Mikes 120 gal reef ready build

[MJC]

Hi guys and gals my name is Mike and I am a Reef virgin well other than for the last 6 months have been lurking and reading everything I can get my hands on lol.

Ill try to make my story quick. My first job was in a aquarium store and ever since I was 16 years old I have always dreamed about having a salt water tank.
Well 28 years later I am finally making that happen.

My next door neighbor owns a LFS and offered me a sweet deal on a used 65 gal setup that someone was upgrading to a 120 ,which I proposed to my wife with what I felt was the only possible location on a wall in our 1/2 finished basement.

Being the coolest wife there is(with an ulterior motive) Said go BIG or go home.
“You can have any size tank you want if you just refinish the other room in the basement
And put it in there“ :winner:

Not sure if she under estimated my commitment or not but so it began.

Photos of the room being riped out,electric ,framing,sheetrock,spackle,paint,custom tank stand sized for a 180gal.... you know just incase in the future I want to upgrade and my DIY 40 breeder sump/refugium
http://photobucket.com/120galreefbuild

My equipment so far:

120 reef ready double drain
ASM G3 Skimmer
1800 Mag drive
2 AI Sol LEDs Super Blue from Aquaillimination
75 GPD 5 stage RODI unit
1 MP40 Vortech
3 Hanna checkers Calcium,Alkalinity,Phosphate
Refractometer
40 gal DIY breeder Sump/Refugium


Im at the plumbing stage and would appreciate some help.
As I said it is a 120 reef ready which has 4 holes pre drilled in the bottom.

I would like to incorporate the Herbie method and the plan was originally to have two drains with 1” bulkheads into 1.5” pipe to the sump and the remaining two as the Herbie emergency drains and the the 1”returns over the back.

Now Im wondering if I can utilize 3 holes as drains and have the last remaining 4th hole as the Herbie emergency?
Chances of two drains getting clogged at one time is IMOP slim and having 2 might be redundant.

So my questions are will this work? Will 3 drains utilize better flow? Will the 1800 mag handle the return? Has this been done before? Am I thinking to much should I just “KISS” (Keep it simple stupid)

Your thoughts are much appreciated and Im looking forward to being part of the community.

~Cheers
Mike

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Very nice build !

 

[tnwillia]

 

[dmatt88]

I'm looking forward to this build. As for your question I'd direct it to PSU4ME. he's been researching the same thing.

I'm Matt n I hate heaters.

 

[engineer goby]

looks good

 

[PSU4ME]

Hi Mike,
A couple of questions for you.

The Mag 18 is a big pump and unless you have a bunch of run/head in the pipes, I think a Mag 12 would be better (you'll have to throttle the mag 18 back a bit). If you plan to have some flow inside the tank (which it looks like you do) then you don't need a ton of flow going through the sump. As Matt just said, I've looked into this exact question for a while now and while I decided to go with a custom tank (3 holes, 2 drains, 1 return), you can accomplish this same thing with your setup by utilizing the holes differently. From what I remember, each overflow holds a 1 in and 3/4 inch bulkhead correct? If you look at the herbie design, you need two drains to make it work. I'd like some input from the others but i think that the full sip[hon on the 1 inch drain and using the 3/4 drain as the back up would work. That would leave your entire other side available for the return (however you wanted that to work).

The RR models are "made" to be setup with the durso standpipe style so repurposing it gets a little weird but I think It can still happen. You only have as few options here so you'll either need to be comfortable with the above or look to do the durso in each overflow.

On my new tank, I'm doing two 1 inch drains (main and a backup) and a 3/4 inch return line. So hopefully the above is the "translation" to how you would accomplish the same with a RR tank.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Thanks
Bryan

 

[PSU4ME]

Is your bottom glass tempered? if not, you couls alway make the 3/4 hole a 1 inch hole if you were brave......then you would have the exact herbie design because you will setup the drain to handle the flow and if you are fully utilizing the capacity of a 1 inch drain and it gets clogged then the 3/4 inch drain won't be able to handle everything and boom....flood.

Now you could set it up where you close the 1 inch drain a little and dial back the return flow to match and test it to see if the 3/4 drain can handle the volume in case the 1 inch drain gets fully clogged.

Thoughts?

 

[MJC]

From what I remember, each overflow holds a 1 in and 3/4 inch bulkhead correct?

Thank you Brian and everyone ells for there responses.

Brian to answer your question I have 4 "1 bulkheads and plan to have a 1" return split with a Y to have 2 returns one on each side over the back.
also my sump is set up as Skimmer/Return/Refugium the return has a T to 3/4" to feed the refugium (w/gate valve) before it goes back to the tank this is why I went with the 1800.

The 4 1" holes were originally going to be 2 "1 stand pipes in the overflow box and the drain pipes under the tank to the sump would be 1.5"
and then the other 2 1" drains would be for the Herbie emergency overflows.

I was wondering if you thought it would possibly be better to use 3 1"holes for the drain and one 1" drain as the emergency.

Something like this

 

[BLADEYAMAHA]

 

[MJC]

Not sold yet on my copepod return suction Im hopping this theory will work when the 1" return goes past the 3/4" to 1/2 it will creat a suction to return some un shredded copepods to the DT
Im setting it up with a gate vale so if it don't work I will just shut it down. Can any one tell I really want a Mandarin in about a year or so lol

 

[mcentire1123]

Welcome to RS!

 

[MJC]

Plumbing is done, lights up and filling tank with RODI. Yay!

 

[MJC]

P.s. that copepodes suction return theory did not work it only pumped water back to the sump so I closed it off.
O well didn't hurt to try. Guess I'll maybe try the DIY copepode hotels out of gutter guard.

 

[jjmoneyman]

Sump looks great!

 

[PSU4ME]

Yeah, You would need a bunch of flow going past the opening to "pull" the water......now if you "pushed" water into that opening through a tube that collected water along the way (openings cut into the tube/pipe), it would catch copods along to way and force them into the return line.

Just a thought!

 

[MJC]

Hi everyone I have a new-bee question.
I just added my water and sand and I plan on doing a 5% water change weekly.
My question is when should I start this? next week or wait a while?
My rock is still being cured in my LFS and should be ready in about 3 weeks.
O ya one more when should I add cheto to my refugium

 

[redneckgearhead]

Usually once the tank is cycled a water change is necessary to bring down the trates...then once a week, to two weeks once you start adding animals...

 

[MJC]

Thanks Scott

 

[PSU4ME]

yeah you want it to get all gooky then stabalize before you start doing water changes. Why not use the uncured LR to cycle your tank?

Also, just a suggestion, you may want to look at 10 gallons a week but you can start at 5 if you like but with your tank being 120, a 10% change is 12g so 5g is on the light side.

Can't wait to see it up and running!

 

[MJC]

yeah you want it to get all gooky then stabalize before you start doing water changes. Why not use the uncured LR to cycle your tank?

Also, just a suggestion, you may want to look at 10 gallons a week but you can start at 5 if you like but with your tank being 120, a 10% change is 12g so 5g is on the light side.

Can't wait to see it up and running!

To tell you the truth I did not even think about it. My LFS oner is my next door nabber and he has a tank at the shop with some premium Australian very porous rock that I like and he said he would pickup 120lbs to start with because it was so porous and lighter I might be ok with only the 120lbs?
Told me he would cure it for me? 3 or 4 weeks to cure. He did say I could cure it myself but I figured since this is my first go round I would let him do it.

Ya 10 0r 15 gal sounds better considering I have a total of about 150 gal total with the sump. Thanks