bhbell
New member
First rule of starting up a system. Don't Get In A Hurry. Only bad things happen fast in this hobby.
Keep in mind the equipment has to fit the tank size and bio load. Water Flow, Lighting, Skimming for removal or organic waste, Make up water for evaporation replacement, Salt Water Mixing station, Reactors or peristaltic pumps for dosing amendments, a well stocked Test Kit, etc. Your Sump will need to be big enough for it's day to day mission of holding a bunch of the equipment AS WELL AS additional water from the tank if/when the return pump shuts off. You should be able to get a good guess of how much from Glass Cages. I assume/hope you're having them set it up with drain and return plumbing.
Right now I have a 120 and a 180 gal setup operating off a common sump. The sump is a stock tank, probably 150 gal, but only 1/2 full. That allows for 70ish gallons of drain down between the 2 tanks. I've had power outages and no issues with overflow. I have since then added a whole house auto backup generator, so... Get an automation system, such as an Apex. Learn how to program it. That's something you could be doing now on one of your smaller tanks. I have got mine set to do just about every thing other than dumping the salt mix into the mixing tank. It makes the RO/DI water and fills my 120 gal storage tank. Pic of water station attached. RO/DI on top. Makes easier to dump salt mix into lower, mixing tank. A Mag 12 circulates the mix tank and a specific gravity sensor, temp probe, and both a high and low float switch (installed before filling in both tanks). The stand is from a big box home store. I looked for one that would support the weight of both tanks full of water at 8# per gal.
Splurge on electrical service. I ran a sub panel and use three 20 amp circuits just for aquarium purposes. Do the math and figure out how to split the electric requirements between your circuits. Each of my dedicated circuits have an energy bar and each of them has 8 outlets. I also have some standard power taps without surge protection that I use to power things like work lights under the tanks and on the mix tank to better highlight the water level when I need to check something.
Keep in mind the equipment has to fit the tank size and bio load. Water Flow, Lighting, Skimming for removal or organic waste, Make up water for evaporation replacement, Salt Water Mixing station, Reactors or peristaltic pumps for dosing amendments, a well stocked Test Kit, etc. Your Sump will need to be big enough for it's day to day mission of holding a bunch of the equipment AS WELL AS additional water from the tank if/when the return pump shuts off. You should be able to get a good guess of how much from Glass Cages. I assume/hope you're having them set it up with drain and return plumbing.
Right now I have a 120 and a 180 gal setup operating off a common sump. The sump is a stock tank, probably 150 gal, but only 1/2 full. That allows for 70ish gallons of drain down between the 2 tanks. I've had power outages and no issues with overflow. I have since then added a whole house auto backup generator, so... Get an automation system, such as an Apex. Learn how to program it. That's something you could be doing now on one of your smaller tanks. I have got mine set to do just about every thing other than dumping the salt mix into the mixing tank. It makes the RO/DI water and fills my 120 gal storage tank. Pic of water station attached. RO/DI on top. Makes easier to dump salt mix into lower, mixing tank. A Mag 12 circulates the mix tank and a specific gravity sensor, temp probe, and both a high and low float switch (installed before filling in both tanks). The stand is from a big box home store. I looked for one that would support the weight of both tanks full of water at 8# per gal.
Splurge on electrical service. I ran a sub panel and use three 20 amp circuits just for aquarium purposes. Do the math and figure out how to split the electric requirements between your circuits. Each of my dedicated circuits have an energy bar and each of them has 8 outlets. I also have some standard power taps without surge protection that I use to power things like work lights under the tanks and on the mix tank to better highlight the water level when I need to check something.
