sure they fit. I haven't decided to take them out before putting the roof on and putting the plywood on the side or to just leave them tacked in there.

I think I'll just leave them in there and try to be careful!

Looks good! Keep the pictures coming.

Home Depot was out of some of the pieces I need for the roof so I'm trying to figure out how to get someone to pick some up from Dallas tomorrow. Hopefully I will still get the roof on by the Monday night.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet!

You're the man, Nathan. Now if my wife gives me any crap about wanting to a 300G built-in, I can show her this thread.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

There's the "Shedd Aquarium" and now the "Shed Refugium."

:lol:

How far away from the house is it, Nate?

Peace,

Chip

 

[Expos Forever]

I personally find this fascinating... Here are some of Nathan's previous threads on the subject (I hope you don't mind, Nathan):

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/search.php?mode=results

Please keep us updated.

 

[Algae Blenny]

Looks good. Can't wait for updates.

 

[npaden]

Well, I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped although I am gonna be sore tomorrow from working so hard!

Here is the status as of Sunday night:

And here is the status tonight:

I have most of the hardest work done on the roof and 1/2 of the panels put on it so hopefully I can get it finished and put on tomorrow night after work.

It has ended up being a bit harder than I originally thought. It is going to take some tricky carpentery to tie the roof into the existing shed and keep it from leaking.

I'll keep the updates coming.

Nathan

 

[Mouse]

Nathan, im glad we can allways rely on you to take things beyond the next level, and into the insane.

With a fuge like that, id go for full moonlight simulation. You could get some awesome cycles coming out of the ecosystem.

 

[npaden]

Wow, this is work!

12 hours of labor and a little over $500 of materials lying on the ground ready to be heaved up in place tomorrow night!

Almost 400 screws that had to be pre-drilled and screwed in to hold the polycarbonate panels in place!

I'm buying a new RO unit for the shed and hopefully it will arrive to start filling up the refugium this weekend!

FWIW, Nathan

 

[reefland]

I've used polycarbonate panels before and they tend to leak where the screws go in and the seams. Did you do anything special?

 

[npaden]

They have special screws with neoprene gaskets that I'm using. I used some clear caulking on the top and sides but didn't use any in the middle.

The instructions said to pre-drill each hole a little bigger than the screw so that it would allow for some expansion and contraction of the panels as well.

Did you use the screws with the neoprene gaskets when yours leaked?

Thanks, Nathan

 

[reefland]

Did you use the screws with the neoprene gaskets when yours leaked?

They had gaskets, no clue what type. The leaks didn't start until a few months later.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have any neighbors?

Nice looking as always, Nate. Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[Mouse]

Nate, the only guy i know who'll harvest macros with a hedge strimmer, you da man!!!!

 

[npaden]

The roof is now on!

Here is the view from inside:

Finally making progress!!!

Nathan

 

[npaden]

Here's the status as of today:

Based on some earlier pictures some people advised me to do some reinforcements.
I added some headers over the long windows and a 2x6 cross beam to help support the roof.

I'm starting to fill up the refugium with RO!!

Nathan

 

[npaden]

Well, things are still crawling along. I bought another 100gpd RO unit to help speed up the fill process. I'm at 800 gallons in the refugium and have added 4 buckets of salt.

I've got the insulation up but don't have any pics of that yet. I am planning on putting up some 6 mil plastic sheeting over the insulation to help keep the humidity off of it. In the summer it won't be bad but I'm afraid the humidity will be very bad in the winter. It might not though.

It gets pretty warm in the shed but the water in the refugium has remained very stable. Inside the shed the temp peaked at 115 on a 92 degree outside day but the water in the refugium only varied 2 degrees from 80 to 82, it has been cooler outside for the last week and the water in the refugium has dropped down below 75 and is hanging steady. It only varied .2 degrees the other day with no heating or cooling at all. I've added another vent to the south side of the shed and have the exhaust fan on the north side but may end up having to add a mister type cooling setup as well which will add to humidity issues.

The next step is polyurethaning all of the exposed wood inside. Once I get that done I will be cutting the top off the refugium and continuing to fill all of the tanks with RO.

I finished the tank racks for my clownfish growout:

Here is a pic I took the other day when it was raining:

Maybe a couple weeks away from having it up and running swapping water with the main tank.

It is going to be a learning experience for sure!

FWIW, Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Looking good maniac, ahem I mean Nathan

I wonder how stable the temp will be in the small growout tanks? Are they connected to the refugium?

Louey

 

[npaden]

They won't be connected to the big system. I am somewhat concerned about them but they have done well in my garage for the past summer and it gets pretty hot in there during the day. I haven't ever really paid attention to the temp on the growout tanks really but might have to. With a mister system in there I should be able to keep the temps under 100.

We will see though!

Nathan