Need help with reef setup, please

[Braydenbaseball]

Hey guy,

I'm new here obviously. I've done a lot of looking around and I'm having a hard time figuring out what is happening with the back of my tank. The short version is I bought this second hand, it's an acrylic 125 with a build in overflow, but the guy I purchased it from wasn't using the overflow and drilled it to use a 55 gallon tank as a sump underneath the stand. When it was running it had two return lines draining into the 55 gallon, but they were just draining into the middle of the tank, more like an actual overflow than a sump or a Refugium. I want to set this up correctly and I would like to possible utilize both the Refugium and the built in one also if that's possible, but I'm thinking that because of the drilling this will no longer be possible. I've done a lot of looking around and I think I can build out the 55 gallon pretty easily to turn it into a Refugium. Mostly I'm just looking for someone with more knowledge of all of this than I have. The setup also came with a protein skimmer that I would like to continue using. Anyway, any idea what's going on here and the best method of setting this up as a fish only tank? It will have some liverock in it, but I don't want that to be the main focus of the tank. :fish1:

 

[Sk8r]

Should be possible. To solve an unwanted hole, eg, just get a bulkhead connector and cap it securely---talk to your big box hardware guys, the ones with grey hair---they should be able to put something together out of multiple bits that will work.

 

[Braydenbaseball]

Thanks Sk8r

Thanks Sk8r

I guess my question is, does the filtration setup on the back of the tank just become empty space where there is no sort of filter media at all? The piping in the center on the picture was originally the drains, and there is one hole drilled closer to the left side of the picture (not pictured) that they were using for a return. After reading a lot yesterday, it seems like a Hobie system for the drains would work much better and I would like to set up an actual fuge if I can get the plumbing thing worked out. I tried to attached a few more pics, but I'm having a problem posting more than one.

Maybe just as good of a question would be, can someone help me identify the type of tank this is?

 

[Braydenbaseball]

It's hard to see in the picture, but the smaller pvc goes in on the bottom left side and then is ran to the top where the return goes into the aquarium. I think the return inside the aquarium is original as there is one on both sides, but the opposite side of the tank only had a pump circulating the water, it was not going through any sort of filter at the time of purchase. :hmm4: