The main circulation through the tank and sump is via an Eheim 1060,which is great for the average size tank......for anything huge you should be looking at something bigger like a modified Grundfos central heating type pump or ideally one of the big Deltec pumps. The water is pumped from the sump to the display and re-enters the sump via an overflow box in the back left hand corner of the tank.In the overflow box i have an old filter sponge which i rinse every week or so to keep clean. many people use floss or a sponge somwhere inthe return line to trap detrius. on the other hand use it to keep the noise down as the water goes over the overflow.From time to time i use carbon on the system which i can place in the overflow on top of the sponge to ge a good flow through it. Water flows through the sponge to a bulkhead then into the sump via a length of piping located just under the water surface.......this again keeps noise to a minimum.Polyfilter is another product i use from time to time as well.So the water has gone full circle from sump to display and back to the sump. My sump houses my skimmer and my pH probe as well as my attempt at a mini refugium.
The skimmer removes, amogst other things organics in the water that the carbon will not remove.I can't stress enough how important a good skimmer is, things like Seaclones,Prism's and the Beast are not worth the money in my opinion. A recent article in PFK about skimmers was laughable ,more of a rouges gallery. PFK ,what happened to all the other good makes ? Deltec ,H&S and Schuran are some of te better models available on the european market at present.
The pH probe for the IKS is in the sump as per the instructions ,as a dark area (to reduce algea build up) with good circulation is recomended.
The mini refuge will be sectioned off to the small area on the right of the sump. This was an experiment in the old setup and after initial worries i found it to become established reletivley quickly. After 5-6 months i had a healthy population of bristle worms and a good few copepods/amphipods present in a 5" bed.This was acheived mainly by adding some small pieces of LR from the main tank to the DSB . Another good trick is to go to the LFS when the LR comes in and see if they will let you grab some of the "crud" that typically comes with it. If your lucky you may find some worms of different varieties. One final point........FEED YOUR SANDBED. Dont go mad from day one dumping in all sorts though,start off with maybe 1/2 cube of brine every other day or the like for the first month or so. Observe what is happening tthe food , i saw that after a few minuits worms appeared making a beeline for the food. Quiet simply if the food is being taken on a regular basis then gradually add more,if not then back off for a while, keep observing and adjust feeding regime accordingly. Typical that just as it was really taking off the "disater" happened leaving me with pretty much nothingto salvage from it.
There is some debate over the minimum depth the sandbed should
be to make it "succesfull". Many advocate a depth of
4-5" maybe more but these advocates seem to be mainly US
reefers with access to a wider variety of critters etc than we
are in europe.