fresh water flea (daphnia) refugium

[motwnbro]

well, i just hooked up a fresh water flea refugium.

what is that you say?

i have been keeping water fleas, since i strained them out of a pond last spring.

they live on suspend alge and dutrius.

i have used them as feed and to introduce as an extra element of bio to some tanks.

so, i got an idea to add a isolated tank connected to the main fresh water 29 gal.

it's a small experiment, i used a small craft plastic box as the tank.

maybe 1/2 gal.?

it hangs off the back rim.

all i wanted was a slow stream to go thru the box.

so, i tapped into the canister filter with air line hose, close to the out pipe of the canister.

the other end of tubing went into the box, on the side near the top.

also at the top and 90 degrees from the intake, the box has two exit ports placed one above the other.

they empty into the main tank.

why two?

the bottom one is fine screened, so the fleas won't exit the box.

the top one is an free flowing tube , that is there in case the screened tube becomes blocked.

it's overflow protection, i didn't want any accidents.

how much impact it will have on the bio of the tank, i don't know.

i woul be happy if the fleas multiply and i can feed them into the main tank.

it was a simple design, but it still took some thought.

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[jweintraub]

Sounds like a nice setup, would love to see pictures as it's a little hard to follow by just reading.

[reybie]

Ya and it's making me itch thinking about the fleas!

[Drumachine09]

Dumb questions:

1.) What is a refugium
2.) What is a freshwater flea?

[Chrona]

Dumb questions:

1.) What is a refugium
2.) What is a freshwater flea?

1) Refugiums are usually seperate (though sometimes in the main tank), small tanks used to house delicate/sensitive/acclimating organisms, so the inhabitants of the main tank can't disturb them, but they still share the same water. At least, that was their traditional role. Some people have started keeping a refugium in the cabinet in their sump, especially for marine tanks, where they can fill it with marine macroalgae that sucks the nitrates out of the water

2) No clue, daphnia is fed to small fish/fry as live food though.

[motwnbro]

couldn't post pics here, go to the link for pics.

joint the site.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102232

[cocoa_pleco]

you cant view that link as a guest.