want to make a fuge..please help

[jonathon0883]

Ok, so i have a ten gallon tank and i want to start a fuge..i cant put it under the tank so i have to put it about 3 feet to the left of the tank at the same height...i want to use another 10 gallon as the fuge..can someone tell me everything, and i mean everything i need to do this...i havent really ever built anything like this so it would be cool if i could but to save myself any type of injury i owuld like to not have to drill the tank..but if that works the best i can...well try at least so any help would be appreciated..thanks in advance

 

[krux]

your fuge needs to wither be above your tank, or below your tank, because you need to use gravity to get water to travel one of the two directions. it is for all purposes impossible to buy two pumps and have them feed water at the exact same rate. so, assuming it can not go below that leaves us above. if you were going to put it at the same level, i would assume you could put something under it to raise it up a couple feet.
take a look at this one....
to keep from needing to drill a bulkhead hole in the top tank, you can use a commercially produced overflow.

 

[jonathon0883]

So what i would do is just pump the water from a powerhead into the upper tank and then the overflow box will just dump it back into the main tank? will the overflow box be on the refugium or will it be on maintank? will the overflow box control it so i dont have one filling up faster then the other? and on that drawing is the bulkhead the same thing as the overflow box

 

[cboyfan2020]

On thatdrawing the bulkhead serves the same pupose as the overflow box except you dont have to worryabout siphon break.When the water line reaches the bulkhead(aka hole in the tank) gravity lets the water flow to the main tank. As much water as the powerhead pumps into the fuge is equal to the amount of water being sent back to the main tank.

 

[krux]

here is the same concept using an overflow box instead of a bulkhead. the overflow box goes on the refugium, and will return as much water as the powerhead is sending to the fuge (as long as it doesnt break siphon). the main reason to drill a refugium in this case is if the overflow box breaks siphon (you can read about that all over in other threads) the powerhead will continue to fill the fuge until it overflows, flooding the floor.
this is nothing to be too worried about, as long as you get a good overflow, it is the same concept by everyone who uses a sump that does not have a pre-drilled display tank (myself included)

 

[jonathon0883]

so bulkheads are alittle safer then overflow boxes? because i would much rather have the security of not overflowing because my girlfriend is alittle iffy about the sw tank in the first place and that would just be icing on the cake for her... are bulkheads hard to find? and are there different sizes or types...and so how ever big the hole is how much water flows back into the tank correct? thanks for your help..i have a better idea of what i need to do now