Got my first fish from lfs, got it home & noticed Ich.

Ok, I have been wanting to install roughly a 10-20g tank for a refugium. So maybe this is a good reason to go ahead & buy one just to use as a qt for now. I can knock two things out at once this way & have a lil peace of mind. It just sucks that my stand is so small & doorway is only like 18". Gonna have to find out what size tank I can fit in first.

 

You can surely find a plastic/rubbermaid/similar container that will
'bend' into the opening when dry.
This way you can get a larger container in your stand.

I know, I'm the king of DIY sumps!

 

I almost cringe at the thought of sticking a tub down there. Haha, I spend all this money on tank, lights, rock, coral & then I use $5 tub. That works for some people but I would rather be able to see through it & know what's going on down in the bottom.

 

So how do you seperate the sections in a tub? Cause I'm at work & I noticed my black tub with the yellow lid. You know the type you get from HD. Got out the tape & it's 30x20x14. Man that's about perfect fit. And it's the real strong sturdy type too. I've used them before with my old tanks. They'll hold water & rocks almost full. I'm seriously considering this cause my aqua urchin skimmer is very loud. And it's in my bedroom.

 

There are many ways to seperate sections. Epoxy some in like most all do with baffles in tank sumps,
Or,
use a slightly smaller container- like for the skimmer section which will keep the water height constant. Make a slot or holes at the water exit level to go into the larger container.

For instance- my outer sump is a 50g Rubbermaid 'roughneck'- ~$17.50
Then I have a smaller clear bin in that near one end. The overflow from the DT enters this bin, which holds my skimmer, and the water exits via a horizontal slot I made in it for the water height of the skimmer.
The wall of water flows onto my large chaeto bin area- seperated by a plastic strainer, then onto to the Rueturn pump section, and back the the DT.

The possibilities are endless- you can have LR in it- my LR is all in the DT
you can have sand on the bottom, or a smaller shallow container- I don't have any in my sump.
Then a Large chaeto basket area- Mine is huge- the chaeto
I also have a MJ 600- pushing water to a UV filter- and onto to my DIY Phosguard reactor (A modified Gatorade bottle), etc.

** Edit- all this was in my stand. It now lives in my basement under my DT that's in the Family Room.
I have it on a ~3ft high stand there to get head height back and be able to siphon detritus out of the sump on rare occasions, and I can work on it, empthy the skim cup, etc. while standing up.

Here is my DIY sump thread:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/my-diy-sump-thread-140525.html#post1412028

 

Yea I seen your Gatorade bottle thread & that's pretty slick. I might do that if my phosphates climb. That is a massive ball of chaeto you have in there. I had already thought about the idea of using smaller boxes in the big one for compartments. I'll give this a few days thought & I might be up to gettin a tub to try this. It's so cheap to do, I'm not really losing anything if I don't like it. I'll have a tub that I didn't have before.