Bombertech

I still think the dropoff edge is a great idea, just saying!!

I'm going to speculate here and say first assumption is the Lime peak on the T5's. Not good for growth but it does kick the yellows/orange FP's. Ask what bulb layout he's running, would be curious to see if the bulbs have the lime parasitic peak (most do)...

Indeed, sunset monti can get way nicer looking than that.

This'll be a fun one!

Jeremy is right on the money! Put in a valve on the current return line to use as a siphon drain, use the existing drain line as the emergency drain. If it was me, I'd use a gate valve on the siphon drain.

Just curious because I was talking with a friend the other day about it, what is this LED shadowing complaint I keep hearing everywhere? Disco Shadowing? Lack of defined shadow edges?

I have some extra hydro trays but they are 96x48's. Hydro trays are tricky, you need to cover them and insulate the bottom or the temperature drops fast, You'll also need to plumb it into something else (you said your dad has a 180? Perfect!) or you will have temperature fluxuations. You should be able to pick up a 48x24 tray for $35 from a decent grow store. PM me if you need remote help on setup. Here are a couple pics of the cover I cut for mine.

Bingo! When determining sump turnover all you need is enough flow to maintain temperature in your main tank. 4x is plenty from sump. Get the rest from powerheads.

The ball type are typical of industrial piping. They work great and you don't have to worry about making a bad seal which causes the check flap to oscillate. I had that happen on my old setup a couple times, again, why we drill siphon breaks or set a nozzle near surface level. If your sump capacity is undersized you can always take into consideration water height on your overflow weir teeth. Lower return flow (if practical) can make 1/2"-3/4" water difference and keep you in the tank. Siphon breaks are a biggie too.

Haha, your post showed up while I was typing mine. You have the controller, you might as well automate failure switchover if you are going to do it When automating a spare, also remember to equalize run times. So program in a manual switchover, or a scheduled (for instance: every other Monday at 9am). One other idea: If you pipe in the intake of each pump seperately and your overflow can handle the additional flow, look into the feasibility of running both for 15-30 minutes once a week as an "autoclean" function. Crank your flow and stir everything up.

It depends on the application, but the dart is going to be louder for sure. most of my stuff runs in the garage so I'm not concerned about noise. I helped Shutterfish set up his DC return pump with the design priorities being overflow safety and noise. His tank was set up with a Herby drain, and we put in an internal DC pump with spa flex coupling for vibration reduction. A few nice features of running internal are noise dampening, heat recovery from the pump, and ease of replacement. If you want to set up a lead/standby pump you run both pumps in parallel with a check valve on the high side of each pump then pipe back together on both sides. To know if the pump failed you can do a few different things: Pump current transducer (CT) on the power wire for current status. When the pump stalls out, the current drops enough to de-energize the CT. Flow switch or pressure switch on the high pressure side to determine if you have pump pressure Sump high level switch which tells you the pump may be off, so switch to the standby. In reef tanks, the high sump level makes the most sense. Flow switches for saltwater applications are hard to find or expensive. CT's are better suited for larger pumps (1/8HP and greater).

Redundant pumps are a great way to go! make sure to put a check on each one. You can do lead/lag, lead/standby, running spare, etc. Personally, I like the reeflo pumps due to servicability and the baldor motors are VFD rated. Keeping head pressure down with good plumbing practice/limited height difference keeps the GPW (Gallons per Watt) competitive on the hybrid pumps.

Haha, polypro/or plastic core ply, alternate direction every other layer.

Sumps in the garage have some special requirements. I cover everything to lower humidity and run a DIY polypropylene air to air heat exchanger for ventilation air. I packed the underside of all tanks with bubble packing.

My old sump system for my 6G Fluval edge when it was set up.