Lazyfuge 2005

Well I traded in my discus for sand, salt and LR . I am now in the process of setting up 75g as a reef. After my first DIY fuge
http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Refugium;action=display;num=1098986321
I am certainily not going to cough up the money for a Eco-system filter. So my 29g will be my sump. I am wondering why I just couldn't go to Wal-mart and find appropriate sized food safe containers, rubbermaid and the like and use those as my 1st and 3rd chamber in my fuge? The overflow into the first chamber with the skimmer. Then overflowing into the sump. Thru the sump over flowing into the slightly shorter 3rd chamber were a Mag Drive pump with the prefilter on it. UP and out. I was also thinking of drilling a series of holes around the upper lip of the 3rd chamber to keep Algae from getting to the pump. Also I would silicon down the container so the wouldn't move. Does anybody think I am missing anything?????

 

I will try to get some picks or drawings

 

Here is the one on Moray's ridiculously huge tank

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/album.pl?photo=moray/home_made_sump.jpg

All made from plastic containers etc. I am sure you could use some of it on a smaller version.
It incorporates drip trays and separates sections with eggcrate...etc. Just some ideas to add to the mix ;D

 

Sweet tank I think it will work. I will post some pics when I get it up and working.

 

Since I can't drill my tempered sump either I was wondering if I could just make some sort of U out of PVC and mount my mag drive 9.5 out of the water so it cuts down on heat? Is there some sort of siphon I don't know about or other pluming issue that would prevent this?

 

It did turn out to be a real lazy DIY job. Here is my sump. 1st chamber is a rubbermaid bread container($7 at walmart). The water flow into the sump there. The intake for the skimmer and any chem. flitration sit in it. I notched the lip of the rubbermaid. The notches direct some of the water into the 2nd chamber of the sump. The 2nd chamber is the Bio chamber. It holds the Kent-BioSediment and the macro algea. The water from the 1st and 2nd chambers overflow all into the 29g tank which would technical make up the 3rd chamber. The 29g tank holds everthing in it. The return pump, heater and the other two chambers. None of it is glue together at all. the wieght of the 10 tank full of water hold it down and it pins the rubbermaid container in place.

It works good and required only setting everything together to get it done.
29g $50
10g $10
Rubbermaid bread container $7
Grand total $67

 

One more pic

 

Looks nice.  I'm building a larger sump using 50g rubbermaid tub from target and using a double drawer plastic bin for my drip plate and chemical and mechanical filtration.  The bin will sit in the 50g tub and the top drawer will hold the filter pad and charcoal.  Came up with the idea while shopping at target.  I'll try to post pics if i ever get a digital camera or my scanner hooked back up.

 

Looks good Covey. Nice work.