DIY Sump/Refugium

Making a sump/refugium for my 2.5 pico out of an aquaclear 70. Im definately interested in how this is gonna turn out.

Materials:
Activated Carbon
Spongey filter thingy
Heater
Chaeto?
Sand
Liverock
Hagen Aquaclear 70 and its guts are gonna be cut up some
Tiny light for refugium part

And probably more as I attempt to ruin a 60$ filter.

That is nicee! What kind of media you gonna use in it? And poor picture frames.


A MOMENT OF SILENCE EVERYONE.

very porous sponge, polyester, then gravel, charcoal and ammonia/nitrate removing junk, another layer of polyester and finally some gravel on top to hold it all down

You are rockin this thing out! when you gonna have it hooked up?

if the power goes out, whatkeeps the sump from overflowing.

the overflow is positioned at the right water level, it could only take 5-10gallons if it went out, but the syphon also has backflow resistance so if no water leaves its very hard to put new water in

Wow, nice job you guys! How'd you manage to come up with something like that?

I am on a mission to make one of these for my current 75 gallon and then possibly a discus tank in the future. I watched an awesome very descriptive 33 minute video on youtube about discus tank set up. He had a 120 gallon with 15 discus and 100 tetras, planted, and a nice refugium sump. He had done 10 water changes I think it was in 6 or 7 years! Uh well worth the money to me! And I think will work perfect for the future in wall tanks that we will be building! On a mission! Give us an update with new pics as to progress pleeeeeeeeeease!

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:I am on a mission to make one of these for my current 75 gallon and then possibly a discus tank in the future. I watched an awesome very descriptive 33 minute video on youtube about discus tank set up. He had a 120 gallon with 15 discus and 100 tetras, planted, and a nice refugium sump. He had done 10 water changes I think it was in 6 or 7 years! Uh well worth the money to me! And I think will work perfect for the future in wall tanks that we will be building! On a mission! Give us an update with new pics as to progress pleeeeeeeeeease!

  - You do realize this thread is near 4 years old?

SUMPS rock though!

Got a link to that video Shorty?

Yes I do! One of the best informative videos I've ever watched! Enjoy Cory!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Refugiums are pretty neat. Just another place to grow more plants   . To me the mud would be annoying to change out. I understand the philosophy to the system. However, I never believed in the whole "I go a month + without changing water" . It's against my religion! I do grow plants in my sump "Refugium". There is  a crypt, Anubias and some mosses growing under an LED.

My Refugium is the fish tank itself. Half the sump is for removing gunk. The other half supports biological filtration. About every 3-5 months I rinse 1 filter in my sump, rotating between 2 different sponges (that's this guys equivalent to reaching in his sump, pulling his plants, and scooping out a bunch of organic mud. Wonder how much that stuff cost -   ).    My prefilter (to his "sock" ) I rinse about once every 2 weeks....maybe....


The best modification I've made to my 30 gallon sump is the hook up of a water changing system. You may want to consider this with a large tank build.  It's hooked directly to my water system with a drain that leads outside. I flip it on for about 2 hours every week changing out about 15-20% water every week.

I hardly get any algae's in my 140. Nitrates are at 0.

Oh man, fishNAbowl, we may need to talk more in depth about this! I think I need to learn a whole lot more but love the idea for a freshwater in wall aquarium I can see a way to incorporate the refugium into a display tank of sorts somehow. We have big plans for the in wall tank, hopefully 2. My boyfriend says I should make 1 salt water, I have never had/maintained or know anyone to have a salt water tank so they make me very nervous. I do love the colors in them though. I'm just not sure I have enough faith in myself to be able to have one. I think a setup like that guys discus how tank would be an awesome alternative! We have 2 larger walls to work with one being in the hallway and the other facing the dining room. He thinks the dining room wall, which is also visble from the kitchen and living room should be the sw tank. Which would look awesome. I say 2 freshwaters with display refugiums somehow would be better. He even told me I should buy a 55 on petco's sale and store it for the in wall hallway tank! I have to resist for now. Although the I want it now side of me said go get it lol.

Well, as long as you don't mind the maintenance , I say the more the merrier, lol!

I've put a lot of thought and effort in low maintenance over the years. Auto water changing systems, and hitting that equilibrium in system where it's pretty much self maintained is god sent. Now I can focus on different stuff like highlight aquascaping in a 7' tank

If you install large sumps in each of your wall systems you can always convert from fresh to salt later. If you have let's say 180 gallon tank make room to stuff a 55 gallon tank under it. Even if for now you only use a 20-30 gallon sump to run the freshwater system you know you will have enough room to slide a 55 gallon refugium under there later. Or whatever, just start with the 55 , baffle it so you can use media for the time being, plant it later. Idk.... Instead of filling your refugium with weird mUd you could choose floating plants to start with, many are great nitrate consumers.Hydroponics, you can float a rooting plant in styrofoam(or something) in the refugium. Many of us grow house plants out of our tanks. You could do the same in a refugium.

How cool. I definitely need to get on this. Atleast try it out on my 75 until the in wall tanks get put in. I was going to re-vamp it into a planted/dirted tank but its got some scratches in the glass from previous owners and I don't want to put all that work and money into it to turn around and dismantle it to put everything in the wall. The fish in the 75 are what I plan on putting in the hallway in wall tank. I think I'm going to have to have a custom glass tank made for that one. We want it longer rather than higher. I talked to a guy on another forum on the east coast who does customers in home tank installations and maintenance some about the plans and he said just to go glass to deter away from any unwanted scratches which makes sense. We just need to check and see which way the floor joists run for weight support. I'm lucky to have a boyfriend whose a finish carpenter so one of the tanks plans to have a faux stand face. The hallway one he wants to do a a wave pattern at the top and bottom so its not just plain rectangle shaped. I have 4 on stand tanks now taking up floor space. He asked if we put two large ones in wall if I would get rid of some of the on stand tanks. I, of course, agreed very easily! Lol

Sounds like an awesome project. I am excited for you , ha! Whenever you start building it would be great if you journaled the build along with pictures on WashFishBox.

Long tanks make for awesome display tanks if you ask me. A lot of people use long tanks for planted tank displays. I have 2 long tanks. 1 is a 9.5 gallon long, and on the other end of the spectrum the other is a 140 gallon long. It is 7' long, 2 feet deep, 16" from front to back.

That 140 would be perfect for the hallway tank. And I want to make it planted too. I definitely will journal it and will have pics on here!