first diy sump ever.....did by me.

[ctenophors rule]

so, i have a 29gallon long reef tank, i want to have all of my equipment underneath the tank, but am willing to do otherwise.

i want your honest oppinions.

would a 10+ gallon sump be better for my system thean a ten+ gallon refugium filled to the brim with chaeto, and ulva.

is their a way to stop the micro bubbles created by a hang on skimmer? (not the ones in it, the ones that come out the middle and into your tank)

is their a difference between a wet dry and a sump???

what i had planned on was sectioning off part of the sump so when the water comes in through the over flow, it cascades onto the filter media, tricles down lloosing air (for the anoxic bacvteria, i think, i always get anoxic mixed with anerobic. anerobic is with no oxygen right??)


the rest of the sump would fit my skimmer, so i didn't half to worry about the bubbles, my heater, and some other goodies that i havent decided yet. any ideas???

would it be worth it to fill the tank half way with some live rock mix ? possible???(garf with a spin to improve it (family secret:bum: )the family)

would that support a goodenough amount of bacteria to make more of a difference than the refugeium or the sump???


any other ideas would be greatly appreciated, i have some spare time on my hands, and would love to try on some diying.

just to recap since this was kindof long and i had a lot opf questions my questions were:

whats better ten gallon sump or refugium???

is their a way to stop or illiminate the micro bubbles spewing from the return on a skimmer?

is their diff btwn wet dry and sump???

anerobic???

anoxic??? (help me please me 14 year old memory is failing me in my old age, lol)

ideas???

wanna meet "the" family???

would a rock sump work??? be practicle???



thanks........thomas

[NanoReefWanabe]

you would be better off using a 15 or a 20g as a sump/ fuge combo..both are 24" and will easily fit under a 29...

then a simple |return|fuge|skimmer&drain| setup would work very easily for you...an ATO wold also be a very good investment, as you make the return section smaller to fit a fuge and skimmer chamber you run the risk of the return running dry from evap...

i used to have a 15 under my 20 but it exploded...now i am dwn to a 10 which is nice because there is room for my dry stuff in the stand now..but i wish i have enough room for a internal skimmer...i have about had it with skimmer overflows...

[ctenophors rule]

the problem with the 24 inch long tanks, is my stupid stand is....23 inches long!!! thats why i put ten plus, if i can get a biger one i will, bigger the better, less chance of a flood, though, if it is a sump, i shouldn't have to worry about that, because it should be below the over flow before it reaches the top of the ten gallon tank.

i already have a refuggium it hangs on the back, but is kinof small, and getto rigged (though it is bigger than most hang on backs for my size tank)

an automatic top off sound like a good idea, i just dont have alot of room in the stand, i will see if i can plumb one into the cabinet next to the tank...plenty of room their.

i was thinking that if i did make if a refugium on the bottom i could make the ten bigger by using a realy tall acryilic tank cutting it and using it like an open bottom tank, and maybe that way could make it so ididn't have to worry abou the flooding.

if i do the refugium, do you think my hang on would be a good dsb???

it would be around 7 inches deep seing as the fuge is alittle over nine, would lighting be a problem. (as soon as my halides get back from the shop around 250 watts of lighting)

[ctenophors rule]

bump

[tinyfish]

I had a similar problem with the stand I built for my 30g long. I ended up putting two of the 5.5 gallon aquariums from the pet store in because they would fit. I used one as the sump, housing the skimmer and return pump and the other was a dedicated refugium. I split the drain to both with ball valves.

Just having the refugium was great for my tank. I never needed the DSB. A shop light with reflector did fine for the chaeto.

[ctenophors rule]

thanks, i will look into combining multiple tanks.

what about the rock idea???

the dsb couldn't be unhelpful....right???

i am thinking of making a fluidived bed filter, with that a dsb might be even more helpful...right, or would it just take away from my chaeto, and ulva??

[noahm]

Try your hands at acrylic fab. then you can make it to fit. I just built mine first time and was fairly easy and fun.