The choices seem limited in this area. You can have a siphoning system over the edge of your tank to a sump/refugium below. This requires a minute amount of modding to your hood to allow for the siphon and return hoses. The pro's are (seem to be) that it allows a large volume sump/refugium system that you can place under your stand. The con's appear to be inevitable failure of the siphon and massive overflow/flooding of your main display. Not cool. Or, You can have a HOB system, like the CPR Aquafuge or similar variant. It seems to require more extensive modding/dremeling of your hood. The pro's seem to be considerably less to no risk of flooding. The con's appear to be it's attached to the back of your nano tank and possibly altering your tanks arrangement on its stand from the new wall to back of tank spacing. I'm leaning towards a HOB setup, I don't like the increased risk of potential flooding with a siphoning setup. I priced a medium CPR Aquafuge, light, and its stands on marinedepot.com and the price is $241 w/ S&H. Has anyone tried making their own with acrylic? This design is very simple and the only equipment is the pump and light. I've read Melev's Reef tutorial on bonding acrylic and it seems fairly straightforward. Does anyone have other pointers or can someone give me some info on where I can get some acrylic locally (in Little Rock)? Thanks.
We have the siphoning system over the edge of our 125 with sump/refugium below. Blake designed it, constructed it, and we have had no problems in over the year we've had it going. Blake is awesome
jaysuncle - Is there any sort of mesh device that could keep the return from becoming clogged, yet still allow pods to return to the main display? How often has a clogged return occurred for you and what clogged it? Macroalgae, snails... Marti - Would you mind posting a pic of how your setup looks? Master craftsmanship withstanding, what do you think makes it successful? I saw how a weir was built on a site, Melev's again I believe. Does anyone think that would be superior to a siphon hose setup? Or is it the same thing with a different wrapping? http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/overflow.html Found it, for reference at least.
I'll see if we have oneif not I'll get Jim to take one. Probably getting a good pump and keeping the maintence up on it. It's worth the extra $ in the long run.
I do like my Aquafuge. It overflowed once but the flow was slow enough that we didn't notice it until the carpet in the room behind the tank was soaked pretty bad. Cheato had stopped up the return. Be sure to get the light that matches the fuge. It's a nice, neat design.
Marti - Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks. jaysuncle - Thank you for the info. I like the nice clean lines of a factory/commercial product, but at the same time, I like doing for myself. I suppose it depends on how much time is on my hands. What do you have in your Aquafuge? The usual suspects... sand, rock, macro... any crabs or snails? If any other non-drilled tank owners want to post pics and info about their sump/refugium setups, I would love to see what you've got or what you plan to do.
Because the fuge is between the tank and wall, it's rather hard to see any detail. It has about 3" of sand and some rubble and cheato. I'm sure there are lots of critters too. I'm actually about to move my fish, inverts and rock to my large tank (120g) and take this one (46g) down. We need to reduce our maintenance issues and since this tank has no sump, it takes more manual labor to maintain it.
Probably but I don't know how long 'til we make our change. It may be several weeks until we can get some help moving stuff.
I'm in no hurry, I would appreciate it if you would think about me when it comes time to disassemble and start selling off unneeded equipment. Good luck with the move. Anyone else have a HOB or siphon fed sump refugium???
Found an old post on RC, it's not DIY, but it still relates to using a refugium and a skimmer on a nano. This guy placed a Sunpod, CPR Aquafuge, and a Remora skimmer on his AP24. I sent him a PM and posted on the thread asking for an update, with any luck he'll give one. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=d661fe8b4c8ef661517c41187b33ac40&threadid=1152227
