I've been lurking lots of forums and would like to build my own tank - love DIY :)
Can you design experts please look at my sketchup pics and tell me what I should change?
I would like a simple system that I can leave for a day or 2 without worrying about it too much
I would also like a system with lots of natural food (pods?) because I would love to eventually keep my favorite fish: mandarin
I have relatively limited space so I was thinking about a 1m x 1m x 500mm "cube" with a built-in refugium in the back which roughly measures 840mm x 270mm x 500mm, this leaves me with a "display" tank of roughly 1m x 700mm x 500mm
The blue pipes are "from tank to sump" and the red pipes back to display
The idea is for the refugium to overflow straight into the display and hopefully some of the "goggas" will flow with for my mandarin to chow ;)
Here's the "pie in the sky" view:
Left:
Top:
Bottom:
Back:
Right:
Overflow:
Refugium:
Sump pics:
I've seen on some other forums that guys split their DSB's into compartments so that they can clean / replace portions of it without disturbing the rest, you think this is a good idea?
Also as you can see the first sump chamber from the skimmer is just a big empty space, I was hoping this can act as a settlement chamber which I can syphon out? If anything I can also use this as a chamber for those new NP pellets and/or other filtration like carbon? And perhaps keep some frags on egg-crate in there?
Plumbing!?:
With regards to the plumbing, the whole setup needs to stand as close to the wall as possible due to space restrictions and I read here on MASA it's a good idea to have a bypass valve to control the flow through your skimmer? Not sure how I'm going to do the plumbing but will cross that bridge...
Sheesh that's a mouth full! :blush:
Please any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
Regards