Nedd fuge advise

[nymike23]

Hi
I was wondering if anyone could give me some poinetrs on adding a fuge to my tank. I got a old 10g laying around and figured it would be great.Most of the refuges I see are either under the tank or on the back. Id like to add mine to the side of since I intend to make it something worth while to view. My main question is water transfer from tank to tank. I was thinking of using 2 small powerheads( penquin 660) to transfer the water since the distance would be only about a foot or two and relly no hieght to pump and return. Anyone got some advise it would help alot.
Thanks.

[cich1]

I have my 10g fuge sitting next to my main tank, i drillied the back of the tank and installed a bulkhead and used a 90 degree pcv elbow as a surface skimmer and plumbed it down to my sump and then used a 1140 penguin ph to pump water back to the fuge. the problem with using 2 pumps is that its almost impossible to balance the flow

[newtofish]

I would advise against using two pumps, just incase something happens to one of them. You need some type of failsafe built in. I would try to use an overflow box to the fuge and a pump back. That way you can drill the overflow to lose suction at a desired level.

You know that if you pump up to the fuge (placed a little higher) and gravity back to the tank all of those life giving pods won't get churned up in the pump. IMO Good luck

[nymike23]

I was wondering if theres a way to do this without a overflow or drilling anybody know how?

[Silencer]

If the tanks are next to each other and have the same water level, you can simply add a siphon tube between them. Add a single powerhead to either the tank or the fuge that pumps water into the other tank. The siphon tube will try to keep the water level in the tanks the same, so as the powerhead pumps water from tank A into tank B, the water level in tank B rises and the siphon drains this back into tank A until the tanks are even again. It's almost the same as the overflow, the siphon will automatically return whatever water you pump into that tank.

[jman785]

Silencer,

Yes, but an actual tank overflow can occur from this if the Siphon breaks and one of the pumps shuts down...thus why we don't recommend this.

[johnmackay70]

Drilling the tank will allow you some real peace of mind in the long run. My first reef was a 20L w/ 10 gal sump using a hob overflow. I had a power outage one night, when the power came back the content of the sump ended up on the floor.

[jman785]

That's what they invented a siphon break for ;)

[johnmackay70]

siphon break worked fine...the siphon didn't restart, so when power came back and the pump came on, the water went to the main tank, and then overfilled...what a mess.

[jman785]

Yeah an AquaLifter works great too by the way :lol: