Building a custom 10g nano-sump

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LongGrain
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:38 pm
Location (country): Green bay, WI, U.S.

Building a custom 10g nano-sump

Post by LongGrain »

So I want to build a 10g sump for my 37g marine tank. I'm currently in the planning stages but i've somewhat mapped out what my plan is and I'm looking for whatever advice you can lend.

first off, I'm dealing with a cabinet under my tank that is 15.5" high, by 27" wide and 18" deep, so i'm restricted in size to a 10g tank. Also the height seems to be posing a problem for skimmer selection. Most seem to be at least 17" tall, which will not do.

anyways my current plan is to NOT have a refugium, so no sand bed or macroalgae is planned at this time. mainly because rigging up a light for the sump is going to be a pain with the stand that I have, so I'm sticking with a dark sump.

My motivation behind this is that I get an enormous amount of microbubbles from my HOB skimmer, also I'd like to increase my total water volume a bit to aid in water quality and cut down on maintenance a bit, and to generally make my display tank look nicer.

SO first would be an overflow, which I'm planning for a Eshopps PF300 overflow with a 1" flexible tube running down to the skimmer. The guy that runs the LFS that I trust suggested having the water go through a chamber of plastic biospheres to help degass the water as well as aid in filtration first.

Then I would have 2 baffles for a bubble trap going into the center chamber, where i could have my heater and skimmer. Now I mostly see people with the skimmer in the first chamber, would having it in the center be a problem?

then another 2 baffles and bubble trap, then the third chamber would have a pump going back up to the tank.

Does this sound like it would work out well? Does anyone know of any skimmers that arent so tall? it seems some of the nano skimmers fall into my height restrictions, but most are only rated at 35g max when I will be pumping approx 45 or so with the sump volume.

any and all help is appreciated!
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