Refugium located outside

[Julius]

I have been kicking around the idea of placing a 10 gal refugium for my 29 gallon tank outside on the deck. The fuge would be about 4 ftt from the tank. Im in Hawaii so the deck recieves alot of indirect light for all day. Im concerned about any temperature issues, Inside the house is cool but outside stays at 85 all year round. Its a dry climate on this part of the island.
I was looking for some suggestions in regard to plumbing and temperature or anmything else i should conider. Also, is indirect sunlight enough light for macros?

 

[trigger0214]

If you're gonna do that..you would want a chiller. Seems easier and cheaper to put it in the house and and pay for the lights.....BUT, an outside fuge would be cool.....plus, with a naturally lighted fuge, you loose the advantage of having high co2 absorption during the night (unless you are a night owl).

 

[Anonymous]

Very interesting idea!

It sounds to me as though your only issue would be the heat. I think indirect sunlight would be enough for most macros, but you may find it's more suitable to hair algae.

If you find that heat is a big issue, you might consider a geothermal chilling mathod. You could have the pipe that flows back from the refugium go through some pipe buried in the ground, so that the warmer water is cooled before returning to the tank.

It's a cool idea. Please let us know if you go through with it~

Good Luck!
Jh