Background:

There are plent of things that should be considered when building a reef aquarium. A good plan will save you a lot of headdage at the later stages. Maintanance will get easier. Possible problems can be handled easier and naturally unfortunate events can be avoided. The following picture presents the plan for my future reef tank. As there will be plenty of pipes and valves I provide you with a more detailed pictures of some parts of the whole system. This makes it easier for the beginners to have a clear picture of the complete setup. This plan presents the final reef setup that will ne constructed to my new house. Regular valves have been marked with a black circle and magnetic valve has been market with a black diamond shape.

I will proceed through this project at two stages. The main reason for the separate stages is the the fact that I will be moving to a different apartment in the near future. I The first stage will take place in my current apartment and the second stage with larger main tank will start as soon as the move is current. Two stage implementation also provides me a possibility to spread the expenses for a longer period of time. As an outcome I will achieve a well planned and perfectly measured aquaria to my future apartment. Someone might wonder now, why start the project now instead of later in the new apartment. This might be vise, but I have simply waited too long. I have been planning reef aquarium for ages and quite frankly I cant hold back anymore.

Water circulation:

The water circulation of my tank resembles the common water circulation that has been seen in various reef aquarius. The main tank has a overflow that routes the water straigt to the skimmer. The water flows from the skimmer to the sump. There is a circulation pump in the sump that pumps some of the water to the refill-tank. Refill-tank has a overflow as well so the water will flow from there to the refugium and back to the sump. In other words. Only part of the whole circulation goes through refill-tank and refugium. Most of the water will flow over a wall to the other part of the sump. In this part lays the main circulation pump that pumps the water back to the main tank. As you can see from the picture above this kind of circulation is fairly easy to build. Still it creates the heart and vanes of the whole reef. As the the water changes are essential part aquarium maintanance the circulation includes a refill-tank. This tank has no real purpose in day to day operations of the system. There would be little point to add a refill-tank to a fresh water aquarium as the replacement water can be added straight from the tap. In a reef aquarium however a salt water is used. Therefore a separate tank is convinient so that the salt water can be mixed.

Replacement water:

You can see a osmosis unit in the upper right corner of the large picture. This unit produces a pure water to replace the water that evaporates. As you can see in the plan the same unit fills the refill-tank during water changes. As a result all the water that is introduced to the system will be pure osmosis water. The black diamond shape next to the osmosis unit marks the magnetic valve. As the water surface in the sump drops the magnetic valve opens and new water vill flow to the system. As the watersurface rises in the sump the magnetic valve will close again. The water lever sensor is placed in the sump. This means that the water level doesn't change in any other part of the system. At the bottom of the refill-tank a valve can be found. It leads straight to the sewer. The valve has been marked with a black circle. During normal circulation the valve is closed so that the water can not escape to the sewer.

Water change:

The water change can be carried out simply by altering the status of two valves. First the threeway-valve will be changed to the status that directs the water flow directly to the refugium instead of the refill-tank. Afterwards the valve at the bottom of the refill-tank will be opened. This allows aproximately 90 liters of water to escape to the sewer. Then the valve will be closed and the reverse osmosis unit will fill the refill-tank with fresh water. Salt will be added to match the 90 litres of water and the mixture will be stirred. Finally the threeway-valve will be changed to a normal status. The water circulation is back to normal and the water change has been carried out succesfully. It takes about 12 hours from the osmosis unit to fill the refill-tank so basicly the tank will be drained out at the evening. Next morning the salt will be mixed in. During this 12 hour period no replacement water is available so the size of the sump has been designed so that the water level won't drop too low. This means that all the equipment located in the sump will operate normally during the water change. Basicly the water change is as simple as switching the status on two valves.

Skimmer:

It is important that the skimmer is located before refugium in the circulation. The refugium produces a great variety of useful organism to the main tank and by no means should they go to the skimmer. Therefore the water flows to the skimmer directly from the main tank and to the sump after the skimming process. The sump has two parts. The first part holds a small circulation pump which pumps a part of the water to the refugium. Rest of the water will flow over a wall to the second part of the sump. The water that has been pumped to the refugium will flow to this part of the sump as well through the refugium overflow. The main circulation pump is located there and it will pump the water back to the main tank. There is also a overflow in the sump. It leads straight to the sewer. This overflow doesn't have any other function except to make sure that during a possible mailfunction situations the water will go to the sewer instead of my floor. If something unexpected happens, the refugium may be removed from the main cisculation by disconnecting the smaller circulation pump. Basically this creates a circulation of the main tank, skimmer and equipment located in the sump. This provides me with a possibility to use the refugium as true safe haven for the fish and corals in case of a disaster.

Project timetable:

The project was launched during spring 2005, but as a result of various reasons it has been delayed notably. Basically nothing has happened except planning. Some equipment has been acquired during the summer and especially during the fall. Almost all the necessary equipment has been bought now for the final system. As there is not enough space for the large aquaria at the moment and the search for the new apartment hasn't worked out as planned, the project will be carried out in two stages. This allows me to get my hands wet instead of using all my time planning the future tank. The same equipment will be used during the first stage as in the final system so this arrangement will not increase the expenses. Naturally the equipment will be oversized during the first stage, but this doesn't matter if I have understood the basics of the reef chemistry correctly. Actually it may help me to avoid many difficulties that normally occur at the beginning of the new reef. The first stage of the project has finally started so please follow the link and get familiar with the progress of this exciting experience. The second stage will be added as soon as I'll get to the point of finding a more suitable apartment for my larger tank.

Stage 1

Stage 2