Reef Tank Aquarium Setup DIY

For most people, A reef tank is very likely the single most beautiful “decoration” most people have in their homes. I wanted not only to add a highlight to the house, I wanted it be a bigger part of everyday life than just sitting along a wall in one of my rooms. I wanted it to alter my normal everyday experiences at home. I also wanted it to be in a place where visitors would be comfortable approaching to get a closeup. I wanted to be forced to walk by it a hundred times a day, and be able to peer into it without having to stoop. My answer was to build it into the wall in a central location (above the bar along the entrance to the kitchen) and taller then normal.

Growing up one of the things you just “get used to” is that standard aquarium equipment and setups emit quite a bit of noise. While some find the hum “soothing” most of us put up with it competing with the sounds of the TV and nearby discussions. Water trickling, pumps humming. Air stones hissing. For me these sounds distract from the beauty that any tank provides not to mention complete with other things in the home like the TV or phone. I really think an aquarium should be seen, but not heard.

I set out to make a quiet fish tank. Absolutely quite. Without sacrificing on any the other things like water flow, air cooling, and a powerful skimmer, and efficiency. I don’t have basement or a place for a “fish room” to hide all my noisy equipment. My system had to sit in the stand under the tank. A pretty standard setup.

The answer to this quest was two fold. First minimize all the sounds generated by the system. Secondly keep the sounds from escaping. It’s interesting to look at commercial aquarium stands. The all seem to have a huge open back. I doubt this is to aid in allowing plumbing routing options for the customer. It is more likely the result of a reduction in material to remain competitive. These stands do absolutely nothing to keep sound in. I realized I would have to design and build my own stand and make sure I designed the system so the sound couldn’t escape.

If you are to succeed at keeping a reef tank healthy, you must stay motivated to do regular Maintenance, or you will fail. I was hoping that I could do a water change without getting water in your mouth, touching the water, finding a bucket, finding a siphon hose, worrying that something could overflow or leak. I also wanted to have clean spares for skimmer bodies and filters to make swap out replacement. And cleaning on your own time.

I was hoping to create a system that would be stable and handle a little stress if I wasn’t an angel at maintenence. If your fish aren’t eating or your corals are dying and it’s a struggle to keep the tank from going under – Or even if you can keep your tank in pristine condition, but can’t have a life too, then you’ve got a problem. I didn’t want a burden like that.

There are plenty of species of hardy corals and fish that that provide all the beauty and color that I am looking for. There is a huge selection in this area, and with proper aquascaping and placement, can create a beautiful environment.

This way I get to have a life, go on vacation, without being hog tied to the tank or always nervous that everything is ok.

The system cycles all water through each section of the sump. The return pump is a MAG12 and is pushing around 820GPH in this configuration. I have a Seio 820 stream pump in the display as well. These two pumps accomplish my wave generation by directing the stream to intersect in the center of the tank.

The skimmer is powered from a MAG 5 placed in the overflow compartment on the inlet of the drain tube that connects to the skimmer. This provides a way to harness the potential energy of the overflow water which is 5.5′ higher than the sump base. The 40 inch drop from the pump to the spray injection nozzle provides approx 1.5 PSI of additional pressure. The MAG 5 generates around 4.6 PSI so I get around 7 PSI in theory.

To keep the skimmer pump from running dry and to keep constant pressure on the injector, I route the extra water through 2 traditional durso topped stand pipes. Since the MAG 12 is pushing significantly more water than the MAG 5 does, the water level in the overflow stays at the durso inlet height. This keeps the MAG 5 completely enveloped with water so it doesn’t run dry and keeps it under constant pressure. I am planning to add a float switch to this compartment to ensure the MAG5 shuts off if the water level drops too low.

The refugium is handling more flow than is conventionally suggested, but my nitrates have remained at 0PPM for the last 4 months and my chaetomorpha macro-algae doesn’t seem to stop growing. The refugium is full of visible amphipods, bristle worms, fan worms and such.