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who's got an external sump/refugium on their pico reef?


Friendly

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This guy is extra salty

This was going to be my contest 2.5g internal sump with refugium I was going to power it with air stones.

 

 

but was trashed cause of the HOB only contest

2046A51E-EAD5-416F-8EBD-0F9956764DE3.jpeg

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doesn't count...internal...however I did not state external in my question, so I've edited it for clarity.  😉

 

very engenius though, especially the gravel/sand filter concept portion. would be interesting to see if that would catch on... 😉

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i ran a hob refugium on my 20 long for the better part of 6 months. it would fit on any tank thats 10" wide. (shamless plug it's also for sale)

 

it was nothing more then a marina breeder box with a plant grow light. Grew chaeto like crazy, kept po4 at 0

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On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 2:51 PM, JBM said:

i ran a hob refugium on my 20 long for the better part of 6 months. it would fit on any tank thats 10" wide. (shamless plug it's also for sale)

 

it was nothing more then a marina breeder box with a plant grow light. Grew chaeto like crazy, kept po4 at 0

Can you send me info on it if you are still selling? I'll shoot you a quick message, Thanks!

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On 4/18/2019 at 10:04 AM, Friendly said:

guess not too many, eh? more likely you'd upgrade to a proper nano and use the capacity for more livestock.  😉

I had 2 three gallon picos plumbed to the same ten gallon sump for a few years. It was great as far as hiding equipment and heaters, could use one skimmer for both picos, increased the water volume as therefore increased the stability of water parameters. And gave me space to grow chaeto in the Refugio’s section of the sump. I did it for the purpose of having two side by side picos, and getting away with only having the equipment for one system.

 

Plus it gave me somewhere to put the heater, skimmer, ATO, etc.

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31 minutes ago, MetaTank said:

I had 2 three gallon picos plumbed to the same ten gallon sump for a few years. It was great as far as hiding equipment and heaters, could use one skimmer for both picos, increased the water volume as therefore increased the stability of water parameters. And gave me space to grow chaeto in the Refugio’s section of the sump. I did it for the purpose of having two side by side picos, and getting away with only having the equipment for one system.

 

Plus it gave me somewhere to put the heater, skimmer, ATO, etc.

that's awesome!

 

did you use external overflows to get the water out or did you have a couple pumps per tank to take out and return at the same speeds?

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I used overflows. Matching pump speeds exactly, even with control valves, is not something I would trust myself with. Almost impossible to get them sync’d up perfectly 

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I built my own overflows out of PVC. 

 

I normally wouldnt do this, lol, since this video is literally 7 years old I think...but here’s my earliest attempt at reefing when I just began. I ended up Hooking up the second pico the same exact way, and had them both running successfully for a few years

 

 

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very cool. did you ever have flow issues? like plugging/stoppage, or overflow or anything else?

 

I want to do something very similar to what you did, but I'm thinking of having a more advanced external overflow made, but on a pico scale, so there is redundancy if something goes wrong.

 

also, for the sump/refugium...did you use a kit or cut acrylic to size yourself?

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10 minutes ago, Friendly said:

very cool. did you ever have flow issues? like plugging/stoppage, or overflow or anything else?

 

I want to do something very similar to what you did, but I'm thinking of having a more advanced external overflow made, but on a pico scale, so there is redundancy if something goes wrong.

 

also, for the sump/refugium...did you use a kit or cut acrylic to size yourself?

I never had problems with water levels, never had a failure. Occasionally I would clean the intake for the overflow. I cut the acrylic on the sump myself. I ended up making another sump in the same style that could hold a lot more water volume shortly after, but it was the same design...just made the chambers taller to hold more water

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no water level issues...guess that means the Y split didn't create any uneven flow for the return.

 

do you think you could have gone with smaller diameter plumbing? my idea of a pico scale external overflow would be to take something like the Eshopps Eclipse S (or maybe L with a redundant redundant overflow pipe) and size it down, using much smaller plumbing.

 

the biggest issues that come to mind with that idea is in regards to the pump(s) used...lacking enough head, or having enough head, but if plumbing diameter is reduced, creating crazy back pressure problems. 

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