Wade

It's been a while, but I'm finally where close to where I want to be with my tank. All I'm missing now is a controller and dosing pumps. They're next on my list. Here's some pics of how it all came together. Getting ready to add some stock next week (just in time for family coming in for Thanksgiving). Thanks to everyone for their help!

Thanks crisp. Those diagrams are great!. That's going to help a lot.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided what I really need is one drum for salt water and one for fresh RODI. I think I can still get by with just one pump if I pipe it correctly. Has anyone done something similar to this that they can post some pictures?

My tank is a 72 g bow front that's built-in and carrying water up stairs from the basement is getting old. I've got the space in the basement directly below my tank to set up a couple of 55 gallon drums and pump the water up stairs, but I'll need some advice on how to set it up correctly. I'm sure there are many on here that have this set up and I'm hoping to pick your brain a little bit. Here's what I'm thinking: One 55 gallon drum for the salt water with a circulating pump and a pump to move the water upstairs when needed. Another 55 gallon drum to collect water pumped/siphoned out of tank. That just seems too simple to me so please let me know what I'm not thinking of so I can get it right the first time. If there's already a post or article that covers this that you can point me to that would be great as well. No sense beating a dead horse of this has already been discussed. Thanks for you help, Wade

Just discoverd the pressure adjustment screw on the top of my boster pump and life is good:) Backed the pressure off. Closed the flush valve. Brought the pressure back up to 80psi. Purring like a kitten. Thanks again for all your guidance.

yes, the blue tubing is the flow restrictor. It has a tiny tube inside of it that restricts the flow through it. Thanks for the help. It sounds like I need to keep the flush valve closed and that the fluctuation on the gauge is normal and due to the booster pump. Of course with the the flush valve closed, the gauge pegs out and is rather noisy from the needle bounce. I guess it will most likely ruin the gauge. Thanks again. On a side note. I put my first batch of RO/DI water in the old water change jugs I had and the TDS rocketed to 922 x 10 on the meter after sitting there a few days. All the old crap thats dried in there over time I guess. Time to get some clean and pristine jugs!

I just set up my new RO/DI unit from BFS and have some questions. The unit came with a built in pressure regulator (see picture) as well as a manually adjusted flush valve. Both of these are on the waste line. The water presure gauge reads about 55 psi when I close the flush valve about half way. otherwise it's at about 30. I bought a booster pump and the pressure readings are about the same except I can make the pressure get pretty high if I mostly close the waste valve and let the water go through the bottom tube which contains the pressure regulator. The needle on my gauge fluctuates quite a bit the more I close the flush valve. Is this how it should operate or do I need to change something? Does the flush valve/regulator need to go for a better setup?

Derek, I think that skimmer would be a little undersized for my tank if everything I'm hearing is correct. It looks like I'll need something rated for at least 150 gallons. Thanks anyway.

On a separate note, my tank tends to run on the warm side - around 83 F. I've never needed a heater and at one point bought a chiller to bring it down to 78 F. My chiller died on me so I'm wondering now if I really need it. How warm is too warm?

Thanks Timfish. That was some heavy reading, but valuable none the less. I didn't realize that you could pump the water to and from the skimmer. I assumed that it had to fit down into the sump which is where my concerns about my sump size were stemming from. It also seems that any reputable brand of skimmer will do, as long as it's quiet:) Well thank you all for all your help. I ordered an RO/DI system earlier this week so I can stop putting tap water back into my tank. It looks like I've got work to do and i'll post some pics of the new setup when it's complete. Thanks again. -Wade

That's interesting. Does anyone have any pics of a two-part set up they could share? My concern is that the sump I have is not big enough to house the size skimmer that I need. I really appreciate all your advice.

here's some pics of my set up. The good is that it's built in and looks great from the front. The bad is that it's built in so I'm stuck with a cramped space in the back. I"m pretty sure I can set the new larger sump caddy corner under the tank. Since my tank is 72 gallons does that mean that the skimmer should be sized for 150 gallons as RotaryGeek suggested or would the 100 be sufficient? BTW, the picture of the sump is odd because the sump is in a plastic container. It's like this because the power went out once and the sump overflowed slightly and flooded the floor. The wife made me put it in a plastic container so if it happened again it would run over on the floor. It has actually saved me twice since:) What do I replace the bio balls with?

Hello, I'm new to the boards here and was hoping for a little advice. I'm finally upgrading my refugium and protein skimmer from the original junk ones that came with my tank several years ago. The basic skimmer never works right and the refugium is too small to allow for a better skimmer. My tank is a 72 gal bow front and the refugium that came with it measures 20 x 8 x 15.5. I'm looking at the Eshopps 24x12x16 sump and the Vertex IN-100 out at TBAquatics.com. I don't know anything about refugiums or skimmers and are wondering if these will be compatible and are of good quality. I've heard good things about the Vertex units, but have never heard of the Eshopps brand. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Wade P.S. To tell the truth now I'm not sure if I have a sump or a refugium. What I have uses bio balls if that's any help. The product pictures of the sumps show filter bags and the refugiums show bio balls so I'm just assuming that I have a refugium. Yeah, I'm a noob. Stop laughing!