Need A Refugium Sump For Your Teeny-Tiny Nano Tank? Eshopps Cube Nano To The Rescue!

Beef up filtration and take your small aquarium to the next level with an EShopps Aqua-Fuge CUBE Sump! Having a sump can make all the difference in a small tank, you gain water volume which is huge, but you also can use more powerful filtration equipment and tuck that gear out of plain sight. You will not be limited by internal filtration compartments or choosing only the gear that hangs on the tank or goes directly into your display.

eShopps makes a full line of acrylic sumps and their CUBE shaped Aqua-Fuge sumps are designed specifically for tank stands that require a sump with a small footprint. There are two different sizes, the nano featured in the video, and the medium which gives you an extra 4" of length and width while retaining the 16" height. The two are just about identical in design except for the drain bulkheads where you nano has a single bulkhead drain connection and your medium comes with two.

Eshopps Aqua-Fuge Cube Nano Footprint: 14" x 14" x 16" and rated for tanks up to 35 gallons.

Eshopps Aqua-Fuge Cube Medium Footprint: 18" x 18" x 16" and rated for tanks up to 75 gallons.

Although its small, the sump is divided into 4 chambers giving you just enough room for a filter sock and coarse mechanical filter, refugium, return pump, and a protein skimmer with proper baffling to maintain the appropriate water level. Eshopps was a bit clever in their baffling to make this all work. Raw water is split in the drain chamber into either your refugium or skimmer chamber. The adjustable outflow baffle on the skimmer chamber keeps your water level constant before entering the final return pump chamber. This means you get both a refugium and functioning skimmer chamber in a space where having both is often not an option.

There are a couple of trade-offs being such a small space. Note the return pump chamber is small so choose your pump wisely and ensure your ATO maintains that water level to avoid dry run. The thin space between your vertical and bottom baffles are not easy to access for cleaning either so some extra effort is to be expected when the time comes to clean out the sump area. Nonetheless, the benefits far outweigh the downsides here so if you're looking to improve your small tank in a big way, check out Eshopps Aqua-Fuge cube.