I finally got the old sump out of the stand. What a chore and a mess.
The side supports remained intact but I felt more comfortable shoring up the end anyway.
You can see my new seahorse handles in this photo. They are deco styled brass seahorses as pulls for the doors.
The new sump configuration is like this...on the right of the photo is the refugium. The slow drain goes into the chamber on the end of it then slowly flows overtop of the baffle. The water raises to the height of the drain then flows through a PVC pipe that will connect the two via bulkheads (thus the drilling in the video above). It slowly goes into a chamber to keep bubbles out. Then what's next is the return area. On the other side of that is the skimmer and main drain area divided from the pumps by a bubble trap. I don't really have trouble with bubbles though as the drain is on the far side of the skimmer and the skimmer body tends to break them all up. I know this because that's how my current sump is configured just without the refugium.
I need to get some more aquarium silicone tomorrow to finish up the job. My old tube didn't have enough left in it.
The board sitting behind it is going to be cut into slats which will be laid down as a floor. The stand's floor wasn't strong enough even for just one 20 gallon and it bowed. It's not structurally important so it didn't cause any harm other than to be annoying. These slats will prevent this. Sort of like the slats you put a box spring mattress on.
My 10 gallon top off tank won't fit anymore so I am going to put a 5.5 gallon top of tank which will fit. Half as much top off water but still enough to keep me going.
I'm going to clean up the old 10 gallon and upgrade my 6 gallon planted tank to a 10 gallon planted tank so win win for me.
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