Making a Sump & Refugium with 5 Gallon Buckets?

[carolinareefs]

I have very limited space under my tank for a sump. It is 1" too small for a 10 gallon tank, and I would like something with a little more volume. I can get a custom tank made, but with shipping and the cost of tank it will be $70.

I can fit (3) 5 gallon buckets under there however, and possibly connect them together with pvc pipe. The first would be the compartment with my coralife skimmer. The water would then flow from the first to a second bucket through pvc pipe.

The second bucket would contain sand, live rock, cheato, heater and a light. Would I need a powerhead in here?

The water would then flow to the third bucket with a return pump.

I there is anyone with sump experience that could help me with a design, different heights for buckets for better flow between buckets and advice for keeping micro bubbles to a minimum would be great.

Would appreciate a drawing if someone could help me out with recommendation.

I can be emailed at mcoppedg@yahoo.com

Thanks!

 

[wetWolger]

this is possible....but I would avoid it at all cost. First because you are creating a LOT of points that can fail. And if any fail it could mean a flood. Second if you do your skimmer first that means the waterlevel of the other buckets can only be as high as the water level of the skimmer (unless you put a pump in the bucket to pump it up to the next bucket.....which can cause problems on its own.) IMO a bad idea

 

[mrferrit]

sent you a email of how i would do it if i had to not sure if iit would work

 

[stingers81]

this is the way I did it

the water flows into the left container with the skimmer...it then goes into the right one and the pump takes the water back into the tank.....I put in a smaller container(with 4 holes at the bottom) into the right container and im going to set up a refug in it...so far I had no problems....I think this sump costed me around $20 total....if for some reason i get a leak or some crack, I will just get a new one....its been running for about a month now and it seems good