DIY 10 gallon fuge combo with canister filter

[The Saltwater Kid]

Thanks for the effort man .

 

[sxtsvnstng]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8902115#post8902115 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kfowler
I've read of several people doing this for a 55g. Any chance a 20g Long would fit? I would try that first but the 10g will work also. Couple things to keep in mind.
1.) Size of your skimmer. May take up more room than my Urchin. If you don't have a skimmer yet you may want to consider the Urchin Pro for a 55g. Would be larger though. Make sure your cabinet is tall enough for it.
2.) Your heaters will obviously be bigger. You'll need to plan how and where you'll place them. My tank runs very cool due to a canopy fan. So I'm having to run a 100 watt and 50 watt heater to maintain temps. BTW, I really like using two heaters spaced apart.
3.) Finally and I sound like a broken record here, a 55g will evaporate a heck of a lot more water than my 20 High, so you definitely want to make your return/fuge area as large as possible and seriously consider an auto top-off.

1)I really wish a 20L would fit, i bought one already made and it just wouldnt fit under my tank... Oh well lesson learned. My skimmer is an amiracle quad II with a rio 1700 pump.

2) My heater is a 150W.

3) I read about the auto top off stuff and i think with just a 10 gallon under my 55 gallon i should have plenty of room for a 5 gallon bucket to make an auto top off so that is definetly an option for me to consider high on my list.

Thanks for your help. I drew up a "plan" of what mine should look like, i took ideas from yours and added a few also. I think i should be ok. When i get it up and going i will definetly post pics but here is the current design, let me know what you guys think.

 

[kfowler]

Justin - I'm getting 9 15/16th inches for the width. For height, it depends on how much water will flow back into your tank if power is shut off. Mine are around 9" each. That being said, it's Friday night and I've already been sipping on the bourbon so I would definitely double check these measurements with your tank.

sxtsvnstng - I think the design itself is fine assuming you have an auto top-off. I'm concerned that you may not have enough width space for the return and skimmer section. Maybe though. I imagine a 150 watt heater is fairly long so make sure it fits where you want it. Other than that, your good to go. Hey if it doesn't work, it's always easy to remove the silicone. Definitely give it a good "dry" run. Let me know how it turns out.

Sometimes I think I spend more time looking at my sump than my display. It's cool to watch things work.

 

[The Saltwater Kid]

lol...thanks Kevin. Do you think maybe tomorrow after your bourbon has taken it's leave you could measure again just to keep the old addage of measure twice, cut once alive?

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i used pieces of cardboard to hold my baffles temporarily...i just cut a slot in the card the thickness of the glass and then however large the space was...some pieces i cut to use a pressure fit pieces against the sides of the tank...and i cut one piece an inch thick to use under the baffle that is lifted off the bottom of the tank..once the silicone is dry you can forcefully remove the cardboard if necessary, with out fear of breaking anything..

 

[The Saltwater Kid]

bump

 

[The Saltwater Kid]

bump

 

[sxtsvnstng]

im pretty sure he will answer you when he gets some time, no need to endlessly bump...

 

[kfowler]

Justin - Same measurement. My laptop pc crashed so I'm having to recover all the crap on it.

 

[chevegan]

Kevin just something for you to know. I have a VA 1300 as a return for my 20 comes out at about 280gph at 2.5ft head. Anyhow here is my point your tank is cold because you don't have enough flow so the warmer water is pretty much phased out by the time it gets back to tank. Here is what I did after I realized the second heater was doing crap. I set my heater to 82 and it keeps my tank at 78 over night nifty eh.

 

[kfowler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8916796#post8916796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chevegan
Kevin just something for you to know. I have a VA 1300 as a return for my 20 comes out at about 280gph at 2.5ft head. Anyhow here is my point your tank is cold because you don't have enough flow so the warmer water is pretty much phased out by the time it gets back to tank. Here is what I did after I realized the second heater was doing crap. I set my heater to 82 and it keeps my tank at 78 over night nifty eh.

chevegan - While I don't doubt this is true, I don't believe this was entirely the case with mine. I ran the tank at first with no fan on it. With temp set at 79, I was getting constant readings of 82+. I'll attribute this to the lights. I even tried lowering the heater setting which didn't help except at night. Then the temps dropped too far. I'm only running 2 14 watt T5's and 2 14 watt actinics but there was some noticeable heat coming off the lights. When I added the fan, BAM! Temps dropped 10 degrees and the 100 watt heater couldn't keep up with it. Now that I've added the additional 50 watt heater, my temps fluctuate less than 1 degree. So it seems to be ideal.

I agree though with what your saying about heat loss to the tank. One advantage of a sump is it cools the water some. I do wish I could get more vigorous flow from the return but I have a Tunze 6025 powerhead stirring up the rest of the display.

One last thought, this is another reason why I'm a big proponent of waiting a month after a new tank starts to add livestock, even if it appears to have already cycled. Getting a tanks parameters stable can take some time.

 

[The Saltwater Kid]

thanks Kevin!!!

 

[kfowler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8918847#post8918847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Saltwater Kid
thanks Kevin!!!

No problem. Let me know how your's turns out.

 

[Blinkgyrl2987]

Okay I have a question. I just recently set up my 20L as a sump and I noticed that where the water flows down through the tube ( from the overflow box) if the tube is not partially exposed from the water I get a gurgley sound. Reminds me of a horse trotting.lol. So up until now I have been resting the inflow tube on top of the return pump so the tube stays above the water. From this I get that rushing water sound... which is kind of loud.


What I'd like to know is ... from all the pictures I have seen of sumps, it has always seemed to me that the pipe coming down from the overflow is submerged. IS this true? And how is this possible if ( like in my situation I'm getting this horrbile sound).

My friend and I came to the conclusion that its because the overflow box pulls down water but also air ( thus the tube needs to stay exposed in order to let the air out) if not it drops below the water and the sump and bubbles a whole lot.

Another thing is the overflow is rated for 600 gph. the pump is rated for 350 gph. I'm guessing that since the overflow only can only take in what the pump pumps... its only getting maybe 350 gallons and therefore is taking in alot as air as well?

I'm just confused. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong

I also have yet to add in baffles, refugium etc... I plan on drying out the sump and constructing all this. I just wanted to set it all up and experiment with how the overflow and return pump works. Is there any down sides to just having the skimmer and heater and return all in the sump without any divided sections? Just wondering b/c this seems to be working fine if I didnt plan on adding the refugium later or if I went with a hang on the back one.

The only problem I'm having is with keeping my temperature up. I think I need a higher watt heater.

 

[kfowler]

Ok lets see.

I had the same problem with my overflow. You need to add a syphon break somewhere. Here's how mine works. I use the durso style pipe at the overflow. First pic below. The mouth is totally submerged. The water then passes through the bulkhead where I have a syphon hole. See third pic below. It doesn't have to be this elaborate. All you need is just a hole. I do recommend there being some room in case water backs up into it. The syphon break keeps from having the gurgling noise.Nice and quiet. For your pump, I have the same situation. I know my tank will drain faster than I pump it in. However I believe the durso pipe counters this in that if you added a stronger pump, it would just pull the water harder due to the pressure. Kind of hard to explain.

You can have a simple sump with no dividers. Things you'll want to watch for are micro bubbles and mainly critters and sand getting into your pumps and skimmer.

This one is sideways.