Will this work?

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knobhill

knobhill

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
May 2, 2007
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IN A PLACE
Okay, sanity check if you please.

I want to add a refugium on top of my 350g. It will be 80"long x 12"wide x 12"tall. I found someone on craigslist selling 1/4" acrylic sheet? Is 1/4" thick enough to build a refugium with those dimensions? I want the top to be mostly open so that I can grow pothos and other plants from it.

OR...Should I just pay someone to make it for me?
 
it would seem fine to me if it was braced at the top, most of the pressure comes from tank height, it would probably need a solid bottom though if youre using 1/4 inch for the bottom pane
 
Very possible in 1/4"...if it were mine id only keep it around 6-8" full. Id be more worried about whats underneath to support it i.e. your tank than what your putting on top. Is it a glass,acrylic, or plywood/fiberglass? Im not sure how much the top of glass tanks can hold. If its acrylic or a ply tank u prob could get away with more weight on it. Heck even if u can only keep it full 3-4" that should b plenty to grow photos. Im a big fan of overhead filtration, especially with photos. Go for it!

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I was going to use a piece of 3/4" plywood underneath. The 350g tank is 1.25" on the sides and 1" on top with a steel stand. I don't think weight will be an issue.
 
no worries at all then, sounds like ur good to go. Thats a beefy tank lol

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Because two of the three measurements you're dealing with are 12", 1/4 is definitely sufficient. I just want to add a note about the bowing, and top reinforcement.

I built my first sump out of 1/4" plexi and one of the areas I screwed up was the lack of top reinforcement the other guys mentioned. Where I have my finger in the picture is where I had bowing. the bowing was not because of water pressure in this application, it was the warm water (76 degrees).

The vertical wall that separates the filter portion of the sump is visible in this picture too. Obviously there was no bowing there because the walls were welded together. Had I welded some 1-2" vertical walls at the top of the sump, every few inches or so, I would not have had any bowing at all.

Doing filtration above the tank will reduce pump requirement drastically, so I'm looking forward to see what you come up with.

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Thanks for the tips everyone! I think I will go for it. When I write "refugium", it will be a small tank for my puffer and other naughty/injured fish. I will make some dividers to go in there as well. Pothos and other plants will go all along the top of it.
Also, i am going to make it a height of 14" so I have 12-13" of water
 
Here are some photos with a 20g tank on top as a "mock up" and for size reference. I think it would look better if the refugium stretched the entire length of the tank with plants spilling over.
 
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