I'm trying to figure out what this stuff does, how to put it together, and where it goes. If I don't figure it out soon my fish and organisms may die.

A close up view of the sponge thing. Not for sure what it goes to.

More stuff...

A close up to the propeller thing. At the owners this sat in the sump tank and pushed water up through a nozzle thing into the tank.

This is the valve in the middle of the propellor thing and the nozzle thing...

the nozzle thing that hangs over the tank...

the nozzle thing again...

The filter looking thing that hangs over the tank. This seemed to suck water into it and it went through a tube down into the sump tank. It's like the other half of the propellor and nozzle unit.

I then saw this little thing floating in the sump tank. Any ideas? Oh, and in the pic above there's a sponge thing inside it.

Those are the things I'm most concerned about so that's all I'll post. If any of this stuff is familiar to someone let me know.

If Im not mistaken that would be a protien skimmer hun, but lets see what others think

The first one is a seaclone protein skimmer modified to run in the sump, the output of the powerhead that says maxi-jet on it should easily twist on to the hole at the bottom of the skimmer. The cup is a press fit onto the top of the skimmer and should be cleaned about once a week. The sponge "thing" is the pre filter for the powerhead on the skimmer, the black plastic piece w/the air line comming out of it goes into the intake of the powerhead and then the sponge goes over that. Clean the sponge as needed. The black and orange piece you found in the sump is the air control valve for the skimmer (goes on the other end of the airline) this is how you control how much the skimmer skims. Adjust it so the bubbles go about half way up the tube inside the collection cup.
The return pump is a mag drive, the ball valve controls the amount of water returning to the tank, I would suggest leaving turned where your friend had it, or else it might over power the overflow, the clear box w/hose and U-tube.
To start the overflow fill both sides with water put a length of air line tubing about half way through the U-tube put it in the overflow box and suck out the air this will automaticly start the siphon.
I hope this helps if you need more help just ask,
Aaron

This has got to be so frustrating! I looked around and found some skimmer diagrams--obviously none of them are like yours, but maybe they will help you figure it out?

http://ozreef.org/diy/images/p_s_diagram.html
http://users.rcn.com/reef101/skimmer.html
http://www.aquariacentral.com/diy/skimmer2.gif

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html (this one shows a HOB overflow box)

http://www.marineland.com/products/consumer/con_sclone.asp (this one has instructions for the seaclone--you can download the manual)

Gosh, I hope you get it figured out!! Hang in there.

Thank you so much Wrasseman and Rbocchiccio! Rbocchiccio- I think that last pic is the same as mine! I seem to be missing some of the airline tubing, I think. I'm going to work on this more today when I have time. I have a bubbler going in the meantime to aggitate the surface a little bit- but even though it's a fairly long bubbler it isn't making much of a dent in the 55 gallon.

Oh geeze I just realized that of course that's a pic of mine and it has the instructions and stuff! My head's a little scrambled right now! I'm getting closer and closer though!

Ok I got the overflow thing working! It's very, very loud though, and the water is VERY aggitated! The current in there is extremely strong. Is that OK? The only way I could get the return pump to keep up with the overflow was to put it on full blast. Is the overflow chambers supposed to be only half full of water while the syphon's working? I don't know if I'll be able to hear the TV over the gushing of water. I'm almost positive that it wasn't behaving like this at the guy I bought it from's house.