salt water tanks

Question
Hi Glenn, my son (15 years old) bought a 120 gallon tank with two corner flows, a sump tank, and various pumps, etc. He does not know how to put it together and neither do I. He also did not get any instructions with the tank, so we really don't know how to put the tanks together. Do you have a reference, or photos, or anything that I could refer to as I attempt to put this thing together?  Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.  

Jeff Owen

Answer

Sump with refugium Hi Jeffrey,
It's actually not as difficult as it seems(can seem a bit overwhelming at first). Depending on equipment a system with 2 corner overflows is quite simple and a pretty universal design for reef/marine aquaria. The corner overflows basically drain the water from the main display tank to the lower sump/refugium, where it passes over and through partitions containing filter media(filter sponge, bio balls, substrate, live rock/live rock rubble, etc) and a pump returns filtered water back to the system. I'll enclose a digram that illustrates pretty clearly how the basic set up/connections work. Let me know if I can be more help or if you have any more questions.


Now the title says sump with refugium, but thats just a sump set up in the illustration, and you may not have all the same equipment, so let me know if you have any more questions. Ill be glad to help.