Fuge Only

[recoiljpr]

All, I have a biocube 29 that is not pre-drilled. I am going to build the pipe overflows (designs are on reef central, etc) (the overflow will be 3/4" pipe). Since my skimmer, heater, etc are already fitting in the cube I don't see the need for a sump. But, I do see and agree that a fuge would be a welcome addition to my tank.

My plan is to take a 10 gallon aquarium and make it into a fuge with 2 compartements. The first compartment will be where the fuge is (3/4 of the tank) and the second compartment will just contain the pump (MJ 1200) to return the water back to the tank. I will be testing everything out for a few days outside on a 29 gallon empty container I have to dial in the flow, etc. I do have ball valves that I will use to control the MJ1200 flow into the aquarium (It's plumbed with a t to return the unused flow back to the pump chamber to ensure pump life).

My questions are -

1. Would yall reccomend putting a DSB in the fuge (at least 3")?
2. Considering i'm only using 3/4" pipe, do you think the flow will be too great for a fuge?
3. If the flow is too great, then do you reccomend I 3 chamber it and have the fuge in the middle?
4. In order to ensure I don't push too much water back into the aquarium if a fish/snail crawls into my overflow I will place the MJ1200 higher up on the return portion. That way, if something does happen to the overflow, the pump will only put a a few gallons of water into the tank before running dry. I'd rather be out a $20 pump, then have 5 or 6 gallons of water on the floor. Anyone see any issues with that?

I will post pictures as I work on it for anyone who wants to reference or critique it.

[Ping]

1. I would go with a SSB.
2. A bigger pipe has fewer chances for obstruction, the return pump determines the flow.
3. A MJ1200 has alot of head loss, so flow sounds about right.
4. Screen the overflow and clean the algae accumulation weekly.

[coraline79]

I am not quite sure the MJ will work as a return. I am not very familiar with them, but I think that it would be a lot of stress on it as a return. I might be wong though. I have a 30 long with a 10 gallon sump/fuge, and I have it partitioned into 3 chambers. The overflow drains into each side and the middle chamber is the return chamber. I run a mag7 as my return and it works great! I have an eshopp skimmer in the other chamber, but you can reserve it for any kind of filtration or just additional water(more the better). If you put ball valves on each split off of the return you can regulate the amount of water your fuge is getting+add flow to the tank, and PVC is cheap. This has worked out nicely for me, and you can even run a 500gph($35-$50 at AD) pump if you want less overall flow. At 3-4 feet of head you are going to only get 250-300gph with a 500gph pump. Just my 2cents

[recoiljpr]

Well, upon measurements of the stand, a 10 gallon won't fit. Also, from yalls helpful posts above I went and did further research on the MJ and the head pressure will not be enough. So, I'm out both of those ideas.

My "New and Improved" plan is to build a custom fuge out of acrylic to place under the tank. The usable space inside the cabinet is 26" Tall, 18.5" Wide and 17" Deep. I figure I could fit a sump/fuge underneath of 18X16X16 (That would make the total gallons to be 19.95 gallons. I would put the fuge on one side (16 Long x12 Wide x16 high) which would give me a fuge of about 13 gallons. The fuge will be filled by my return which will be T-d off to put some of the water in the fuge and the rest into the "sump" area. The fuge would also have a hole drilled to flow that water down into the return. Since i'll have the room i'll put my Sapphire BC29 in the other side along with a bubble trap (the small area with the skimmer will have the overflow from the sump & the remaining tank overflow feed it). I will then return the water with probably a Mag 5. I will have (by my calculations) about 6 gallons available space for flow in case of a power outage.

What do yall think of this plan?