My frag tank is 22" x 13" x 8" with a 1" Durso drain in a 5" x 5" corner overflow. The locline feeding into the frag tank is adorable, I've never seen such tiny locline before. It's got a 1/4" outlet. The tank holds just under 10g of water.
How my 280g reef was powered from August 2004 to June 2007: I had a lot of power cords that needed to be plugged in, and I wanted something tidy and water resistant. This cabinet affixed to the wall housed everything, including some handy switches to toggle gear on and off. With the door swung closed, it hid most everything and keep it clean.
The Angled tank was in the foyer when you first walked in. I wanted a pretty anemone and some clownfish to greet anyone that visited as soon as they came inside.
My tank came with an Aqua Controller II, but it was ruined with saltwater. After sending it in to Neptune Systems in California for repairs, I began to learn what all it could do. For now, my main goal is control of tank parameters, and this can be done by plugging in each piece of equipment into X-10 control modules. The controller measures pH and tank temperature around the clock, keeps track of the time and date, and switches equipment off or on depending on how it has been programmed.
After almost three years, I decided it was time for a different type of wiring setup. If you want to see how it was done previously, here's the page that explains it in detail.
One question I'm asked quite often is how does an "auto top-top" work. This is a method that can add more freshwater to your aquarium automatically. The benefit of this is that your tank will remain more stable as salinity remains at the same level because new water is replacing what has evaporated.
Others set up a system so that if they go on a short vacation, the tank will be taken care of.
Installed on 5/16/2005, this acrylic sump was built be me to take care of the needs of my 280g reef tank. My goal was to install something that would hold all water that drains when the power is off, house a brand new skimmer, have a decent size refugium, space for coral propagation and it had to look good too.
My build thread on reefcentral.com documented this project. Warning: It is long and informative. lol The information below is compiled in real-time, which is why it reads in the present tense. The 14 day project lasted from July 20, 2004 - August 2, 2004. This is a dairy of those days.
A tank with a single overflow can still run to two zones of a sump. I recommend running the drainline into both the skimmer section and the refugium zone, and I'm often asked how this is accomplished. Using gravity and a few extra fittings, you can direct water to two different zones from a single drain pipe.
Congratulations! Your reef will thank you for providing excellent water quality from now on. This 100gpd 5-stage RO/DI is very easy to install, but if you have any further questions, you can email me any time. Contact info: Marc Levenson • Ft Worth, Texas • (817) 946-5271 • sales@melevsreef.com
