adding water volume

[glenn crites]

I have a 220 reef ready with a 60 gl sump built into the wall, it replaced a 125 aga tank. I was going to sell the 125 but have been talking to few different people about having it drilled and adding it to my system just to increase water volume and possibly in the future fragging corals in it. One person that I spoke to advised against it because it would create larger water changes if problem occurs. My question for everyone is , "Do you think that the benifiets would outweigh the hassle and increased cost of salt , other additives and additiontional lighting?"l

 

[nyvp]

i used a 200/g on my 560 and would do it again. when you have added water volume things happen slower. the tank swings,temp all of it moves up or down slower makes it easier to handle

 

[mfinn]

I agree with nyvp, bigger tank volume is better for all the same reasons.

 

[Siffy]

Re: adding water volume

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12705152#post12705152 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by glenn crites
I have a 220 reef ready with a 60 gl sump built into the wall, it replaced a 125 aga tank. I was going to sell the 125 but have been talking to few different people about having it drilled and adding it to my system just to increase water volume and possibly in the future fragging corals in it. One person that I spoke to advised against it because it would create larger water changes if problem occurs. My question for everyone is , "Do you think that the benifiets would outweigh the hassle and increased cost of salt , other additives and additiontional lighting?"l

Increased salt costs are negligible. Additional lighting isn't required for just volume addition. Adding a frag setup is a completely different question. Like nyvp said, it makes things happen more slowly and in lesser amounts. The advice against it misses that advantage. If a problem occurs it won't be as bad. Sure you have to preform a larger water change to make the same %, but with enough volume you might not even have to preform the water change.

As for additives that are day to day chemistry changes, it will be the same regardless of volume. All that is relative to coral population, not how much water is in the system. Calcium usage may go up due to higher coralline growth in the extra tank but not significantly. And it might go up due to increased coral growth rates due to enhanced stability.

If you have the space and the tank it's an easy addition. Just divert some or all of the 220's drain into the 125 and have it drain into the sump. No extra pumps would be required if you can place the tank close enough and get the heights right.

I'd considered setting up an 8g biocube like this with a 33g brute in a closet, but plans changed. For a system that small, the benefits are considerable, but for a 280g system it's a personal call due to the size of any container large enough to be beneficial.

 

[stout]

Would you also need to upgrade equipment such as the skimmer? That could add a one time cost, but I would still do it.

I'm working on adding a stock tank to my current system and not sure my current skimmer would still work.

My thinking is my bio load has not changed so the nutrients will be diluted so my skimmer should be able to keep up. (at least this is my hope!!!) Convincing the wife that a 65$ increase in volume is easy, now if I have to go back and say the increase will now cost about 300 for a new skimmer, not so easy!!

 

[glenn crites]

Thanks for the comments, that is what I was hoping to hear. I figured that I would have to either upgrade the skimmer or add another one (wish I would have thought I of this sooner before I bought the one I have.)

 

[earthboy17]

With the HUGE addition of filtration made possible by plumbing in that tank (thinking LR, LS, Fuges, sponges, all sorts of crap), without adding a comparable load to it (you aren't doubling your bioload), seems like you would come out WAY ahead and I don't know if you'd even need to upgrade your skimmer.

 

[limitdown]

You would not need to upgrade your skimmer unless you were to add more livestock.
It's like I only had a 1inch damsel in a 20g cube with a Red Sea airlift simmer, then tossed him into a 500g system to live alone. I would not need to upgrade my skimmer that is rated for a 500g tank like a Bubble King 250 or a Deltec 902. The airlift would be enough.
I see a few drawbacks to increasing the volume. 1) More time and energy to change the water. 2) Larger drums and more space to hold RO/DI water before mixing. 3) Higher energy consumption for heating and chilling the extra water.
If you can deal with the drawbacks, then I would vote Yes to increasing the volume.

 

[Mark426]

I would just stick with the orginal plan (220+60). The other comments such as: additional WC, Skimmer, Costs, etc. are something to consider. As far as stability, 280G total is going to be darn stable. If I were going to make any changes it might be.... 280 display and a 125G sump/refug and sell the 60.
I still like the 220+60 best, seems to be a good balance between size, costs and manageability.

 

[reef_only]

The more water volume the more stable of water; but cost also more(cost: time, money,space.....) I believe there should be a optimal water volume range w.r.t DT volume, this range if existed is quite dynamic and would be different from one setup to other setup/ one person to an other person depends on what is more important factor for a person. Hope you will get enough info from our people here and come up with the optimal plan on yours.

 

[Pbrown3701]

Heating cost is a concern, but cooling will probablly not be an issue. Adding the extra volume will increase your surface area for evaporative cooling. Larger volume tanks typically do not require external cooling because they evaporate enough to keep the temp down from my experience.

 

[Siffy]

Since a few have brought up time costs, you could turn the tank into something that would make your maintenance less. If you're not scared of drilling holes in it you could add it to the system as a water change tank. A handful of valves and some smart plumbing would save you a lot of time.

Just install bulkheads with plumbing at appropriate heights in the tank with a valve on them that corresponds to removing a specific volume of water from the system. Divert flow from coming into the 125, open a drain valve for a few minutes, close valve, refill with RO/DI, add salt, wait a day or 2, turn flow into the 125 back on. The added benefit of this is the water change takes less work and occurs over a longer period of time.