120 AGA Megaflow & Equipment

[KlassicKrab]

Greetings all,

I'm brand new to Reef Central and to the marine aquarium hobby. I plan on having a reef tank and I even though I haven't purchased anything yet I'm considering a 120gal AGA Megaflow. I was wanting some opinions about this system. I'm not real handy so any DIY work wouldn't help much.

Also, with this type of tank what type of equipment is suggested to include lighting, filtration, skimmer, etc. PLease I need all the advice I can get, any would be useful and much appreciated. Thanks all!

 

[69camaro540]

i am in the process of starting a 120 megaflow tank, got all of the eqipment, just working thru the cycling process. what type of corals do you plan on keeping and how much room do you have for equip?

 

[KlassicKrab]

Well the tank is going to be in my living room. I have a very large living room. I hope to house all the equipment under the stand, but I can use additional space if needed.

I leaning toward soft corals and LPS corals. Also, I like to have a bunch of invertibrates and a few reef safe fish.

 

[Fast Fred]

Here's a tip:

I designed and built a 10" high riser for my 125g AGA stand to sit on. This gave me quite a bit of extra space under the tank, and also keeps you from bending over to look into the display.

What are the dimentions of the 120g?

 

[KlassicKrab]

The dimension for the 120 AGA is 48x24x24.

Btw....I mentioned earlier about having LPS and Soft corals, I'm not putting in LPS corals in my tank. Just the soft corals and Mushroom Corals, invertebrates, tank cleaners, and reef-safe fish.

I'm going with the MegaFlow Model 4 Wet/Dry Sump Filtration, Coralife Lunar Compact Fluorscents 4x65 (260w), Maxi-Jet Wavemaker System Model 600 (3powerheads, Wavemaker)

Some of the things I still debating is what type Protein Skimmer, UV Sterilizer, and Pumps. I think I'm gonna go with Protein Skimmer that has a built in pump.

I was wandering about the height of the stand, Like you said Fred, I don't wanna have to bend down to look at the display. What you said makes perfect sense. The only concern would be if the rise was sturdy enough.

Need more advice??????

 

[crumbletop]

In my opinion, with you being a self-described non DIYer, I would shy away from the 120 AGA. If you want to go reef ready, I'd go for a tank that has just one overflow, like the 90. Setting up the plumbing with the sump and doing things like making sure your return pump flow is adequate and matches the flow while draining is not the easiest thing in the world to do. It is very doable, but it just takes some thought and some work. Having to contend with 2 drains and 2 overflows and 2 returns more than doubles your complexity. A 120 is a great size, but for your first tank and just "gettting your feet wet," I think it might be a bit much.

Also, about bending down, my stand is 30" high (I think that is pretty standard). I mostly sit and watch the aquarium if I am going to be watching it for any appreciable amount of time (usually around and hour at a time, I'd say). If I had 10 inches of extra height, I'd have to look up at the aquarium while sitting...

Jack

 

[squirmy]

howdy. check out this stand and see what you think...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=769173

 

[Shooter7]

I have a 120 and I don't think you're going to get enough flow with that setup and you'll suffer from waste buildup in low flow areas. I also think you're going to use alot of money on that wet/dry when you could just find a used tank that would fit in your stand and create compartments in it for a skimmer, refugium, and return pump. The money saved could be used on a quality skimmer or live rock. I am not a DIY guy at all and figuring out the plumbing took me several trips to Home Depot and Lowes, standing in the plumbing aisle for long periods of time holding parts up to each other and trying to put everything together in my mind, and then finally putting it all together - including building my own durso drain pipes. With regards to lighting, that is not much light you're going to have on there. You may only be having low light corals, but just seems like really low wattage for the size tank you're talking about. Plus figure that in 6 - 9 months you'll have to be replacing those bulbs to remain efficient with lighting at all. So just looking at Premium Aquatics' website you have lighting that will cost you close to $400 for the year for the hood and replacement bulbs. Just seems like you would be able to put something together and get more light for less money. For example, I have 2x250W MH lighting and I think for the whole setup I spent around the $400 - $500 range and would be able to keep a much larger selection of corals under it. There may be VHO and T5 lighting setups you could do cheaper and get more light as well. Guess I'm just saying to look around and read more. Also, with regards to all of the above items, watching the dry goods selling forum or checking with local reef clubs could save you a small fortune on equipment. Good luck.

 

[crumbletop]

nice stand, squirmy

 

[KlassicKrab]

Thanks for the help guys, I really need it. Like it was said, I'm definitely going to continue reading. There's alot of useful information at Reef Central and I'm going to take advantage of it. When it comes to marine/reef aquariums you can never know too much.

 

[crumbletop]

Welcome to Reef Central!

I've actually never done that for anyone, so I don't know if this will make the graphic or not. [edit] And it didn't -- you can tell I don't have a clue

Anyway, I'm doing a lot of learning myself

Jack

 

[PatMayo]

KlassicKrab,

I was contemplating the 120 AGA as well, however because I am not a DIY as well I settled for the 90 AGA megaflow tank. It is deceptivley easy to maintain. As crumbletop, Jack, said having 2 drains and returns etc. is a complication.

