Aside from lighting demand for the reef aquarium, the basic setup was not all that complicated. My original design for the reef aquarium equipment was a bit underpowered and I found myself having to add additional aquarium pumps and wave making devices. Every one of the all glass aquarium tanks were drilled and had a small triangular overflow constructed in the corner. The sump had two drilled holes in which I mounted to each and external pump (1200gph). I went with external aquarium pumps to control heat, and looking back it was a good idea, my aquarium chiller ran in the winter from time to time as well.

The main aquarium pump ran the front three tanks, and the secondary pump ran the back reef and lagoon. Each of the two separate lines returned to the sump and passed through biological and mechanical filtration. In hindsight, I should have run three aquarium pumps, and had the second power the back reef alone, and the third (a smaller aquarium pump) run the lagoon. In the following year I was acutely aware that I needed to retrofit the system to adapt to this model.

In the sump I had constructed a wet dry filter with bio balls in an area about 3 feet wide, 18 inches deep, and 18 inches high, (The aquarium bio balls were removed after 6 months). One of each of the lines ran into a temperature controlling device, the secondary sump a 1000 watt inline aquarium heater and the primary pump a 1/3 hp aquarium chiller. In addition, a canister filter was run inline prior to the aquarium heater. Two submersible pumps were in the sump, one supplying a protein skimmer, the other a hyperbaric reactor and two mechanical modules filled with carbon to provide additional filtration for the reef aquarium.

The reactor was connected to an aquarium ozone unit. Lastly I had a doser which replenished the tank 24/7 with DI water spiked with calcium hydroxide. The parameters of the system such as temperature and lighting cycles were run by an aquarium controller, in conjunction with the monitoring of PH, and redox. Circulation was run by the aquarium controller and provided by many submersed powerheads. I matched the in tank flow rate to emulate the tidal conditions over that section of reef aquarium. For example, two small powerheads would come on for nearly an hour, 4 times a day. Aside from that, the only other circulation in that zone was provided by the main aquarium pump.