Simple Refugium

[jesusjones]

In my desire to keep daphnia and hornwort in the same water as goldfish I came up with this idea and it's called a refugium apparently. You might have everything you need to set one up already. All you need is a container, a light source, some airline, a air stone and a pump running in you tank which has a airline hookup on the output.
This image shows the set up. You use the pumps airline hookup to slowly draw water from the refugium back into the main tank. An airstone on the suction line inside the refugium prevents even small daphnia from being sucked into the main tank. Water is supplied to the refugium by the second airline which just uses the siphon effect to keep the water level equal in both tanks. You can harvest hornwort for compost and daphnia for live food and have cleaner water in your fish tank.​

Mine has only been set up for a few days, I'll try to snap a pic of the contents before I empty it, maybe the fish too

 

[connorlindeman]

Very interesting.

 

[Oblio]

Interesting, I may try this to get my feet wet before creating a sump.
Make sure the water volume in refugium tank is less that the above water volume in the main tank. If you loose siphon, the entire refugium will empty into the main tank.