What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

[Miss Wiggle]

the green things at the bottom are nets

did i help!

 

[waterdrop]

Hey Andy, That clear cylinder with the bioballs (held by a black clamp and with black bioballs and I believe a black tube coming from the bottom, perhaps going into the clear sump box) could possibly be a CO2 reactor, couldn't it? Its quite common to make or buy CO2 reactors that use bioballs to break up the CO2 gas for greater absorbtion in the water and often this is done at the stage before a sump pump returns the water to the tank. (I don't know, still could be a nitrate filter but CO2 reactor just seemed more common.)

Well, to "mom2", Welcome to TFF. Like the others, I agree that you've got a great "deal" on your hands (assuming the tank holds water) and one of the first things to get out of the way is this question of which path you have "the stomach" for... You sound like you are possibly already willing to take the longer road (possibly more fun!!) and have everyone help you figure out all the sump equipment and then get it all working hopefully. The other road would be the one already mentioned of just basically using the tank and stand and possibly closing up the sump openings in the tank and simply buying and running a couple of large external cannister filters. Its probably important to be aware that you might save many headaches this way, but it would of course likely be more expensive.

I'll bet a lot of the "light switch" looking switches will indeed turn out to be switches for the tank lights and possibly cabinet lights or switches that interrupt the power to the pumps and monitor systems. As for the CO2, I wouldn't be so sure about not doing something with it. Often live plants will be an important part of a big living room display aquarium and CO2 can be one of the key systems to making that successful. If one of the those control boxes turns out to be a device to automatically adjust CO2 flow based on pH, then you may already have the most expensive part of an automated CO2 system taken care of, which would be a real coup.

One thought, and I would hope others would have an opinion, is whether you should try to test the various sub-parts of the system (or maybe the whole thing, however it works out) for leakage while it is still out in the garage. Its kind of hard to know what might leak, either because of breakage or just not knowing what needs to be hooked up and how, at the time of the wet test.

We are already enjoying your photos and I'm sure it would be fun to keep seeing them with the eventual answers to that the parts turn out to be!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NonstickRon]

I don't know what any of that stuff is but I wish It were at my house. It looks like it would be fun to figure out. You won't be adding fish anytime soon, thats for sure, hehe. My advice is to take some paper and start makign some diagrams concerning what goes to what. By figureing out which components lead into which other components, you'll likely be able to get more specific answers.

I can't help but ask myself why the other person was getting rid of what is obviously a very expensive and advanced set up so cheap. Unless they didn't know how to use it either. Someone obviously put a lot of time and money and love into that set up.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Wow, wish I would have gotten into that mess Assuming most of the stuff works you got a great deal for $100. I am sure many would be willing to take it off your hands for much more than that. If you can't seem to figure it all out you can always hire someone to come take a look at it. In my area we have specialists that take care of commercial and home aquariums. It may cost a little but for what you saved on all that equitment it would sure be worth it.
I agree with Mrs. Wiggles, those green things at teh bottom are nets

 

[mark.w.jones]

Don't look stupid by any means, heh. There's a lot of abbreviations that get thrown around casually in any hobby. LFS means Local Fish Store. Usually applies to anyplace that sells fish, some people use it to distinguish fish-focused stores from general pet stores, or small shops from the big national chains.

or local fish shop if your from the UK

 

[mom2prissypants]

thank you all for the help we have figured out most of this it is a sump pump filter and yes that is a trickle tower we have hooked the pump up and ran tubing to check and everything works fine yeah the lighting system seems to be hooked to the timer and it is set up to regulate Ph we will figure that out more later so it is off to replace the overflow resivoir it has the dual box that hangs on the edge of the tank with the U tube that directs the water I have heard these are no longer recomended from a LFS do any of you have an opinion and woohoo I cant believe the deal this was someone asked why they sold so cheap it was her ex husbands tank and had set in the garage for a few years yeah me lol

 

[dnn3]

i can't wait to see pics of it when it's up and running.

 

[waterdrop]

A dual overflow box is about a $50 (USD) item, fairly nice. Would you go to some kind of single box or drill holes in the bottom of the tank or something?

You might want to try bringing this up over in the hardware and/or marine sections of TFF. Maybe one of the hardware guys would give you an essay on the pros/cons of various overflow boxes and weirs.

~~waterdrop~~