HOB sump/fuge?

[littlelil]

Anyone every tried a hang-on-back sump? My understanding is that the sump is used to put things like heater and skimmer, etc. instead of putting it in the tank. It's also where you can keep the refuge and also increase tank volume.

well, my problem is that I built my own stand out of 2 x 4's for my 33g and now there is only enough width for a 5.5g. And for a 5.5g sump, i'd also have to purchase all the plumbing.. etc. This brought me to think of how SW nanos maintain their aesthetics and care. With some research, I found that everything is hidden in the back! How brilliant!

OK so now my idea isn't quite the same, but is there such thing as a HOB sump? With the clearance behind my tank, i'd say I've got about 5" to work with. This MAY be able to fit a medium sized AC as a fuge, but if I have a fuge, I'd want it to be big enough to fit a heater... just to keep it out of the tank.. so i'd need the bucket part to be deeper than the AC's bucket. and then i figured that if i want to customize something like that, why not make it wider as well and put an in-sump nano skimmer and Live sand in it, too. and thus, it was beginning to look like a sump without the part about it being under the tank. I thought that it could work like an AC where there's an intake like the tube, maybe mod it to skim the surface of the water, and the output would be the same where it would just flow right back in the tank at the other end. This would reduce the need for holes in the tank or costly plumbing. It also doesn't have the risk of overflowing your tank with the HOB overflow system (the siphoning one).

Is this possible? Does anyone have one?

ALSO,
I was wondering if anyone uses a canister filter as a "mini-sump/fuge". (Ie, could i put LS, cheato, and a heater in there instead of filter media? I guess there may be problems with lighting the algae, but is there some kind of fuge that doesn't require lighting? What about just a heater?

Any thoughts or suggestions? 

[Funkmotor]

I've built some nice HOB fuges from AC 110's.  Basically, a baffle to separate out the refugium zone and you cut up the basket that comes in the AC110 and use that as your fencing.  You can fit a 50W Hydor Theo behind the intake tube, and you've got room beside the baffle for carbon, phosban, a sponge and whatever.

You'd need pretty close to your 5" of clearance to fit it behind your tank.

The last one I built was really something else, and I modded one of those cheap TOM surface skimmers onto it as well.  Works sweet as.

I can put up pictures if anyone's interested in how I did it.

[RossW]

I can put up pictures if anyone's interested in how I did it.

Yes please 

[KLKelly]

We have a discussion on fuges in the sw section within a thread.  Make sure you make cleaning it really well part of your weekly maintenance if you go with HOB.  Our was crazy dirty when we cleaned it last week - I guess a dirty fuge works like a HOB in a freshwater tank and can result in high nitrates.  We will be scrubbing it and the tubing down every week now.  I am just using it as extra water volume as our tank is only 15 gallons.