Hello to All....
I’m a new member and really enjoyed reading the Forums and have learned a lot from the postings and advice given at this site. I’ve had a FW tank from about 5 years and have been dreaming about putting up a salt-water build. I’d like to put in a few fish and some easy corals to start. The tank is in the middle of my kitchen and will get some ambient light. I’m also looking forward to getting out to one of your meetings – especially when it’s a bit closer to North Jersey. This is my first post so bear with me!
I’m about half-way through my build and thought it would be a great time to stop and ask for some feedback. I’d appreciate any comments or advice – good, bad, and otherwise as I’ve been learning primarily by reading about what other people have been doing on sites like this and asking questions at my LFS. The tank is a 90 gallon acrylic and I’ve got it plumbed to go to a basement sump that I’m building.
Here’s a picture of the tank – my wife calls this my mid-life crisis fishtank -- She may be right! Yes there are snowmen in the tank since I had no fish (yet) and had to put in something
The tank sits on a 1/2 inch wooden platform. I was told that having it sit on the quartz counter was a bad idea. The Overflow is a side-drilled Synergy Reef Overflow model which is supposed to be quiet. All the plumbing is right behind the tank which is a cabinet dedicated for the plumbing.
For the lighting for now will just be a Current USA sitting right on the top which I know will limit my corals to softies and maybe some LPS.
First question is the return. I’m trying to decide if I should drill a hole at the bottom and run the return through the bottom or running a return pipe over the top of the tank. If I drill a hole and run it along the bottom I’d be concerned about leaking.
Here’s a look at the other side of the tank....
First problem is that the threads from the synergy overflow box inside the tank don’t quiet go far enough to reach the external overflow box. Plan B will be to cut out a section of the cabinet that will allow me to place the external box flush to the tank. After that it’s just a matter of connecting the overflow box to the plumbing. The pipes are 2 inches but I was going to replace them with 1 inch pipes and reduce the output. This will be a Bean Animal (primary, secondary, emergency) and I’ really hoping that this overflow runs quiet.
Now to the basement….I have read that you want to have a lot of water volume to stabilize your parameters....
The pipes come in all the way at the left of the photo and I’ll need to run them about 6 feet over to the 150 gallon stock tank. I was going to put a refugium in the tub with a good light. I had my FW tank in a similar location and had a little algea (not terrible) – I was hoping a bunch of macro algae would help with that and also grow some pods for the fish in the display.
In the middle is a RODI unit connected to a 90 gallon barrel. Someday I may build an ATO that would take water directly from the barrel.
For the return I was going to run a pipe from the refugium to an external pump. I’ve got about 16 feet of head pressure and was looking at the Iwaki Pumps (MD-55RLT). If my math is right it should give me about 771 GPH. I have no idea if that is good or bad – I do have a Maxispect gyre to move water around in the display.
That’s about it for now – again I’d really appreciate any comments on things I might want to change….
I’m a new member and really enjoyed reading the Forums and have learned a lot from the postings and advice given at this site. I’ve had a FW tank from about 5 years and have been dreaming about putting up a salt-water build. I’d like to put in a few fish and some easy corals to start. The tank is in the middle of my kitchen and will get some ambient light. I’m also looking forward to getting out to one of your meetings – especially when it’s a bit closer to North Jersey. This is my first post so bear with me!
I’m about half-way through my build and thought it would be a great time to stop and ask for some feedback. I’d appreciate any comments or advice – good, bad, and otherwise as I’ve been learning primarily by reading about what other people have been doing on sites like this and asking questions at my LFS. The tank is a 90 gallon acrylic and I’ve got it plumbed to go to a basement sump that I’m building.
Here’s a picture of the tank – my wife calls this my mid-life crisis fishtank -- She may be right! Yes there are snowmen in the tank since I had no fish (yet) and had to put in something
The tank sits on a 1/2 inch wooden platform. I was told that having it sit on the quartz counter was a bad idea. The Overflow is a side-drilled Synergy Reef Overflow model which is supposed to be quiet. All the plumbing is right behind the tank which is a cabinet dedicated for the plumbing.
For the lighting for now will just be a Current USA sitting right on the top which I know will limit my corals to softies and maybe some LPS.
First question is the return. I’m trying to decide if I should drill a hole at the bottom and run the return through the bottom or running a return pipe over the top of the tank. If I drill a hole and run it along the bottom I’d be concerned about leaking.
Here’s a look at the other side of the tank....
First problem is that the threads from the synergy overflow box inside the tank don’t quiet go far enough to reach the external overflow box. Plan B will be to cut out a section of the cabinet that will allow me to place the external box flush to the tank. After that it’s just a matter of connecting the overflow box to the plumbing. The pipes are 2 inches but I was going to replace them with 1 inch pipes and reduce the output. This will be a Bean Animal (primary, secondary, emergency) and I’ really hoping that this overflow runs quiet.
Now to the basement….I have read that you want to have a lot of water volume to stabilize your parameters....
The pipes come in all the way at the left of the photo and I’ll need to run them about 6 feet over to the 150 gallon stock tank. I was going to put a refugium in the tub with a good light. I had my FW tank in a similar location and had a little algea (not terrible) – I was hoping a bunch of macro algae would help with that and also grow some pods for the fish in the display.
In the middle is a RODI unit connected to a 90 gallon barrel. Someday I may build an ATO that would take water directly from the barrel.
For the return I was going to run a pipe from the refugium to an external pump. I’ve got about 16 feet of head pressure and was looking at the Iwaki Pumps (MD-55RLT). If my math is right it should give me about 771 GPH. I have no idea if that is good or bad – I do have a Maxispect gyre to move water around in the display.
That’s about it for now – again I’d really appreciate any comments on things I might want to change….
