Mike

 

Mike

 

 

 Just in way of an update on that thread.  I am still using the original styrofoam box.  I has degraded a little, but not much over the last 3 1/2 years.

A sump is the tank beneath you main tank that has all of the equipment in it.  A refugium is space where there is low flow and things like algae, pods, and other things can grow without being eaten by fish or coral. 

 

A refugium can be a sump, A partitioned area within a sump, a separate tank with separate pumps feeding it or it can sit inside a sump like mine does. 

 

I have a separate box inside my sump that acts as a refugium.  It has one tube from my overflow that flows into it.  There is about 4" of crushed coral in the bottom of it along with a few pieces of live rock on top.  There is a ball of Chaeto algae in it and it has a 55 watt PC over it that comes on when the main tank lights go out.  This is called an RDP refugium. (Reverse Daylight Photosynthesis.)  This is supposed to help limit the PH swing from night to day.  The water flows into the refugium and then over the top of the container into the main sump.  (I'll see if I can find a pic.)

 

Mike

 

A 30 gallon would be okay for a sump but too small to include a refugium IMHO.

 

Mike

 

Sump:  I suggest using the largest sump you can get that will fit under your stand.  I have a 180 gallon tank and wanted something large without spending a lot of money so I ended up using a rubbermaid tub that holds about 60 gallons of water.  It has been in use for nearly 4 years with no problem.  If you can get a cheap 55 or 75 gallon tank and it will fit that would great too.  In my opinion 30 will work, but there is no way all my equipment would fit in one that small. 

 

Shut off valves:  Home Depot or Lowes has the ball valves most of us use.  If you are willing to spend the money and wait a while see if you can find a PVC gate valve online instead.  The usually cost 3 or 4 times as much and aren't easy to find, but they do exist and it is much easier to control the flow rate with them.  Again I was cheap and wanted instant gratification so I went with ball valves from HD.

 

Bulkheads and seals:  You are guaranteed to find these online, but you should also be able to get them at any of the larger fish stores.  I would take a guess that any of them locally would have them, but I would call first unless you were OK with going to several.

 

Hopefully someone else can chime in on where they get acrylic.  I picked some up years ago, but I honestly have no idea where I was.

 

Good luck with the single trip thing, it seems always to take 3 trips to HD, minimum, for me to complete any DIY project.