Our 110 gallon saltwater aquarium was purchased in March of 2002, in Tallahassee, Florida. At the time, we knew nothing of the hobby and relied on the word of salespeople, who were anxious to sell us a considerable amount of equipment.

In addition to the canopy, stand, and aquarium, we bought several hundred dollars worth of pluming and filtering hardware. Soon after the purchase, and after a few weeks of research, I discovered the equipment we were using was less than ideal for the setup we wanted.

The filter is an AquaClear 300 trickle filter, and I converted it to a refugium/sump in June of 2002.

I realized not long after converting it that I could have built a similar setup from scratch, and skipped the proprietary equipment altogher. This section of palmisanonet.com will document the removal of the existing plumbing and the installation of the new system.
Comments are encouraged.

I've sketched out an initial design diagram, and took pictures of the main sump and refugium containers. They are each Sterilite 73 quart (18.25 gallon) containers, and were $3.44 apiece at Wal-Mart.
Note - 01.08.2004: After some input from reefcentral.com, I amended the design diagram. This new diagram will serve as the template for the redesign. The old one is still available for viewing.
Note - 01.18.2004: When performing the initial cuts for the bulkheads, I applied too much pressure to the container and cracked both of them. I replaced them with identical ones from Wal-Mart, only blue in color as opposed to the original beige.

As you can see from the diagram, the water flows through the downspouts from the display to a "t" and a ball valve. The ball valve restricts water flow and allows some of the return water to enter the refugium. The remainder continues to the sump. The refugium water flow is restricted to keep it relatively low-flowing, and the tube connecting it to the sump will take care of returning its water to the system. The container sits atop a small stand constructed from PVC pipe. The stand is slightly smaller than the base of the refugium container and elevates it so the water can flow, via gravity, to the sump container.
Note - 01.31.2004: A friend helped construct a refugium stand made from wood, and will be used instead of one from PVC.

The sump houses the two float switches, set up in a similar fashion to how they were in the original setup. There's nothing in the sump but equipment; the sand, rock and macro algae are all in the refugium.
Water flows from the sump to the pump (a Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC), and is sent back to the aquarium. Nice and neat.

This project began on 01 January 2004, and will continue until it's completed. I will document as much as the process as possible, including where items were purchased, how much they cost, and tools used for setup.
I expect this to take several weeks to complete, mainly because I'm treating it as a weekend project. I have not been trained in engineering or fluid dynamics, and am doing research and construction in stages to avoid mistakes. If you still reading this far (bless your heart!), and have some input, you're encouraged to post comments; positive and/or constructive ideas are welcome.

Note - 02.07.2004: Project completed.