4628 S. Ward Way, Morrison, Colorado 80465 Phone: 303-978-0940 and 303-719-0950 E-mail: lifereef@lifereef.com
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YOUR DREAM SYSTEM OR PROJECT CAN BE A REALITY SETTING UNDER YOUR AQUARIUM OR PROUDLY ON DISPLAY IN YOUR AQUARIUM EQUIPMENT ROOM!

Below are just a sampling of the hundreds of custom sumps, filters, and projects that have been designed and fabricated by Jeff at Lifereef. Perhaps one of these designs will work for your application but if not let Jeff's 34 years of creative design, drafting, machine tool, and fabrocation and assembly expertise help you with your project. When your filter system components are low maintenance and have a fantastic overall look then your enjoyment in this hobby is even greater! It's not so fun having to manage a messy looking system with cords and hoses going every which way.

Sumps or Systems designed to FIT! Jeff will converse via phone with you to design a system to fully utilize the space, or the space you wish to use for your Lifereef project. Jeff will then use his years of experience to design a sump to offer as much versatility as possible, for example: Connection ports for R/O top-off line and a Calcium Reactor, drop-in Filter Cylinders or drop-in media reactors, probe holders, LifeReefugium, whatever you need or specify, and many features are already inclusive in all sump designs, no need to pay extra!

Need additional features like waste collectors or ATO containers to match and fit your space, certainly! Your entire Lifereef system from sump, refugium, protien skimmer, calcium reactor, ATO, and waste collectors can all be matched to your color scheme! Trying to do this with "off the shelf" products can be frustrating, have it all designed to fit your space!

Seeing your dream system or project jump from 2-dimensional sketches and discussion into a real 3D project is something to behold!

Some of the "SIGNATURE SERIES" builds.... Now your filter system can look as nice as your corals! Why does a filter system have to look mundane and with no character? Why not show off your filter system just like you show off your aquarium? Many hobbyists are more curious as to what you have "behind the curtain" than what is in your aquarium! Show off your Lifereef System in colors of your liking! The florescent colors have the most "bang" when lit with a UV light and these can be purchased in many sizes and are low cost, no need for an expensive aquarium light. Of course there are many other colors available and can be discussed when you place your order. Enjoy the show!

Custom Reef Aquarium with filtration and protein skimmer integrated into the rear of the aquarium.

Customer request for an integrated Lifereef Protein Skimmer to be used within an aquarium/sump system. 24 x 24 x 20 footprint which included a custom made mount for the Radion RX30w Pro. Go here masinireef.blogspot.com to read and see more of this fantastic nano tank.....

Hobbyists desire to get a large sump into his stand required a four-piece sump array "bolted" together with the interconnecting bulkheads. This design was the customers, with a review of the design to look for any potential problem areas. Overall size is 44 x 21 x 22 high. Water enters into the right sump (a Lifereef VS3-36 skimmer is connected externally to this chamber) then flows into rear center sump to the left, then reverses flow to the right where it enters the front center sump and flows to the left and enters the left sump where a submersbile pump returns the water to the aquarium.

Hobbyists cabinet has center storage area so sump had to be split into two sumps connected via two 1" lines run behind the center area. Left sump has input chamber, mechanical/chemical chamber, and skimmer chamber. Right sump contains the return system pump and the Lifereef Accessory Rack to hold media reactors and a bio-reactor, and probes. As soon as the user gets this installed and provides a photo I'll be posting it here.

And many many more customs!

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U	V	W	X FRAG TANK
Y Large Double Tower Wet/Dry	Z	ONE LARGE WET/DRY!	Custom Light Mount
	You won't find this valve at any hardware store! It is a Custom Short 3-way valve made using two right-angle valves and cutting in half, bonding halves together and adding reinforcing rings. Valve is not shown in "installed location" just shown here for detail.
Past Lifereef Products or, a history and evolution of the Lifereef products. These may be discontinued but parts/service will be provided where possible.
Circa 1984 "THE ORIGINAL" first generation Lifereef wet/dry trickle filter that used four slide-out trays filled with coral gravel. The sump chambers were also filled with coral gravel and/or carbon, nitrate remover products, etc This was before the advent of numerous plastib bio-ball products. There was also a built-in denitrifier on the far left, this was before the "invention" of more efficient venturi protein skimmers, airstone skimmers were in use at this time and I did make one. Actually "the original" wet/dry filter was introduced to the U.S. hobbyist by Georg Smit in 1983 and was made from glass. I took the glass design and made it acrylic but also eliminated many of the salt creep issues the original had as well as some other fine features that the original did not have. Below is a circa 1990 Wet/Dry Trickle Filter found and purchased by a lucky hobbyist in December of 2017! Very few changes from this to the current version and same for the protein skimmer!	Circa 1991 Lifereef Wet/Dry Trickle Filter. This filter does not yet have the Accessory Rack for the filter cylinders as shown in the photo at right. Lifereef wet/drys never used the rotating pain-in-the-$## spraybars as others were. Lifereef wet/dry filters utilized (and still do today) a slide-out drip-tray drawer to evenly distribute the water over the bio-balls. A big plus with the Lifereef wet/dry filters was the "contact time" with the water falling through the bio-media in contact with the bacteria. This was paramount in how efficient any wet/dry is. Many other wet/dry filters were only 14" to 18" tall, the Lifereef is 22" tall.	Circa 1993 Lifereef Wet/Dry filter (less bio-balls) but now having the Accessory Rack for the Lifereef Filter Cylinders. The tower in this photo has been turned 90 degrees clockwise putting the drawer in front. Default position is for the drawer to slide out over the sump so when the drawer is opened to change the pad water does not drip on the floor. This was the last year of the trickle filter being used for reef aquariums. Lifereef then offered the first BERLIN SYSTEMS to the hobbyist when that bedan in 1994! This is the current Lifereef Wet/Dry, not much has changed showing how well this filter has stood the test of time. The changes? ABS sump cover instead of acrylic, extra bulkhead for a LifeReefugium and connection fittings for a calcium reactor, auto-top-off line or other accessory, that's it!	Lifereef Automated Denitrifier This was popular when wet/dry filters were the norm (1984 thru 1994), though many Lifereef wet/dry users did not require this many were sold to hobbyists using inferior wet/dry filters and inefficient protein skimmers. This denitrifier was called a "batch denitrifier" as it took a batch of water, dosed a teaspoonfull of methanol, and several hours later when the nitrates were reduced to zero, the water was flushed back into the system and the process repeated itself up to six times per day. These fell out of popularity when the Berlin Method of filtration came about in 1994.