Nano setup: sump or sumpless?

[®eefer]

I'm helping a friend get his 18 gal nano setup. I personaly wouldnt run a larger tank withougt a sump & fuge, but I am wondering how I should advise my friend on the subject for his 18 gal nano. The tank is drilled, but I am not a fan of the style the drain is drilled. There is no skimmber box, just a hole at the bottom and setup for a standpipe. Return is drilled properly. I was thinking about just plugging the drain and running a HOB skimmer with surface skimmer box, no sump. I figure things can still be kept clean looking with a small closed loop system, only thing to try to hide would be the heater. Any suggesions to go with a sump? If closed loop, what is a good external pump for such a small tank? I am thinking an Eheim 1048 + flow from a remora will be sufficient. Is it possible to hide a heater in a remora?

 

[mntl]

If the option is available and the expense of the extra equipment is not an issue than definately put in the sump. Even a 10gal sump is more than 50% more water volume which really helps with stability. Plus it is somewhere to hide all of the equipement. The only major downside to a properly set-up sump is the initial expense and effort in seting it up (extra equipement/space etc.). It is not necessary, but it makes things easier (again if properly set-up).

-John-

 

[®eefer]

It's not really that much more equipment...rubbermaid container. Could go with a cheaper pump since it could be submersed, which may offset any additional costs. I am just concerned about the current drain setup. For starters, I wouldnt have him run it with a sump unless we plugged the current bottom hole and redrilled the back (no problem to drill the acrylic), but then he would need a surface skimmer overflow box. I guess we could glue one together and dremmel out some slits, or possibly we may be able to rig something with a pre-fabbed box (glue it to the aquarium and drill it with a bulkhead running through both)?

 

[timschmidt]

Is the hole in the bottom of the tank near a corner? If so you can do piece of acrylic and put it in the corner on a 45 degree and have that dremeled to act as the surface skimmer and then make a durso standpipe. Like the link here.
http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

 

[®eefer]

It is in the rear but not in the corner enough to want to take up all the space it would require to build an overflow box around it. I like the idea of the overflow being on the back so the skimmer box can be more compact.