Skimmer without sump??

[Fish-guy]

Is there a way to set up a skimmer without a sump. Don't have room on the back of my tank either. Can I keep it in my tank? any help is appreciated

 

[carey]

How big is your tank? what do you use for a filter now?

 

[Fish-guy]

About 180 gallon. Got an fx5 fluval running now

 

[Gti_Leo]

only way i can see a skimmer working that can be mounted in sump is if you mount it above the tank and plumb the pump to hang about 8" inches into the water, even then you might have to mess around with the the pump height since you're addign extra head pressure to it

 

[carey]

How much space is behind the tank? there are skimmers that should fit but you would need 2 of them.

 

[Fish-guy]

No space whatsoever behind the tank.

 

[carey]

Ahh I totally see now. Thats a tough one right there...times like this a sump would be super handy to have

 

[Gti_Leo]

sweet its a woodie i plan on building my own woodie also only thing is i plan on around a 220g.

what did you use to seal it?

 

[Fish-guy]

I used epoxy resin + fiberglass cloth and epoxy paint. 2 steel braces and 1/2 inch glass. Is build like a tank. It's only been running 3 weeks but it's doing great. Bought 150 lbs of live rock for about 200 bucks. Great deal and cycled the tank real fast.

 

[Fish-guy]

Another shot of my tank

 

[Gti_Leo]

might i ask what type of epoxy paint and where you bought it from, i think i'm going to do a fiberglass under for impact resistant and then use an epoxy or a pool paint over top

it would have been easy for you to drill out holes for a bulk head and just made a plywood sump, would have been easy to put the skimmer in there

 

[Fish-guy]

Epoxy resin was west system and paint was steelcoat. I used the fiberglass cloth as well for extra strength. This tank was supposed to be fresh water but I changed my mind. Hence the sump issue.

 

[Gti_Leo]

well i have an idea for that, since your stand is slightly longer its possible to drill out hole for bulk heads on the side where you have theplumbing for the fx5.

you could plumb it straight down and place a sump and just silicone on a surface skimmer that you could build from plexiglass. then to hide the plumbing you could easily build a removable decreative box to cover up that end of the stand.

where did you buy the steelcote paint? did you get it from a pool store?

 

[Fish-guy]

I got it from industrial plastics. They provide all paints, resins and silicone. I'm in Canada tho.

 

[Gti_Leo]

so am i thats why i'm asking hopefully in the same area. i live 20 minutes north of toronto

 

[Fish-guy]

Bc Vancouver. but I'm sure there are lots of places to buy epoxy paint. I didn't cheap out on products like this. It's gotta last awhile. Worth it in the end.