Just recently upgraded from a 14g nano to a 120g reef. The new system is made up of old components I got from a retiring reefer on ebay which goes some way toward explaining how I ended up with the following configuration.
The 120g tank (6" DSB, 190lbs of rock) is lit by 2 x 250w halides and 2 x 96w actinics. The tank overflows through 2 HOB units into an overflow manifold that feeds three "components" off the tank: 1) a 30g reverse lit fuge 2) a "hybrid" wet-dry trickle filter and 3) a 30g sump. I say the wet-dry is hybrid because I modified it by putting in an extra baffle, and filling in the area where the skimmer would normally be placed with miracle mud and planted a few mangroves in there. This area is also reverse lit with the fuge by a small (18w) lighting fixture.
There are ball valves before each component so I can control the flow. The fuge and the wet-dry drain to the sump.
In the sump is the usual suspects - skimmer, heaters, Kalk reactor, phosban reactor (seldom used), probes for my aquacontroller, and a float valve for a JBJ ATO. The return is a little giant pump off the sump rated for 1200g. A chiller is fed off the return line and back to the sump. For flow in the tank is a closed loop fed by a Mag 12 through a SCWD and tunze turbelle stream that is timed to run when the halides are on.
The tank's been up and running for a couple of months now. The water params look good, although its lightly stocked for now.
Sorry for the long-winded e-mail, but I'd be interested to hear feedback/opinions from anyone willing to offer them.
The 120g tank (6" DSB, 190lbs of rock) is lit by 2 x 250w halides and 2 x 96w actinics. The tank overflows through 2 HOB units into an overflow manifold that feeds three "components" off the tank: 1) a 30g reverse lit fuge 2) a "hybrid" wet-dry trickle filter and 3) a 30g sump. I say the wet-dry is hybrid because I modified it by putting in an extra baffle, and filling in the area where the skimmer would normally be placed with miracle mud and planted a few mangroves in there. This area is also reverse lit with the fuge by a small (18w) lighting fixture.
There are ball valves before each component so I can control the flow. The fuge and the wet-dry drain to the sump.
In the sump is the usual suspects - skimmer, heaters, Kalk reactor, phosban reactor (seldom used), probes for my aquacontroller, and a float valve for a JBJ ATO. The return is a little giant pump off the sump rated for 1200g. A chiller is fed off the return line and back to the sump. For flow in the tank is a closed loop fed by a Mag 12 through a SCWD and tunze turbelle stream that is timed to run when the halides are on.
The tank's been up and running for a couple of months now. The water params look good, although its lightly stocked for now.
Sorry for the long-winded e-mail, but I'd be interested to hear feedback/opinions from anyone willing to offer them.
