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View Full Version : But I don't have room for a [name of equipment]: how-to.


Sk8r
12/30/2007, 12:11 PM
You start with a tank, and now they tell you to drill a hole in it and install pipes, because you need a sump. And then you need a hanging light, and ballasts to drive it; and then you get a stand, and they tell you you need a skimmer that's too tall for the stand, and by the way, you need a topoff reservoir of at least five gallons of ro/di, and a topoff unit, and a thermometer [2] and a heater and maybe a chiller, and a refugium because you have algae, and they didn't tell you not to set up near a window...

So now what?

Well, the all-in-ones have their virtues, and are really a fairly nice and economical deal for a beginner. But when you get larger---what do you do, if you live in an apartment? What do you do, if you want to put the tank in your living room in a house? Do you have to have all this gear hanging about?

Apartment living.
The all-in-ones have their virtues for apartments. But a 55 is not a bad choice; a wedge corner is not a bad choice. Corners are often wasted space. Weight: about that of a fridge: most new apartments have foamed concrete floors and will hold it; older, wooden floors---keep it near a load-bearing wall.
The smallest skimmer I know of for a 55 is the Aqua C Urchin, which is short, sits in a 10g sump, and will handle a very lightly loaded 55.
You may have to do some 'boxes' to hide other gear. Or get an extra tank stand and use it to support your AV equipment while the bottom hides a reservoir, ballasts, etc. An extra armoire with doors can do almost anything including hide a fuge, a BIG reservoir, a tall skimmer, a kalk reactor [which can be made IN the reservoir], etc. Or buy some ornamental chests and cut the back or bottom out. They can hide ballasts and contain food, etc.
An apartment sink [with adapter] or, more easily, in-apartment washer-drier with a Y-connector [brass ok for this] can support your ro/di unit: stick the waste line down the drain pipe or into the washing machine. Just set a timer for the water running---your downstairs neighbors will thank you.
A sump, though the downflow line is necessarily gravity drained, can be to the side rather than in the stand. Ditto a fuge.
Can't get a sump into your stand? Try temporarily removing any central board that simply serves as a strikeplate for the doors---putting sump in, then replacing board. Better yet---put it in the stand through the top or rear before you set your tank on it.
Or cut an end door in your stand, suitably braced and stoutly so, and slide a sump in that way. Skins of wood stabilize a structure: they do not bear weight appreciably, but they keep what does from wobbling and then giving way. Bear that in mind. Cross-brace or re-skin any hole you make. Do not leave it half done.

A house without a basement: most everything said for the apartment, except probably more room and more wall space. Watch to set the tank along a load bearing wall, if you have wooden flooring. You CAN run a hole through a wall to set your gear in a closet or spare room. All that has to go through the wall is two hoses, the inflow and outflow. This really frees up your stand to contain just ballasts and food. And it is SO small an alteration that you probably could get permission from a landlord to do it, if you agree to patch the wall on leaving.

A house with a basement: if you carefully measure your house, do some tapping and probe drilling, you may be able to put your whole sump into the basement, with only two little hoses going through the floor. Takes a little larger pump, but don't overdo. [I did.] Easy to patch if you have to sell the house. Even better if your basement is unfinished, with a floor drain. There is NOTHING you can't fit in.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Any 'how I did it's are certainly welcome.

Sk8r
12/30/2007, 12:57 PM
Oh, one more note:
Skimmers made to go IN a sump don't actually have to, if you've got room to deal with them. One thing---even out of sump skimmers spit water and leak---at least the Aqua C EV's do. So I covered the top of my sump with a sheet of eggcrate and set the skimmer up atop, its intake pump in the same chamber as the return pump, its outflow equipped with a hose to take it back to the first chamber [thus ridding myself of microbubbles and slightly double-skimming, to boot] ---

---in the vacated middle chamber of my sump, I then put 3" of sand, a dike of rock rubble, and a big ball of pod-rich cheatomorpha algae, under a 13w HO light. That gave me a 20 g refugium in my 30g basement sump. When the skimmer throws a snit and spits water out its air intake, [it does this after a power-interrupt] it falls harmlessly into the refugium, with no problem, no leak. http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f269/Sk8r10/januarytomove598.jpg

You can't do this under-stand, but you could certainly do it inside a modded armoire next to your tank.