Zoological Aquascaping

Even if there was some way I could have a light over the canister it wouldn't work?
 
Well, a canister filter is basically a sealed container, with the exception of the input and output. To also use it as a refugium, you would need to have a completely transparent lid as well as a very simple mechanism to open it up frequently to trim excess growth, which would likely cause an extreme amount of wear on the seal. You'd be better off just having a canister and using a HOB style refugium, or doing a sump and adding a refugium to that. If you want to use the extra stuff, you're going to have to spend more money to do it correctly. The AC 110 has a ton of mods available online to turn it into a refugium. I'm sure something similar can be done with an AC 20, which is in the neighborhood of $20 on Amazon, and can be used either on a sump or on the tank, both HOB style. AC 30 is probably just a few dollars more, but has a noticeable increase in the space available to work with.
 
Hey, I just went to my LFS, Age of Aquariums, and I talked to them about the HOB refugium idea. It seems more reasonable and theirs are in the range of 50-60 dollars and can apparently work for 10-20 gallon tanks. I'm leaning more towards using a 10 gallon tank for this project as well but if it demands for anything larger I'll go with the 20g my gecko's currently in and move her to something else. ;) This has made the whole setup thing way easier and if I can get this covered, I'll be able to focus on stocking the tank. Anyone have any suggestions on coldwater inverts?
 
Define cold water. If you're talking about a tank that has inhabitants that live in temperatures that are below ambient room temperature, you're going to have to figure out a way to cool the water to appropriate levels. Chillers are expensive to purchase, and expensive to operate, relatively speaking.
 
Haha yeah I have a chiller on deck but the setup I've been planning is just a biotope of the local tidepools near me. The temps there vary from around 60 (probs lower in the winter) to what seems like well over 100 degrees in some cases, when the rocks collect heat and toast up the waters. :jaw-dropping: It really surprised me to see crabs still in the hottest pools just living as usual.
 
Greech knows the hardware *much* better than I do. I'm watching the thread, because I'm curious how it'll turn out for you, but I don't want to comment on the equipment when I don't know what I'm looking for to know if it's good.
 
Unless I am missing something, the skimmer you are looking at is meant to be submerged and will not work by hanging off the back of a tank or refugium.

Technically, a HOB skimmer could be hung off of a HOB fuge. I wouldn't suggest it but it could be done. Some HOB skimmers use a pump that would need to be submerged is something (display, refugium, etc). If I understand correctly what you are asking, that would require the pump be placed in the HOB fuge and would take up most of the space and would likely be a noise issue. Keep in mind that the fuge will also need a pump in the display in order to feed it.

I don't see you avoiding an eyesore with this setup. The skimmer would need to be in the tank and the HOB fuge still would require a pump in the tank.

If this is the setup you want to go with, there are HOB skimmers that use external pumps so all you will see is the drop tube/prefilter box in the tank. Reef Octopus makes at least one skimmer like this. Likewise, I would suggest using an Aquaclear 70 or 110 as your HOB fuge as the only thing you will see is the drop tube. There are lots of simple mods out there for Aquaclear fuges. An online retailer called inTank also sells premade acrylic inserts for Aquaclear filters.

Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, the HOB skimmer on the HOB fuge was what I initially planned. The tank I'm planning on using is only 10 gallons so I planned on arranging everything so that it wouldn't crowd up the tank itself. Would I need to use the 70 or 110 because of the aquarium stocking plan? Or would it be possible to use smaller, less costly sizes? I'll look into the AquaClear mod but unless you're suggesting not to, I'll still lean towards buying the less costly and presumably smaller (medium size is 10" x 4" x 5") Azoo refugium. As for the skimmer, I like the idea of Reef Octopus but after looking at the prices and knowing that I'm attempting to work on a budget of less than $100, I'll look for less costly alternatives such as this.

Soon in this thread I wanna re-discuss how I can stock the tank, lol.
 
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