Ok, I took the easy route and got the Nano-Cube 24 to use as a reef tank. I know that some people will tell me that I can only keep soft corals with only 2 X 36 watts of light, but I have seen (with my own eyes), successful reefs made out of Nano-Cubes with Clams, Acropora, and all other hard corals. The trick is to place the hard corals close to the surface near the lights. I am somewhat unhappy with the filtration (high nitrate), and I would like to add a very small sump (2-3 gallons) refugium under the cabinet. I am willing to make small holes in the hood to allow hoses to fit through. I am worried about an overflow of either the sump (if the pump fails) or the tank (if the siphon fails), and I would like to know how people make sumps safe. I have no way of putting an overflow box on the tank to protect the sump from overflowing... Can I use a float valve for the intake to the sump and a float switch to control the pump from running dry? My plan is to have a pump that pumps the water faster out of the sump than the water coming into the sump... so that the sump water level will rise and fall continuously as the pump turns on and off. Will this work? Thanks for the help.
Sump for Nano-Cube
- Thread starter jdizzle1000
- Start date
Most people retrofit there nano cube hoods and add more powercompact bulbs or even retrofit a metal halide in there. Clams generally stay on the substrate so putting them close to the light isnt really an option. I have a 20L tank with 2X65 watt PC lights on it and I havent attempted SPS corals like acropora yet, and a 20 long is shallower than the nano cube 24 so light penetration is even better. I am going to put metal halide over my tank and then I will be willing to try SPS coral.
I cant be much of a help with the sump but I do know a little bit about them.
When you make a sump, you would put baffles in it(or dividers) for the seperate areas of the sump. To prevent the tank from overflowing, you would make the section that the pump is in very small so it cant pump in a lot of water back into the tank. The rest of the water will stay in the other sections becuase there is no more water coming into the sump so the water cant flow over the baffles. The trick to making the sump not overflow is making it so that the siphon is near the surface of the water so that it stops once the water level in the tank gets too low.
That is a pretty bad explanation, but hopefully it gives you some sort of idea on how to make it so that they dont overflow.
