Quote:
Originally Posted by veriann  D, can i have a look at how you wired that sucker? You want to post up a pic of your wizardry please. |
V - Here's a few photos of the plumbing. These are older, and a few things have changed, but the overall concept is the same.
The first photo shows the layout under the tank. The
sump is on the left, the
refugium on the right. Water enters the
sump from (2) overflows that I had placed 2' in on each side of the tank. I did this because I knew the tank would be viewable from 3 sides, and the overflows would skim the surface from 3 sides rather than just 2 if these were installed in the corners. The overflows are combined into a single 2" pipe before going into the
sump.
Photo 2 shows the
sump, which is obviously a modified
wet/dry filter. The 2" pipe goes into a
diatom bag/micron sleeve/whatever you want to call them. Inside the sleeve is a bag of Chemi-Pure. The sleeve and the chemi-Pure are replaced every two weeks, which is about how long it takes before it gets close to overflowing. A good chunk of this water is skimmed with a Euro-Reef
skimmer. Water then spills over into the second section of the
sump. I currently have the main heater and a back up heater there in case the main heater fails. A small portion of this water goes through the Phosban Reactor, which is run 24/7 with RowaPhos. Since adding this, my
phosphate levels have been undetectable and not a trace of
cyano.
About 1/2 of the water is returned to the main tank via the Iwaki pump. The water is returned to each rear corner of the tank. The other 1/2 is feed to the
refugium via a Mag 7 pump. (I have recently changed this to (2) Mag 5 pumps - to increase the circluation through the
refugium.)
Photo 3 is the
refugium, and is also an older photo, having recently added the second pump feeding the
refugium. Before entering the
refugium, one of the Mag5 pumps feeds water into an 25 watt UV sterilizer that is run 24/7. You can see a bit of the UV hanging above the
refugium. The other feeds directly in the
refugium (not shown - old photo.) There is a second Euro-Reef
skimmer here. Why two
skimmers? Becuase my
sump won't fit the Euro-Reef I really want, so rather than one large, I have one medium and one small. It works. There are tons of sponges and misc filter feeders in this section.
The middle section is the actual
refugium. There's a 3" sand bed, some
live rock, and usually tons of Cheato. I had just prunned it back before this photo was taken. There's a couple of small hermits and snails in here, and a huge population of various pods.
The water spills over the back left section. There is 1/2 of a Poly Filter here. Some of the water passes through the filter, but most flows over it (otherwise the pods would get trapped here and die.) I basically use the Poly Filter as an indicator if something is wrong with the tank, as it changes colors based on what it's pulling out. From here the water goes to the front left section, where it is gravity fed back to the
sump.
I realize this is not a perfect design, as some of the water returning to the
sump will get fed back to the
refugium, but most goes out to the tank. I tried running the overflows separately into each section, then pump them separately back to the tank, but it was impossible to get the balance right, even when using identical pumps on each side. What a nightmare that was.
The last photo is my closed loop. I really like my plumbing here, though all those 90s do restrict the flow. This closed loop was added after the tank was set up. I was really nervous drilling that intake hole in the back of the tank. The water comes in and goes through an identical iwaki pump as the main return pump. I like using the same equipment whenever I can so I need to keep fewer backup parts (I have a backup for every pump, bulb and balast ready to go in case of a failure.)
Anyway, the water is returned at 4 different locations in the tank. I basically use my closed loop to eliminate dead pockets of water behind the
live rock. The closed loop returns are on each side of the overflows. They're hard to see, look behind the Seio pump on the left.
And finally, I added (4) 800
gph Seio pumps for increased circluation when the tank went from a
FOWLR to a reef. Yep, they are ugly. But they move a ton of water, use very little power, are way chaeper than Tunze, and seem to be very robust. They simply hang on the overflows (no suction cups here!) and are angled out a 45 degrees and pointed up slightly. This creates some very random currents, as there is water coming from 10 different points in the tank.
So there you have it. I'm sure I'll make changes soon. I'm always tweaking with something!
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
Just a pitty im not there to enjoy the view too i guess! 
V-series Productions 
After a quick check on the family ... I checked on the tanks. I am happy to report that all is well. 
....experience. -Not, whats that like, & i should ask how the house stood up, no gold fish pop-eye, bursting taps or surfer-wanabe children cashing in with a free ride?