Don't think a refugium will fit. Suggestions?

Don't know how handy you may be, but this site shows how you could get a different system under your tank.

Marc's Super Sump

He has a lot of great ideas. Definately worth looking around his site. Amazing stuff!
Good luck.

 

look's great and love to have a sump like that but I'd still be unable to get it in and the fact that I can barely pound a nail into a board (not really but any big plumbing is beyond me). I have three openings of 16x21 with 5in supports in between each one on front and back with about 6 and a half inch clearance from back of stand to wall. So it has to be shorter than 30in, max. of 16in tall and max. of 10in wide. Seriuosly considering two or preferably 3 10g but I don't see myself drilling for bulkheads and having ball-valves no matter how much I'd like to have that know-how. Sorry if i'm making it difficult.

 

I was looking into getting a custom sump from the link but if it starts at 300$ and goes up I'd rather find another solution.

 

You can use 3 10g tanks, but its better if you drill them so they can drain into the next one. You could do something like this.......




Click on it twice so you can get a better close up. Luna

 

I like space too....I drilled the floor and put the sump and refugium in my basement -- all the room I could ever want now

 

How much higher would they have to be than each other? How do I go about drilling it?

I have carpet around my tank and anyway there is nothing below where it is.

 

The height would just need enough for gravity to feed the next tank - so it could be as little as an inch if you need it to be.

You need to pick up a glass drill bit for your saw - the usually come with some oil. I don't recall the cost, but I doubt they are too expensive.

Here...I just did a quick google on it: http://jehmco.com/html/glass_drills.html

 

Enough that the drain clears the top rim of each tank. This will take some measuring before you start building anything.

As for the drilling thing, drilling is sooo easy. I dont know why ppl freak out when they hear the word "drilling". It takes more time to set everything up, than the actual drilling it self. This is how I drill a tank;

1. Select the size of the bulkhead(BH) first. Each(most) BH will have a sticker on it stating the size of the hole that you must make in order for the BH to fit.

2. When you have the right size drill bit(diamond bit), make a template out of wood(1/2"), a thin piece of metal or something sturdy, that is the same size hole of the diamond drill bit.

3. Tape the template where ever you want the hole to be on the tank. This will prevent the drill bit from moving while your drilling.

4. You NEED to have a steady flow of water at the point of drilling. This is very important. It will prolong the drill bites life and speed up the drilling process. I get the garden hose and I open up the valve just enough that a steady flow of water is coming out.

5. DO NOT put too much pressure/weight on the drill while your drilling. Let the weight of the actual drill be the "driving" force. This will give you a nice clean cut.

6. In 5 mins or less, your done!

If your like me that needs some visual, go to Youtube and type in glass drilling and watch the different videos. Its so easy, that when your done, your gonna say " that was easy, Luna was right".

Luna

 

BTW, you can get the diamond drill bites on Ebay. A 5 piece set will run you about $30-$45. Shop around. Luna

 

You actually wouldn't have to stagger them either, you could put a bulkhead on each tank and go directly to the next in a straight line. Once the first tank gets full it will still pour into the next until its full, then into the next and so on this will cut down the "splashing" of each "overflow".

I was thinking about doing something similar with acrylic before. Instead of a bulkhead on each tank, only one bulkhead put in place to connect the holes after you place the tanks into the sump. This would require a rubber gasket on each side of the bulkhead also. Cannot do this with glass because of the gap between glass tanks when you put them side by side (caused by the trim on glass tanks), but acrylic has no trim usually so they can sit right next to each other.