wet-dry to refugium?

[tang-chaser]

Use a sump and use live rock in the sump. It adds to the biological filter in your system, increases water volume, gives you a place to put heater and other stuff, and it can even hold troublesome or injured fish. A sump is well worth a few minutes of trouble to add. Also you add live rock to your sump so you can have less rock in your main tank, you can provide cryptic zones that my not be in main tank for better filtration, and to provide a sanctuary for copapods to thrive. If i was you i would buy 1 small peice of accrilic and make a devider for your pump. The only bad thing is you cant really fit a protein skimmer in little sumps. Here is how i would remodel the sump.

[tang-chaser]

I have a oceanic model 75 trickle filter modified fuge. I bought it for 40$ paid 20$ for my return pump, and 20$ for plumbing. 80$ well spent. My sump is stocked with live rock, heaters, protein skimmer, chaeto, and carbon/other media. My water and sandbed is spotless and i do water change once a month.

[Kittysnax]

well ijust measured the sump and turns out it wont fit under the oceanic stand.......by 1/2 an inch!!!:aua:

so i guess im back to my old plan of a 5.5G aga or a 10g TALL......now if I only knew of places that sold the tall 10G AGA....

[tang-chaser]

My sump wouldn't fit under my stand when i got it. I could have dropped it in from the top, but my tank was all ready filled so i had to remove the center brace in the front and go in that way. when i was done i put brace back.

[tang-chaser]

Building your own sump can be more satisfying than buying one. You can design it how you want it.

[rage]

A sump is well worth a few minutes of trouble to add.

A sump can be very useful but it certainly is not something you can add in a few minutes.

I am sure you didn't spend just a few minutes to remove your center brace, design the sump, do the plumbing ...
Not to mention handling overflow, leakage, noises ...

[tang-chaser]

Dude i didnt have any problems with mine, and plumbing is not rocket science. so unless you are missing one arm this shouldent be an all day event. For those that havent plumbed a sump, theres both hard plumbing (pvc pipes) and soft plumbing (hoses). Since this guy finds it so hard, i must explain how terribly easy it is. If you have an external overflow. Take pvc tape and wrap all male threads. Screw on off valve into overflow. Screw in pvc to hose converter. Clamp hose to converter. Put hose into sump. Put another hose on return pump and place pump in sump. Then run hose up behind the tank up to the top. Clamp hose to another pvc to hose converter and screw on a u bend to hang over the edge of tank. screw on any loc line accesories you want, after u bend. If you have all your parts infront of you there is no reason for this to take over an hour. If your tank is already drilled this should be just as easy. This is soft plubing and will be just fine for a tank, if you do hard plumbig witch takes more time and is not modified easily you might spend more time (due to glue drying) and you will need more items to do the same job.

[rage]

Dude i didnt have any problems with mine, and plumbing is not rocket science. so unless you are missing one arm this shouldent be an all day event. For those that havent plumbed a sump, theres both hard plumbing (pvc pipes) and soft plumbing (hoses). Since this guy finds it so hard, i must explain how terribly easy it is. If you have an external overflow. Take pvc tape and wrap all male threads. Screw on off valve into overflow. Screw in pvc to hose converter. Clamp hose to converter. Put hose into sump. Put another hose on return pump and place pump in sump. Then run hose up behind the tank up to the top. Clamp hose to another pvc to hose converter and screw on a u bend to hang over the edge of tank. screw on any loc line accesories you want, after u bend. If you have all your parts infront of you there is no reason for this to take over an hour. If your tank is already drilled this should be just as easy. This is soft plubing and will be just fine for a tank, if you do hard plumbig witch takes more time and is not modified easily you might spend more time (due to glue drying) and you will need more items to do the same job.

I am not going to argue with you .
You did that just fine by yourself!

[tang-chaser]

forums are not made to discourage people. Kitty wants some fish that feed on copapods and a sump/fuge would would help. Im not here arguing im just providing correct information.

[tang-chaser]

people can do what they want but i belive that a fuge is key to a reef tank. Every nice tank i have ever seen, big and small has had a fuge/sump. If it wasent so important, why would people have them.