OK, now for a bit of explanation...
FIRST PIC - SUMP VIEWED FROM THE BACK
The top pic is obviously the sump. It's a back view. So water comes in the right side, where a filter sock will be mounted. It flows under the teeth to the section with a hole in it (for an Iceprobe chiller) where the Tunze 2002 skimmer will reside. You can see in that same section a plexiglass piece for probes and such. Water flows out of the skimmer section to the three walled bubble trap. But first gap starts an inch off the floor to keep sand and heavy particulates in the skimmer section. It flows up and over the middle of the three walls, and under the third.
If you look you can see a couple of white nylon screws. That middle wall is split in two, and has an adjustable height to control the water level in the skimmer section. The screws hold the wall at the desired height. You'll notice that the three walls are not evenly spaced. There's more room to the right - that's so I can get my fingers in there to adjust screw tension.
The left side is just the return section for my Eheim. It too has some acrylic pieces to hold probes and such.
So you may note the front half (behind the black wall is one big section. It is.That's the fuge. Water will come in on one side, and flow through the upper teeth to the return section.
SECOND PIC - SUMP FROM THE FRONT
Hey wait! Didn't I just say the front half was a fuge? What's that black piece with the teeth?
That's just a temporary piece, not permanently attached. That's so I can section off a deep sand bed if I decide to, with water coming into the deep sand bed, and flowing over the teeth to the fuge, and over the other teeth to the return section. The DSB wall can just be held in place with rock (or whatever) and sealed with silicon. Since the water level will be the same on both sides, there'll be no pressure, so it should not move, and do fine to hold a temporary - re-sizable - removable - DSB.
THIRD PIC - TANK FRONT
AS you can see, I've mounted my overflow on the side. Not too happy about that visible equipment, but my lights (and the tank only being 12" from front to back) were right over it when it was in a typical HOB configuration. Lit the overflow up like a Christmas tree. So this at least minimizes the visual profile of the oveflow within the tank.
The lights are an Orbit with 2 x 65w PC and a new GLO fixture with 2 x 24W T5.
Clearly that 25lbs of new live rock didn't go far! All the bright white stuff to the right is a little of the huge quantity of dry rock I got. This clearly is not the aquascape. And it's clearly not in it's final position or configuration. This is just keeping the rock wet, breaking in the tank as I finalize the plumbing. THEN I'll aquascape it, and more it into it's final position.
FOURTH PIC - SUMP IN STAND
When you realize that the vertical height of that space in the stand is only 17", that's a little sump! I've mounted a little light at the top, and dropped in a token live rock (the crappies looking one
) into the the fuge area. There's a fan to augment the IceProbe that hangs out the hole in the back of the stand. And you can see the little Tunze creating some stinky brown stuff after only 30 hours of operation. The drain into the left rear corner goes into a filter sock, and the little bypass allows a trickle of water into the fuge, bypassing all the filtration. And though it's barely visible, the heater is in the fuge. I could fit a smaller one in the skimmer section, but I'm not that picky. Behind the light is a little clip to hold up all the wires... I hate electrical wires hanging too close to water.
FIFTH PIC - SIDE VIEW
Not much to see really... just my home made Hoffer Gurgle Buster, to quiet down that overflow. And I went with 1" drain, just in case I decided to dramatically increase my turnover.
LAST PIC - SCWD
I installed a Switching Current Water Director on the return lines, just to mix up the flow a bit. I was unhappy with the stock hose barb connections on this 3/4" model, so I called the manufacturor (really, really, nice, helpful people) who said it was made of ABS. From experience I knew you can use PVC cement to make a nice hard connection between PVC and ABS, so I found some nice adapters at Home Depot, and converted those hose barb connections to nice 1/2" FTP! Added a few more Clic clips to mount it to the stand, added a few unions (so I could replace it if it gets gunked up), and it was done. Or so I thought. Some of those return lines look like they could us a litte reinforcing with some Clic clips themselves.
Well that's it. More to do...
I'm not happy with the drain into the sump. The down pipe is removable, to allow the replacement of the filter sock. But it's kludgy. And I'd like to mount a ball valve to divert all water to the fuge while I was changing the sock, but there just does not seem to room.
This was always the Achilles heel of my plans... I figured if I could get the sump sized correctly, and the equipment fitting in such a small space, then I'd figure out a way to make the plumbing work. Well, now I'm at that figure it out spot.