I am very happy with my system so far. It has been up since late January. You can see in my sig what I have powering this tank. I seem to have plenty of flow and the skimmer works very well.

Another thing you need to consider is top off water and water changes. My tank is in my family room and all equipment is under my stand. I add about 3/4 of a gallon perday of top of water. A 120 will have probably double the evaporation that I have. And I have glass tops on my tank which helps lower the evaporation.

Unless you have a way to set up an auto topoff system you will spend a lot of time adding water.

Based on what I know with my set up, it's quiet, the durso makes virtually no noise, I did not use PVC it has soft plumbing underneath. I was able to move it around to the right position and I use industrial strength velcro to hold the drain tube in just the right location so that there is practiaclly zero drain noise.

Anyway, I think you would be much happier going with a 90 rather than the 120. IMHO.

I have been talking about this tank for a long time and I finally have some pictures of it. I will start a new post and post some picture of it and the equipment under the stand. You will get a good idea of how it works. I don't have any corals in my tank yet. Only 2 clowns and they hide in the liverock a lot. I have many nooks, crannies, open areas, they just love it but hide a lot. Once I add some more fish, I plan to add only 3 blue chromis and 1 other fish but I have not determined what that is yet, hopefully they will draw the clowns out.

Anyway, watch for the post soon. Hopefully within the 1/2 hour I will post the pictures.

Regards,

Pat

 

[Fast Fred]

For the 10" riser, I used pressure treated 2x10s, angle aluminum on the inside corners, 3/4 plywood on the deck (cut out in the middle for the sump), and oak luan plywood to cover it. It wasn't hard to make once I got the dimentions figured out.

This gives me plenty of room for equipment, and plenty of room to work in the sump.

 

[Shooter7]

As for the dual drain issue that keeps coming up, I had absolutely ZERO experience dealing with plumbing, had never glued two pipes together in my life. All I did when I made my dursos was make sure the two of them were the same size and followed the instructions for building them. Once I got the vent holes the right size to maintain the water level properly, they were fine and I didn't have to mess with them again. What I'm saying is that the two drains are really not that much of an issue.

 

[KlassicKrab]

Thanks PatMayo for you help. I would go with the 90 but I really like to have that extra width space, ya know. I'm not sure how I'm gonna configure the two drains but I'm thinking about tying them into one line running into the sump, where I'll have a protein skimmer as well. But then again, I though about using one of the overflows to run tank water through the protein skimmer alone.

Shooter7, how do you run your lines. DO you have both running o the sump individually or do you have each line doing something different? Or are they tied in together.?

Topping of the tank everyday isn't really an issue, I plan on getting a RO/DI unit to which I'll have water at the ready. PLus, I have a Marine Aquarium Store right here in town. It pays to live in FLorida.

 

[KlassicKrab]

btw.....Instead of the Coralife Lunar Light Compact Fluorescent (4x65), I going with the Aqualight Pro HQI/Compact Fluoresent which has 2x150 HQI MH and 2x96pc. The Aqualight will definitely be much better than the previous light setup and I won't be as limited.

 

[MBuck]

Here you go crumble!

KlassicKrab,
[welcome]

You just type in [ welcome ] with no spaces!!

If you decide to DIY your plumbing, juxt do a dry run first, make sure everything fits, and looks the way you want it before you glue it together....I am a girl, and really do not have much "plumbing" experience, and after a few pieces not cut to the right length...I got er done!!

Good Luck, make sure to take some pics!!

I am looking at a 180g RR AGA....so hopefully I will be posting some new pics as well!

 

[Shooter7]

Klassic, my setup is a bit more interesting than the typical in-stand sump because my sump/refugium is in the room directly behind my display, so my drains had to go through a couple more contortions than it would with the sump in the stand, thus involving more 90 degree turns. I employed the use of some spa-flex in my return lines, but the angles and such were just too sharp for spa-flex to be used on the drains. Besides that, I was not too worried about getting heavy duty flow from my sump (even though it still pumps some fairly significant water through it), I get most of my display flow via my Seios. At any rate, to answer your question, my drains are two separate pipes going to the intake of my sump. My return is a single line that T's in the stand and goes to each side. I am including a picture of my sump when it was very first setup and being tested. For all you plumbing types out there, remember, this was my first plumbing job so please excuse all my purple showing.

 

[Rtankster]

Dave, Do you have 2 - 1" drains & 2 - 3/4" returns? What size plumbing did you use, did you reduce your returns after the T? What return pump are you using?

Thank you

Rick

 

[Shooter7]

Actually, I upsized the pipes on the drains to 1 1/4" after they left the bulkheads, so 2 of those. On the return, the pump is a Mag 12 which has a 3/4" opening for the return, but I upsized the pipe to a 1" and run that size all the way to the return bulkhead. Once inside the overflow, yes, the return is reduced to 3/4" going to 3/4" loc-lines in the display.