Crazy idea, but it just might work?

Here's the plan du jour- I want to set up a sump/fuge for the 29, but can't spend tons of dough right now. I was thinking of getting an AGA 10 with light hood (on the night channel from main lights), dropping a small 1-5 gal plastic bucket in for fuge.
Move the HOB skimmer to sump, move heater to sump, move 550gph powerhead to sump and plumb 1/2" return.

a small bit of new plain sand seeded with some existing live from the tank, some California-safe macro if I can find it.

It's not a perfect idea, but I figure I'll only be out $20 or so if it doesn't work.

Disaster waiting to happen?

 

i made my fuge out of a rubbermade garbage bucket. All is fine.

 

a fuge is so simple its not even funny. a box, with slow water movement, some light and maybe some sand. thats all it needs to be.

 

That sounds like like the sump/fuge I have for my 20H, GeejEx. I took a small plastic garbage can and stuck it in the middle of a 10 gallon tank, put a few inches of Wally-World cat litter, some LR rubble and a wad of cheato in it and called a fuge. It's a tight squeeze, but it gives be at least 5 more gallons of water, a deeper sand bed, some macro and some place to get y skimmer and heater out of my display.

 

I wish I knew how to imbed that pic properly...hope it helps a bit...

 

This is my over-simple fuge made from $10 worth of stuff from Home deopt and no modifications were made to main tank. works great. well, theres a light on it now........

 

there ya go pisces

 

And actually, I ended up moving the return to the far side of the ghetto-fuge (as I fondly call it). My Remora and heater are in the same area as the inflow bubble-tower...

 

Why do people feel they have to spend a ton of money on this stuff is . People just seem to think the more it cost the better it looks and it has to work better.. All I See is you will need a overflow box to supply the sump. My bugs and plants could not care less as to what is holding the water just so long as it holds is their major and only concern and mine also.. Sounds like a solid plan to me.. Even baffles I have yet figured out what they are needed for ? I have never used anything but a old open tank or tub of some type..