If you think about it.......how are streams and rivers cleaned...we sure as hell dont help. Plants and algae clean rivers. You could even incorporate mangroves........they grow in ANY water. There are certain plants that you can buy to put in a refuge.........that will draw HUGE amounts of nitrates and wastes out of the water. as well as phosphates. Thats what plants live on.....so the more plants you put in a refuge.........the more wastes your system could handle.....I have seen people run hydroponics in there back yards.....hook up there fish tanks to the water in the hydroponics....and then all you have to do is aerate the water in the hydropoincs tanks........and circulate it back to the aquarium.....insane set ups. The fish feed the plants.....and the plants keep the fish tank from getting ANY algae. awesomeness!

damn.......filter the water.....grow some plants......sell them for money...that sounds sick.

how much to get a 30 gallon sump running anyways don't want to spend to to much......cheap ass..... lol might be ables to come across a 40 gallon long but don't know just yet tell me what i need an i'll buy an you can set it up for me lol

Well......my lfs uses a 20 gallon long on a 125 gallon reef tank full of sps corals. So 30 gallon will suffice for sure! To get your water from your main tank to your sump....you will need to use an overflow....not a pump. An overflow is a siphon based system that if set up properly.....will not fail. This is coming from someone who has flooded his house several times. You CAN bullet proof them...most people dont. When the pic posting gets back up on here....I will post pics. A simple U tube overflow will work perfecty....make sure nothing can get in your overflow such as snails. (they block that U tube very nicely) You will then house your return pump and heater in your sump. Keeps your actual show tank nice and clean looking. In your sump/refuge you could house your plants to clean your water. Java works well for freshwater tanks like chaeto works well for saltwater. Mangroves will work in your tank no matter what the parameters are. They grow in fresh, brakish, salt, poopy, and clean. They do tend to pull in nutrients slower than algaes or java though. Check out my profile....there are some pics of my sump in there. It has changed since then.....I moved from the sponge filter to a filter sock....Which will work wonders for your tank. Check all this out and research research research. total start up for a fuge.....after plants sand lighting tank pump filter sock overflow. Probably close to 300. plus or minus

yeah.... basically......hmm....haha. Im trying to think how I should explain the overflow. I put a link at the bottom that will explain in HIGH detail how it works. But basically....water goes into a box in your aquarium.....the box has a U-tube in it...goes from the box in your aquarium to the box outside the aquarium.....when the pump is on the water will move readily through the tube from your aquarium to your overflow box to the U-tube to the outside overflow box....then its transported to a hose that takes it to your sump where the water can be filtered massivly and efficently. You could get a rio 1700 for cheap.....as a return pump. and that would push the water back up to the tank and start the process over again....Here I suck at this....these guys explain it better.


http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/overflow.htm