Freshwater refugium fun

[scottskindaweird]

Hey folks,
I'm looking for some info on making a DIY freshwater refugium for my 50 gal. I know it's too small to need one, but here's my plan.
The fuge will sit on top of the tank, I'll make it look really cool.
After I finish restoring the acrylic tank (scratched all to hell) I want to make it a discus tank. I want a refugium to fill with shrimp and snails and moss and mangroves. I'm thinking I'll make the whole thing myself from acrylic. My thought is about 6 gallons, chamber with 2 or 3 different filter media, then flowing into refugium full 'o'life, and then a filtered overflow into the tank, simple, right?
Pointers?
Tips?
Ideas?

 

[carsona246]

Just to warn you about mangroves as I wanted some myself. It takes a long time before they're big enough to suck nitrates out. I'd go with water wisteria, hornwart, basically anything super low light so you dont have to shell out the big bucks to get proper lighting. Honestly I never saw the point of filtering the intake of the refugium because theres so much plant matter that's going to be in there that its not gonna make a difference. I highly suggest water wisteria though, it's a pretty awesome plant that doesn't need much light and sucks the nitrates out of the water