eschaton
09/03/2007, 07:45 PM
Hey all
For the past year or so, I've had a 20-gallon nano reef. It's all I could fit while I lived in an apartment - now that I'm in a house I decided to upgrade.
I was initially going to just buy the Red Sea Max, but my LFS dude convinced me I could set up a 55 gallon tank for the same price. So I went to Petco, took advantage of the dollar a gallon sale, and bought a 55-gallon tank and a 20-gallon for a sump-refugium.
I'm unsure where to go from here. I know I need to drill the tank, get plumbing into the sump, and then build some sort of baffles. But I don't know the details of what I'll need and where to get it. I've been looking for detailed how-to guides which explain things step-by-step, but every guide I find says "it's so easy to set up a simple sump" but doesn't explain what you need.
I should admit here I'm totally not mechanically inclined and I never have been. The biggest DIY project I've done was construct a CO2 reactor for my freshwater planted tank. I'm clumsy and I have a tendency to break things. I also don't own any tools, though I suppose I could borrow them from people. And schematics are Latin as far as I'm concerned - I majored in the social sciences, not engineering. :D
So can someone point me to simple, step-by step instructions - along the lines of "drill at point X with Y-cm dremel bit" and so on? It would be a big help to someone who's into the hobby because they like the "ecosystem" side of things, and not the "gear" side of things.
For the past year or so, I've had a 20-gallon nano reef. It's all I could fit while I lived in an apartment - now that I'm in a house I decided to upgrade.
I was initially going to just buy the Red Sea Max, but my LFS dude convinced me I could set up a 55 gallon tank for the same price. So I went to Petco, took advantage of the dollar a gallon sale, and bought a 55-gallon tank and a 20-gallon for a sump-refugium.
I'm unsure where to go from here. I know I need to drill the tank, get plumbing into the sump, and then build some sort of baffles. But I don't know the details of what I'll need and where to get it. I've been looking for detailed how-to guides which explain things step-by-step, but every guide I find says "it's so easy to set up a simple sump" but doesn't explain what you need.
I should admit here I'm totally not mechanically inclined and I never have been. The biggest DIY project I've done was construct a CO2 reactor for my freshwater planted tank. I'm clumsy and I have a tendency to break things. I also don't own any tools, though I suppose I could borrow them from people. And schematics are Latin as far as I'm concerned - I majored in the social sciences, not engineering. :D
So can someone point me to simple, step-by step instructions - along the lines of "drill at point X with Y-cm dremel bit" and so on? It would be a big help to someone who's into the hobby because they like the "ecosystem" side of things, and not the "gear" side of things.