Quote:
Originally Posted by phils514  What if I drill a hole on my hang on filter and use that kind of as my overflow box to my sump? will that work? and maybe cut pipe that collects the water short enough so when the main tank is losing water, it will stop draining.
Note: I have 2 hang on filters |
Interesting thought, I dont see why that wont work. a 1" hole on a overflow is rated for approx. 600gph so if you put a 1/4" hole that should in theory put you around 150 which would be a much more managable rate for a 5 gal. sump. I would recommend you drill a small hole also towards the top of the inlet portion of the hang on (in the tank) to act as a syphon break in case you loose power. You will need a pump in the sump though, a powerhead would prob. not have enough power to push the water back up to the tank. You can put say a 400 GPH pump in and use a control valve to control the flow back to the tank, I would even add a T diverting some of the water back to the sump. I use Quiet One pumps, they are very reliable and not over priced and dont produce the heat a Mag does, speaking of which you should keep a eye on the temps after you set up, a internal pump of any type may cause your temp to go up due to the fact it is a smaller set up.
Another thought would be to convert your hang ons into refugiums. Remove all the media, in one I would put mud and some macro algae with a small light, you can get the light from marinedepot.com for $20-$30, and in the other I would put some LR and sand (no light would be needed for this one). These would then and additional bio filtration and give pods etc. a safe place to breed. Or as I mentioned in one of your other posts, loose both the hang ons and get a hang on refugium, you can even get one with a skimmer for under $150 off ebay, this is plug and play and will add almost as much volume as a 5 gal tank would, because you wont be able to fill the 5 more than half way while running to allow for power outages.
