Sorry if this is a stupid question...I have a 20 gal. soon to be reef tank, and i wanted to have a sump for it to run underneath the the stand that it is on. Would an old 5 gallon tank be sufficient for such a purpose. Additionally, would I be able to do this even though my tank is partially through it initial cycling period?
Sump for Nano
- Thread starter ricky1414
- Start date
yep. Have it gravity feed with a power head running as your return pump (a maxi jet will work). This will increase the bioload your tank will be able to handle (even if it is one fish or coral) With it beeing a Reef tank you can use is as a refugium/sump combo since you need no additional bio filtration in addition to your LR and DSB. Also you can hide unsightly heaters and protein skimmers on it as well. Let us know how it turns out and post pics if you can
Here's a similar set-up that I ran on a very small tank (tank is 16 inches wide, 20 tall) for about 6 months. I guess it proves that you can have a sump on nanos. I kept a pair of clowns. It's now with my brother housing a freshwater predator.
The overflow was the central section. I made up a styrofoam cover sort of thing and used a bathroom sealant paint product to 'glue' pebbles/gravel on, then siliconed those rocks on. You could do the same thing, but with live rock (if you're brave). If you don't have an overflow per se you could use an overflow box, but they are a bit of a pain.
The skimmer hung on the back of the sump and there were two bags of matrix (biological filter media) and the return pump. Unfortunately there was no room for the heater.
The overflow was the central section. I made up a styrofoam cover sort of thing and used a bathroom sealant paint product to 'glue' pebbles/gravel on, then siliconed those rocks on. You could do the same thing, but with live rock (if you're brave). If you don't have an overflow per se you could use an overflow box, but they are a bit of a pain.
The skimmer hung on the back of the sump and there were two bags of matrix (biological filter media) and the return pump. Unfortunately there was no room for the heater.
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Pretty cool, eh? It's actually pretty easy to do. I'd love to try it with live rock, by making a base out of styrofoam, sticking on smal pieces and then siliconing on larger bits. The problem is that you can't have very large bits siliconed on, they just fall off - so you'd have to come up with some way of supporting them. I've heard of thin PVC tubes etc, drilled through.
It would help on my new set-up because the paint that I sprayed inside the overflow to hide the durso standpipe, came off within about 2 hours of getting salt water on it. I'd tested it and everything. Anyway you can now see straight through it.
I'm actually thinking about laminating a piece of card the same size and just slotting it in the overflow box. It will probably look like it's painted after there's a bit of algae grown over it.
It would help on my new set-up because the paint that I sprayed inside the overflow to hide the durso standpipe, came off within about 2 hours of getting salt water on it. I'd tested it and everything. Anyway you can now see straight through it.
I'm actually thinking about laminating a piece of card the same size and just slotting it in the overflow box. It will probably look like it's painted after there's a bit of algae grown over it.
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