Ok so the other day got my pump and all the stuff to finish the sump and some other things that i decided that i wanted to get all i need is the macro to finish it and some lights for it. the next project for the tank is live rock a plan on using 40 pounds of carribean uncured live rock so i will have to cure it. after i get the live rock all nice and cured and in the tank i plan on stocking the tank with thousands of dollars worth of corals. :D ok so here we go.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/corals/P4170106.jpg[/img/
here is the first stage mechanical filitration.


here is were the mag drive pump is I do love this pump by the way Rit.


my prizm protien skimmer love this skimmer since it underskims and I like an underskim tank.


ok here is a shot of the hole sump the black part in the middle is my bio balls more on that in a minute.


ok here is the bio sponge balls inside of them they have a little sponge in them.


Ok so here is the ball open and the sponge exposed.


here is the ball open and the sponge completely out of the ball. I am aware that a lot of people have had problems with nitrAtes when using biological filitration. but i havn't seen any problem with my tanks with a nitrAte problem my nitrAtes in this tank is under 5 ppm.


ok here is my new compact fluorescents by coralife. love them to


here is a pic of the sticker of who makes these lights.


here is a pic of the actual bulbs on i have two bulbs in there a 10,000K daylight bulb which is 65 watts and a true atinic 03 65 watt fluorescent both of these bulbs have there own plug so i can put them on sepereate timers wich is really nice these bulbs are straight pin base. I love these lights to.


ok last one this is more of what rit wanted to see of diy overflow box i made box my modifying a whisper 30 power filter i had lying around were the motor goes i put bulkhead right there and inbetween were the filter compartment and the intake tube compartmen I had to cut that dividing piece out as water was not flowing fast enough. ok thats it hope you like them.

Thats really Kick Ass Saltfreak. Good to hear that baby is up and in full operation! You gotta really love it when a plan comes together. I like the way you included a ton of pics too, that always helps put things into perspective.

Im kinda Jealous though, mine still isnt done. The LFS has once agian for the second week in a row dropped the ball on getting the # 3 Bio-Chamber from Oceanic for me so I can do the rest of the sump design. If I knew it was going to take this long, hell, I would have built it myself!

All is not lost though, stubbled into a 125 set up cpomplete for 450.00! Whoooo-Whooo! Just what I need anothetr project this month! Oh well you cant look a gift horse in the mouth huh?

Again, great write up on the sump. Hopefully we can get a DIY section going eventually as it grows here. Right now I dont have enough time to do that sorta thing so... It would be awesome to put your sump in there on display!

wow that's cool, really puts things in perspective for me now.i think i finally understand how a sump works.just out of curiosity, how much did you have to fork out for the lighting?

For that lighting I paid 140 dollars wich made me mad because the day when i got it somebody mentioned the exact same light for 90 dollars on ebay. but oh well. but the lights are very cool.

ouch, that's pricey, but i guess you need really good lighting so you pay for it right?

It is expensive but not as expensive as metal halides the ballast just to fire them are 150 dollars and the bulbs are about 100 dollars and that doesn't include the price for the actual fixture.

Halides generally run between 150-240 for a retrofit kit counting the bulb and of course those three words all adults fear..."Some assembly required" apply.

The great thing is that in a sump or refugium you can usually get off pretty cheap in the lighting department as long as you do not intend to place corals down there. For instance, on refugiums that fit under a 55, 75, 90, 120, 125, 150 or 180 gallon tanks that will have only live rock or Macro Algae, I often use the 10.00 48 inch 2 x T-12 shop light fixtures and run 6500K grow lights for plants or 10,000K tubes and get by with exceptional results. Thats about as cheap as it gets. But if any corals are going in there you will definitely need to step up the scale and fork out some pretty decent fun dollars for suitable lights in those situations.

Those Power Compacts are pretty handy though for those smaller spaces and pack some pretty intense watts too for the size.

Many people however will put clams down in their sump too to help control nutrients and this will require a halide in most cases. www.hellolights.com has a cool little clip on 150 watt DE halide available for 249.00 thats plug and play and is perfect for that situation.

That is true totally but those power compacts are on the main tank I'm thinking of just using a couple of T-8's for the sump.