155g

[obarrera]

I don't know if this belongs in the "large reef tanks" forums, Im trying to set up a 155g with a 30g sump/refugium, that sums up to 185g so I guess.

Anyway, im planning on setting up a 155g reef tank, pretty soon, hopefully in no later then 3 months. I would like to know what kind of equipment should I use.

Im gonna have a sump/refugium. For a skimmer I was thinking a ASM G-4 Skimmer w/ Sedra 5000 Pump, not sure if this is enough, or too strong, too weak?

For a return pump, a Blueline, not sure what model?
I've heard good things about these pumps, they don't get too hot, they're quiet, etc.

And for a chiller, a 1/5 Hp Arctica, hopefully this is enough?


The less I spend on electricity the better, but ofcourse I want everything to work right. I don't want a tank with too little water flow because I went with a pump that was too small, or the water not beeing clean enough because I went with a small skimmer so I wouldn't spend to much on electricity etc.

So what I want to know is what skimmer should I get and what return pump, oh and what chiller?

I think I have all other stuff figured out.

Thanks

 

[nss9400]

It all Depends on what you want to keep in the aquarium. As far as chiller goes. it depends on...where the tank is located (in a room that has ac or not and if it has ac how cold do you keep it also another thing to consider for chiller size is what kind of lighting are you going to use which goes back to what do you want to keep in your tank. You should say what kind of livestock you will keep in your tank that way we can help you more.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

For a reef tank with a lot of fish I recommend the following;

The skimmer is definetely to small if you plan to stock a decent amount of fish. I keep a G4 on my Oceanic 120 w/ 40 gallon sump. I generally like to go as large as possible on the skimmer, its a piece of equipment thats well worth investing in.

I don't think the chiller will be big enough. I have a 1/4 HP skimmer on my tank. Eventhough it hardly has to come on, it does a hell of a job. Always better more if its needed.

For waterflow in a reef tank you are going to have to bump up the water flow considerable. Adding a second blueline on a closed loop may work but I don't think that would be enough. Tunze makes some great powerheads and 2 or 3 on a controller would take care of your water movement needs.

I recommend a sequence reeflo barracuda or even the smaller dart. I have a barracuda on my 120 which I also 't' off to run the chiller and uv sterilizer. Its a great pump, can't complain in any way.

Hope that helps, good luck

 

[obarrera]

nss9400, the tank is going to be located in my room, no ac.
I live in San Diego, don't know if you what the temperatures are around here? To give you an idea, I used to have a 20g with HQI lightning(150w) and the temperature on my tank would be around 86 F.

At first im planning on having only 300w of HQI lighning(2 150w pendants), so I'll keeop some corals that don't require much light, but I might get into SPS, so I'll add atleast a 250w HQI.
Im also gonna get an anemone, I once kept an anemone in a 10g tank with around 90w of PC lightning, and im sure it will be even easier to keep one in this set up.
What do you guys think about the Double Ended HQI Lumen arc pendant? Is there better pendants/reflectors?

thirschmann, Im thinking about having around 17 fish, the only 2 big ones beeing a yellow tang and a blue tang.
So what skimmer should I get?

You mean you have a 1/4 chiller, not skimmer right?lol

It hardly comes on

, when it's not on, it doesn't use any power?
Or is it still using power? Meaning it still makes the electric bill go up the same as it would if it was on?

A second blueline?
Is that really necessary?

 

[nss9400]

With that said I would go with a larger chiller especially if you go with the 250w MH later on. As far as a chiller goes when the water is at the correct temp. it cuts off and does not consume electricity but if you are running a pump for the purpose of just feeding your chiller then the pump will be consuming electricity 24/7 but thats not much since they are small pumps for running 1/5 to 1/4 hp chillers and the smaller the pump the better for chillers since it allows the water more contact time in the chiller. Usually a 200 to 600 ghp pump is whats called for for a 1/4 hp chiller.

 

[obarrera]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10116422#post10116422 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nss9400
With that said I would go with a larger chiller especially if you go with the 250w MH later on. As far as a chiller goes when the water is at the correct temp. it cuts off and does not consume electricity but if you are running a pump for the purpose of just feeding your chiller then the pump will be consuming electricity 24/7 but thats not much since they are small pumps for running 1/5 to 1/4 hp chillers and the smaller the pump the better for chillers since it allows the water more contact time in the chiller. Usually a 200 to 600 ghp pump is whats called for for a 1/4 hp chiller.

