I’ve come up with something that seems to work very well on small tanks. Here is a way for folks just starting out in the hobby who are usually working within a budget, or even some of the more experienced reefers who just need to keep the cost down on smaller tanks, so they can squander it on their bigger ones. I think this will work well on any tank 60 gallons or less. I’m sure someone has already thought of this, so this thread may be redundant, but here is the idea.
What I’ve done is take a HOB CPR Bak-Pak Skimmer, and modify it to do the jobs of a , SKIMMER, FILTER, FUGE. First off you need to buy one of the small clamp-on spotlights from Home Depot. I think they are less than $10.00 Or even the Florescent screw in bulbs would probably work, however that might be Too bright and throw too much light on the tank keeping nocturnals awake. If I understand the principal behind lighting a fuge correctly, the reason the light on the fuge comes on when the tank lights go off it to encourage the growth of macro algae in the sump, or fuge. I know some members I have visited who run their fuge light 24 hours a day. These are the guys who usually have more macro than they know what to do with, but I agree with keeping the fuge lit continuously. The way I understand it is (And I may be totally off here), you only want enough light to keep your macro awake and producing O2 through the night rather than the CO2 that is produced in total darkness. So the little clip-on spotlight works very well. You can set a timer, or turn the fuge light on when the tank lights go off, but I just leave mine on all the time. I think they are about 30 watts, and they get hot, so you have to clamp it up a ways off your CPR. So far my water temp stays about 79 when all light are on and about 78 with just the fuge light, which I run 24/7.
Also you need some good macro. I’m using only Cheato. I was also using some Caulerpa, but after researching this stuff I took it out. The Cheato works great alone, but I’m sure a mix of other good algaes could be used also.
First thing. Take all that worthless blue ribbon stuff or Bio-Balls out of the return side of the CPR Bak-Pak and trash it. Then take a small amount (very small) amount of some live sand from your display tank. I mean, you only need about a tablespoon of sand. Then take some LR rubble from the tank also. This rubble should be very small, preferably Marshall Island or Fiji Branch, something very light. Drop a handful of the rubble into the return side of the skimmer. A baffle or partition separates this side of the skimmer from the intake part so there is no danger of rubble or sand getting into the impeller or the power head. You can’t use heavy rock or the HOB skimmer will be too heavy, but you don’t need much, just enough for some biological filtration and to encourage a nice pod population in your return overflow box. Now stuff the return box with Cheato, the more the better. Use a long spoon or spatula to poke it all the way down on top of the rubble. I say use a lot, but don’t pack it so tight that water can’t flow through it easily. There is not too much force coming from the skimmer side so packing too much can stop the flow. I’m using about what can be stuffed into a half gallon bag.
Now you have a HOB skimmer that is also acting as a HOB Fuge. Then if you want a little mechanical filtration all you have to do is drop in a couple small bags of carbon on top of the macro, and if you want to polish the water a bit, you can place a small square of Poly Filter on the inside of the outlet. This way the skimmer does its job first, then the clean Skimmed water passes up through all that macro, then through the carbon, and lastly it passes through the Poly Filter which removes any straggler phosphates along with any metals or other contaminates. I also run a Hot Magnum HOB powerfilter alongside this contraption mostly for flow, a little addition filtration, and for water polishing. I only run carbon a couple of days a week, and the micron filters the rest of the time. These are things a lot of members who have up graded to bigger tanks have laying around the garage. I'm not sure if this will work with other HOB skimmers, such as the Remora or Prism, but any small powerfilter can be used along side the skimmer. I only chose the Magnum because it is small and unsightly, and the CPR because it is what I had.
Problems With the Gadget:
The only problems I’ve encountered with this thing is, you have to keep an eye on it when you run carbon or when you use the Polly Fiber. Once the fiber gets clogged with particulate your skimmer return box can overflow. It usually won’t, but it can. So you need to kind of watch it while running carbon and fiber. Of course even if it overflowed it wouldn’t empty the display, because the flow would stop once the water level got down to the skimmer intake, that’s not much water, but it is enough to make a mess, or short out power strips, so caution here should be used, as well as a drip loop. I’ve been using this setup for about three months and an overflow only happened to me once when I really had the thing stuffed. That’s when I bought the Hot Magnum. Using only the macro in the return box, without the carbon or fiber, it will never overflow, or at least I don’t think it will, testing still in progress.
