putting a refugium on a nano?

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djwurm

Anyone put a refugium on a nano like the biocube?

I have a Biocube 14 and I also have a custom built 7 gal tank that fits perfectly in the bottom of the stand. I used to use it for an ATO reservoir but since 7 gallons of freshwater decided one night to flood the biocube and dilute the salinity bigtime I thought better of using the JBJ ATO system.

I have been thinking of using it for a refugium and to get the heater and CPR Bakpak off the main display but not sure on what I need to set it up to be able to get water back to the main display and from the display back to the refugium.

any advice would help.
 
I'm no expert by any means but have heard horror stories such as that from ATO systems. I have seen Nano tanks with holes drilled in the back to attach lines for a sump. I'm sure once that is done there isn't much difference than any other tank / sump setup. I think if you want a sump you would be better off selling the nano and getting a regular tank that is similar in size. Think about the space being wasted with the nc's built in sump if you aren't using it for anything. Just my .02. Just search around and you will find what you are looking for.
 
@ttugrad95 wrote:
I think if you want a sump you would be better off selling the nano and getting a regular tank that is similar in size. Think about the space being wasted with the nc's built in sump if you aren't using it for anything. Just my .02. Just search around and you will find what you are looking for. said:
problem is the limited space. Only spot in our apartment to put a tank is the one corner it is in. Plus the wife wont let me have a bigger tank until we move into a home in a few years. no reason to go out and purchase another tank move everything over, then try to sell the nano. Just seems like alot of work.

Im just trying to work with what I got. Plus my tank has been up and running for over 3 years and I like what I have. I was thinking I could run the 7 gallon tank for extra water volume and put Cheato in it with lights off cycle from the main.

I think it would be pretty easy to do with a few pumps and tubing. But I wanted to know if if was done before and someone has done it and can tell me the problems they ran into and what was it they did to fix it.
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I understand but my point is that like a 20 gallon tank isn't going to be much bigger than the 14 Nano depending configuration and will have much more display area especially when you factor in the wasted space you will have when you are no longer using the nano's sump. If your tank is up and running your going to have a very difficult time drilling it anyway. If your live rock is your filtration you can just transfer everything to the new tank, sell the nc and probably come out ahead cause 20 tanks are cheap, ncs aren't really. You might even be able to get someone on here to swap you.
The NCs I have see that are drilled have 1 or 2 holes drilled in the back depending if you want the return to go back into the back area or if you want it to come over the top. If you want to keep the stock canopy you will probably need to do 2.
If you want the extra water volume there is obviously no other way but if you just want the refuguim for chaeto you can turn the second chamber into one. Many have cut the black off the back wall and attached a light there. Nano customs also sells refugium lights that mount into the hood. They have a couple different ones from leds for about $30 to PCs for a little more. I'm probably going to go this route at some point in the near future because at this point my chamber 2 just has a bag of purigen in it.
Just stuff to think about not trying to persuade you one way or the other.
 
my biocube nano is hoodless. I have a Sunpod MH light on top and run a CPR bakpak skimmer in the back chambers along with a heater. the water level is all the way at the top in the back chambers to accommodate the Skimmers pump. So using the second chamber for cheato and using a light wouldnt work

If I get a 20 gal I am assuming I will need to buy a bigger/wider sunpod or some other form of MH light which I really dont have the money for at this time.
 
djwurm,

Have you found any more info about this or added the sump? I have similar intentions. Please update!

TB
 
no.. put all this on hold since I am semi-unemployed. Dont really have the money to be spending on something like this
 
i have a 24 gallon aquapod, with a pc lighting in hood.
i keep cheato in the back right chamber, i got a submirssible light. so its kind of a little fuge. the cheato doesnt grow like crazy but little crustasions show up like every other day.
 
@myownkeeper wrote:
i have a 24 gallon aquapod said:
the only way I could do this is to use the first chamber of the biocube. The second chamber is full with a rio 600 pump from the CPR Bakpak skimmer and the 3rd is the return of the skimmer.

what submersible light do you have?
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@myownkeeper wrote:
not sure said:
cool, it doesnt really matter anyways. My main point of asking this to see if it was doable was to increase the water volume and be able to move equipment (heater, ATO, Skimmer) out of the display tank and move it below.
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@SaltNewbie wrote:
instead of drilling could you use an overflow to bring the water down to a sump. said:
not sure I could... that's the problem. Biocubes and Aquapods have a false wall with chambers behind it that are very small and not sure any overflow would be able to fit. I don't know though as I have never dealt with overflows. That's why I asked if anyone had done this in my original post to see if anyone has had success using a certain method or can recommend a way to go at it..

So far no luck...
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I made a small acrylic fuge that stood behind my pico. I ran it with a pump that I think was similar to a Maxijet 900. The pump would sit in the tank, (in your case, one of the rear chambers), pump water into the fuge where it would fill the input chamber, flow over an internal baffle and rise to a 1/2" bulkhead and gravity return to the tank through a spraybar or whatever pipe I wanted to put on it.

I still have it, dry and not in use. It cost me $40 for a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and $6 for the bulkhead. I had the pipe laying around. I'll sell it to you for $45 if you want it. You may have to put it on top of a chunk of wood to get it tall enough to sit behind the biocube - it's a bit taller than my pico.
 
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