Starting A Marine Tank

[SkiFletch]

Well, FYI a Harlequin Tusk Wrasse is not really compatible in a reef environment. In a tank that size you could consider Tangs or Rabbitfish and don't foget Anthias on the fish side of things.

Tanks aren't that difficult to drill. Everyone's really scared of it, but it's quite easy. Consider getting something like a 40gallon breeder tank for a sump on a 120g tank

 

[CroNiC]

Ok cool, i actually like those fish.

What do you mean by a breeder tank (are they different from a regular 40 gallon?)
Also for the sump ... should it have two holes (water going to it and from it) or more than 2?
How does an overflow box work?

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

well due to my one stuff up apparently i know nothing but ill try to help you out.

ok so start with your overflow. the overflow is a box in the corner of your tank preferably out of the way which is basically going to be the deciding facter for your water level as your water level will not rise above it. im not sure if you say you have one in your current tank but yeah just a box with 2 pieces of glass about 95% or to your waterlevel liking joined to the corner of your tank to form a box. you need to first though drill a hole which will be dependent on the amount of water you want to drain per second. im sure someone can go into more detail with this about crystal drills etc but im no expert as my overflow was built with the tank for no extra charge.

now to the plumbing my good friend.
your plumbing is basically pvc piping and pumps to the specific flow rate you want. in my tank i have a 1200L per hour pump which turns over my water at like 4 time and hour or something to the sort. so to start you need a piece of PVC piping runnning from your overflow hole which should be siliconed in place much like the sides of your tank are siliconed among other things. now your goal is to get the pipe from the overflow to the sump which is achieved by using pvc elbows and piping. and all you need is basically a piece of pipe or even just the elbow like mine transporting the water from the pipe to your sump entry way which in my tank is just spitting it straight down into my bioballs.

now your water makes its way through the sump and into the last chamber. if you need help with protien skimmer ask but basically it just sits on the side and is run by a pump connected to one side with what i think is a powerhead(in mine its jsut a pump which sucks in water and spits it out).

when your water makes it to the end of the sump you now need something to take it back to the tank. in my design i have an eheim 1200L per hour pump for my 4ft tank but it will vary depending on the size and literage of your tank. this is submergable so the whole pump sits at the bottom of my sump and sucks water in then on the other end i have pvc piping and elbow's which send it back up to the tank on the opposite corner to my overflow and a long piece of pvc piping which runs the length of the tank at the back faced down spitting water straight onto my live rock, but im not sure if this is right, it my need to be spiting water at surface level to create surface agitation, again someone else should be able to clarify this!

and thats my basic sump setup, it can be daunting to start and took me 3 or 4 weeks befor i actually sat down drew something up and executed it but it all worked in the end and its now cycling with s/w and live rock at the perfect level wich no overflow problems in the sump and different algae color growth on the live rock. I hope this helps

 

[SkiFletch]

A 40 "breeder" is 36x18x12" LxWxH and short of a custom sump is a pretty good size sump tank for a 120g. Usually fits under the stand, allows room for an external pump, big enough to fit some decent sized equipment in there. Since you have a US made tank, you're going to want to look into using what's known as a Calfo Overflow. I'd explain it, but a quick forum search, and/or google search will give you some pictures and I'm pressed for time atm . You'll also want to decide what size pump and size drain you'll ultimately use

 

[CroNiC]

Ok so a Castro Overflow is basically an overflow box in the corner of your tank ... where you can place your pipe adn stuff to drain the water into the sump?
For plumping, I'm guessing i'm going to have to buy the pvc pipes seperately and do the actual plumbing (i've never done any plumbing)

Also i'm confused on how many holes should be in a tank? One to fit the pvc pipe into the overflow box. Another hole so that water can be pumped out of the sump into the display tank. Is that it?

 

[CroNiC]

I'm gonna go check the local petsmart to see if they have any pre-drilled tanks (doubt it though)
Then i'll drive to the lfs (30 mins away )

So hopefully i'll be able to find a pre-drilled tank at the lfs if not ... well I might order it online then.

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

well u should only need the hole in the overflow. u can have a pump sitting in the sump with pvc piping taking water straight back to the tank cant you? or is there not enough room?

 

[CroNiC]

O true. Ok, well tm is the big day ... deciding on the tank.

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

no worries, if you need help with the plumbing, its still fresh in my mind. a lil advide for the joins of the pvc to the elbows, ask for something to clean the insides and something to glue them together that is aquarium safe probably common sense but just thought id add that in. mine has been going for bout 5 days now cant believe all this growth and stuff already yey. it really is just like im scuba diving. which reminds me i have to take a weekend off work sometime been like 3 months since my last clocked dive . set the t5 light up todat, just one thing left to do. go and get the lids for the tank i forgot about till now haha.

 

[CroNiC]

So i visited a couple stores in the area ... only one had reef-ready tanks (overflow box). So I decided it's probably better to order it online. Also i might degrade the tank to a 75 or 90 gallon, as the place i'm planning to keep it can really only do that much.
I'm thinking about making my own Sump ... after doing a little research. It doesn't seem too hard from the way I look at it.
I now understand what Ski was trying to explain ... drilling American tanks isn't always advisable because they're temperable (or something like that) which causes the glass in many cases to crack. So for the sump what i'm thinking of is to for the input and output to come into the sump from the top rather than through a drilled hole in the side.
I finally understand how the whole filtration system and pvc piping works. I might pick up a begginers guide or something.

My goal as of right now is to decide on all my equipment and order most of it at the same time.
I'm still confused on one thing though, the bulkhead. I know how it looks, and that it somehow helps in the plumbing, but what is its function?

I guess i'll start posting links and such on equipment to confirm if they would be ideal of the tank. And i'll let u guys know the dimensions of my tank soon as well.

 

[CroNiC]

So I ordered Fenner's book, The Conscientious Marine Aquarist through amazon.
From what the reviews on this forum it seems worth it.

Also I found a nice 90-gallon tank with an overflow box build in the corner (acrylic black YES!)

I could also go with a 120 gallon, but i'll need to figure out how to fit a overflow box (how hard is it?) I've found some overflow boxes on glasscages.com so maybe I can buy some an attach them??

I'm also planning on constructing my own sump after looking through many DIY sumps.
Is glasscages.com a cheap place to buy cut acrylic?

 

[SkiFletch]

On the overflow, its "CALFO", not castro How handy are you? You CAN build an overflow yourself, but it does require a little bit if skill with tools to do so. You'll need either a good band saw, or preferrably a table saw to cut nice straight edges on the acrylic.

 

[andywg]

On the overflow, its "CALFO", not castro How handy are you? You CAN build an overflow yourself, but it does require a little bit if skill with tools to do so. You'll need either a good band saw, or preferrably a table saw to cut nice straight edges on the acrylic.

Or a hand held jigsaw and a fairly steady hand and enough silicone to cover any minor flaws

 

[CroNiC]

Lol well I don't have a jigsaw ... and i'm not really handy.
Instead of buying the jigsaw then the materials, it's probably more convenient to just buy the overflow box online along with the other stuff.

 

[SkiFletch]

Unless you have friends who are handy enough with tools?