What I’ve done is take a HOB CPR Bak-Pak Skimmer, and modify it to do the jobs of a , SKIMMER, FILTER, FUGE. First off you need to buy one of the small clamp-on spotlights from Home Depot. I think they are less than $10.00 Or even the Florescent screw in bulbs would probably work, however that might be Too bright and throw too much light on the tank keeping nocturnals awake. If I understand the principal behind lighting a fuge correctly, the reason the light on the fuge comes on when the tank lights go off it to encourage the growth of macro algae in the sump, or fuge. I know some members I have visited who run their fuge light 24 hours a day. These are the guys who usually have more macro than they know what to do with, but I agree with keeping the fuge lit continuously. The way I understand it is (And I may be totally off here), you only want enough light to keep your macro awake and producing O2 through the night rather than the CO2 that is produced in total darkness. So the little clip-on spotlight works very well. You can set a timer, or turn the fuge light on when the tank lights go off, but I just leave mine on all the time. I think they are about 30 watts, and they get hot, so you have to clamp it up a ways off your CPR. So far my water temp stays about 79 when all light are on and about 78 with just the fuge light, which I run 24/7.
Also you need some good macro. I’m using only Cheato. I was also using some Caulerpa, but after researching this stuff I took it out. The Cheato works great alone, but I’m sure a mix of other good algaes could be used also.
First thing. Take all that worthless blue ribbon stuff or Bio-Balls out of the return side of the CPR Bak-Pak and trash it. Then take a small amount (very small) amount of some live sand from your display tank. I mean, you only need about a tablespoon of sand. Then take some LR rubble from the tank also. This rubble should be very small, preferably Marshall Island or Fiji Branch, something very light. Drop a handful of the rubble into the return side of the skimmer. A baffle or partition separates this side of the skimmer from the intake part so there is no danger of rubble or sand getting into the impeller or the power head. You can’t use heavy rock or the HOB skimmer will be too heavy, but you don’t need much, just enough for some biological filtration and to encourage a nice pod population in your return overflow box. Now stuff the return box with Cheato, the more the better. Use a long spoon or spatula to poke it all the way down on top of the rubble. I say use a lot, but don’t pack it so tight that water can’t flow through it easily. There is not too much force coming from the skimmer side so packing too much can stop the flow. I’m using about what can be stuffed into a half gallon bag.
Now you have a HOB skimmer that is also acting as a HOB Fuge. Then if you want a little mechanical filtration all you have to do is drop in a couple small bags of carbon on top of the macro, and if you want to polish the water a bit, you can place a small square of Poly Filter on the inside of the outlet. This way the skimmer does its job first, then the clean Skimmed water passes up through all that macro, then through the carbon, and lastly it passes through the Poly Filter which removes any straggler phosphates along with any metals or other contaminates. I also run a Hot Magnum HOB powerfilter alongside this contraption mostly for flow, a little addition filtration, and for water polishing. I only run carbon a couple of days a week, and the micron filters the rest of the time. These are things a lot of members who have up graded to bigger tanks have laying around the garage. I'm not sure if this will work with other HOB skimmers, such as the Remora or Prism, but any small powerfilter can be used along side the skimmer. I only chose the Magnum because it is small and unsightly, and the CPR because it is what I had.
Problems With the Gadget:
The only problems I’ve encountered with this thing is, you have to keep an eye on it when you run carbon or when you use the Polly Fiber. Once the fiber gets clogged with particulate your skimmer return box can overflow. It usually won’t, but it can. So you need to kind of watch it while running carbon and fiber. Of course even if it overflowed it wouldn’t empty the display, because the flow would stop once the water level got down to the skimmer intake, that’s not much water, but it is enough to make a mess, or short out power strips, so caution here should be used, as well as a drip loop. I’ve been using this setup for about three months and an overflow only happened to me once when I really had the thing stuffed. That’s when I bought the Hot Magnum. Using only the macro in the return box, without the carbon or fiber, it will never overflow, or at least I don’t think it will, testing still in progress.
