Eshopps Alpha Fuge AF-200

After a good deal of research, I had a lot of hope for this product. I found it interesting as it had many of the features I wanted and it met my size dimensions of my cabinet. What I liked and still like about this sump is large skimmer chamber that also comes with the built in probe holders. It has a decent sized fuge, which was anther attractive feature to me. <br><br>Overall the sump is too tall and which made it difficult to install. Further, the overflow drain chamber being in the middle of the sump, made it very hard to connect the drain pipes. The unusual height doesn't seem to have a particular utility as the water level stays pretty low. So I am not sure of the intent there. I wanted to install a gate valve but it has turned out to be impossible.<br><br>Additionally, the water flow throughout the sump is designed in a weird way: water from the overflow drain chamber flows to the skimmer chamber and to the refugium at the same time. Flow out of the skimmer chamber is right below the inflow, which was strange. The bigger problem is the flow into the fuge, which bypasses the filter sock, for some reason, and because of the way the refugium is designed, there is a lot of detritus that builds up and effectively kills the macro algae that is in it. After a couple of failed attempts, I am still trying to get a fuge started. I ended up adding a pump to bring flow from the skimmer chamber to the fuge, which helps a lot, but the fuge and the water flow design are just not smart. <br><br>