Im not sure how chillers work, but Im gonna have an overflow, and I was thinking of making an "extra" hole(the overflow is gonna be bottom drilled) that can deliver water to the chiller, without having to use a water pump, not sure if this would give enough water flow, or if it would work?

 

[nss9400]

There are 2 types of chillers...1) one kind is the inline which works by water being run through its internal cooling coils then the water is put back in the tank or sump at a cooler temp. 2) is the drop in type which has a coil on the outside that you drop-in the sump and as the water makes contact with the coil it gets cooled.

As far as the overflow goes I wouldn't add an extra hole to it but I would add another overflow to the tank and plumb it to the chiller and have the output from the chiller dump into the sump and have your return pump pump it back into the tank (make sure you have a pump that can handle 2 overflows so you dont flood your floor).

 

[obarrera]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10117823#post10117823 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nss9400
There are 2 types of chillers...1) one kind is the inline which works by water being run through its internal cooling coils then the water is put back in the tank or sump at a cooler temp. 2) is the drop in type which has a coil on the outside that you drop-in the sump and as the water makes contact with the coil it gets cooled.

As far as the overflow goes I wouldn't add an extra hole to it but I would add another overflow to the tank and plumb it to the chiller and have the output from the chiller dump into the sump and have your return pump pump it back into the tank (make sure you have a pump that can handle 2 overflows so you dont flood your floor).

Oh yeah, I knew about the two type of chillers, sorry about that. What I didn't know is about adding the extra hole, so it would be better to add a second overflow? Damn, I was hoping I could just add all the necessary holes in one overflow, like one for my sump, the other one to plumb it to the chiller, and whatever other holes I might need.... I just want as much space as possible in my tank.

You say I should go with a pump that can handle both overflows, this would mean that if the pumo goes off or anything, my sump would fill up and flood the floor, is there anything I can do for this not to happen? Would going with a bigger sump solve the problem?

Thanks

 

[nss9400]

yeah a bigger sump would contain the water if the pump stopped working or there was a power outage....calculate the lowest point for the water level in your tank that the overflow will still work and then calculate how many gallons that would be then get a sump that could handle that extra water flow.

As for the overflow drilling extras holes in it will cause your siphon to stop unless you add another siphon but that can get tricky. It is much easier to run to overflows or just a small pump for the chiller use only because if you get 2 overflow and run a bigger pump you will probably use the same amount of electricity as 1 overflow and smaller main pump and a chiller pump imo there is no correct way of doing something especially if you have some equipment on hand already you might have to work with them so it might get done a different way then if you didnt have any equipment.

 

[obarrera]

Yup, that's what I was gonna do, just wasn't sure, thanks for clearing that up.

What do you mean it will cause the siphon to stop?
Are you talking about those kind of overflows?

The overflows im having in my tank are the ones that go IN my tank. Or what do you mean?
This is the kind of overflow im gonna have

NOT this

I don't have any equipment at the moment, this is gonna be my third reef tank, so I want everything to be perfect this time, I have learned from my mistakes, the only reason im asking questions is because I have never had a tank this big, I started out with a 10g, then a 20g, and now this one.

 

[nss9400]

Oh then you should be fine drilling an extra hole and feeding your chiller that way but I dont know if that is a good idea to cool water directly from you tank without filtering it first imo.

 

[obarrera]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10125710#post10125710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nss9400
Oh then you should be fine drilling an extra hole and feeding your chiller that way but I dont know if that is a good idea to cool water directly from you tank without filtering it first imo.

Damn you're right, I didn't think of that. I'll make another thread to question that.

Do you think it would give enough water flow this way?

I really hope this idea works, the electricity bill sucks.

 

[nss9400]

it should, a 1" diameter pipe and bulkhead have about 600 gph flow rate.

 

[obarrera]

Perfect

 

[obarrera]

What about the Skimmer, im thinking about going with a 180g instead, so I want recomendations for a skimmer for a 180g tank(with a 35g probably).

Thanks for the help!