Well looks like my 55 gallon tank converted to a sump/refugium is just about finished. It has been a long war...with a lengthy list of delays from Oceanic Distributor and the Island Glass shop. But finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Of course I will be posting several pics for those who might be inspired to save a few bucks and do it there self.

It was actually pretty easy to do, nothing much trick about it at all. I started out with a well used 55 gallon Oceanic tank...the glass is much thicker on these tanks as opposed to a All Glass or Perfecto tank. The tank was a paltry $45.00.

The next componet needed was a Bio-Chamber. Since these can often be bought for just a few dollars more saving my self the headache of dealing with a glass shop I just bought an Oceanic # 3 Bio Chamber from Island Pet for $97.00. They were pretty proud of that baby for that price...

Having the Bio-Chamber is was now possible for me to measure out the space for all of the dividers. After the measurements were in hand I ran down to the glass shop and order 2 pieces of glass. 1 was 11 7/8 x 12 x 1/4 and the second piece was 11 7/8 x 10 x 1/4 and both were ready in about 2 hours for a meager $8.00.

I then glued the two panes of glass in place with silicone. One note of caution...USE silicone that has been expressingly designed for aquariums as the stuff you by in the hardware often times contains aluminum. In a reef tank this can be very bad news. After glueing the pices in place that left me with a setion that was 17 inches for the Bio-Chamber, 24 inches for the refugium section and 7 inches for the return pump.

After everything had cured and was solidly in place the Bio-Chamber was installed and filled with live rock rubble. The Live Rock Rubble will be used as opposed to Bio-Balls which often times can cause a Nitrate issue. Using Live Rock Rubble is also a good way to add in additional pounds of rock to assist with the biological filtration of the system without crowding the display with more rock.

Then sand was added along with a clean up crew in the middle section of the sump. I added about 40 lbs of Oolitic Sand and another 10 lbs of GARF Grunge Lite. The reason for adding the GARF Grunge Lite was because I intend to use this refugium set up as a "Mud and Mangrove" refugium. The GARF Grunge Lite is basically a silt like sand full of minerals that will slowly release over time and it also supplied a wealth of worms and other critters to boost the micro-fuana in the DSB. This provides a great source for rooting Mangrove tubers and kick starts the growth of the mangroves which are notoriously slow growers anyways.

A Mag Drive-5 was installed on the return side. Now Mag Drives may not be the best pumps in the world but they are pretty damn reliable and bullet proof. They havent failed me yet and they have proven themselves to be quiet the work horse when it comes to return pumps. This pump will crank out about 300 gph with 5 ft of head which will match my CPR overflow box perfectly.

At the moment I havent yet plumbed the display tank into the Sump/Refugium as I am using the Sump/Refugium in a closed loop manor for the moment to clear up the water and allow all of the mud to settle first. Hopefully tomorrow I will drill the required holes in the stand and run PVC pipe and rubber hoses and get everything on line. At that point I hope to have an uneventful test run with no leaks and be a happy camper!

The only purchase that were required was the Tank, the Bio-Chamber, the 2 pieces of glass and various hoses and PVC pipe as all of the other equipment was already on hand from previous projects. Real cost on this project would have been about $300.00 for everything. Generally a sump of this capacity would normally cost about 300-350 not counting the sand, mangroves, clean up crew, or return pump. So in all actuality this sump would have cost about 400-450 at a retail center. So I have saved about 100-150 fun dollars by doing it myself. It only took a couple of hours of my time so it wasnt to much work. If I made the Bio-Chamber myself I would have saved about another $50.

Morale of the story...if you want to get into saltwater tanks and dont think you can afford all of the whistles and bells, dont be intimidated, many can easily be done by the DIYer. You willprobably save a gang of fun dollars and in the process of designing and building it, you will gain a much better understanding of the big picture and how your tank "really works".

This is the Oceanic # 3 Bio Chamber

This is the tank with the freshly glued panes of glass installed and drying

This is the bio-chamber with 20 lbs of Kaelini live rock rubble

This is the refugium section with mangroves planted

When the great sand storm of 2005 is over I will add a better pick with the sump actually hooked up to the display and running full speed ahead.

Future plans are to add about 6 more mangrove tubers to the mix and hopefully some Red Gracilaria Macro-Aglae which is also known as "Tang Heaven" since Tangs wolf this stuff down by the handfull. Its a great macro for the refugium as its fairly fast growing, extremely nutrious and makes a fairly decent nutrient export algae. It is also an algae thats in high demand for those previously mentioned reason and in addition has no hold fast like many other algaes and has a minimal effect in excreting growth inhibitors as a form of chemical warfare and self presevation like most other Macro's used in the refugium. It also makes a great breeding factory for Mysis Shrimp and Coepods!

Hope you enjoyed seeing the project and it motivated you to set one up too on your tank after seeing how easy it was to put together!

I just read this entire thread...that sump/fuge is dreamy!

--Dan

Thanks! It was really all that tough to do...

very cool, project and pics Ritsuko.:)

Very cool Ritz I just got my Calurpa for mine at the LFS today got it all in there and will see how it does very cool.