Just picked up a 380 gallon acrylic (96x36x24)that I am tying in to a 125gl sump/ fuge. I've got a quite a few questions and looking for some advice.
First off, I am going to place the tank in my rec room in the basement and set up a seperate fish room with all the supplies about 18' away. The tank is used and has 2 overflows with 3 holes drilled at the bottom of each overflow. My thoughts are to use 4 of these as drainsto the sump and use the remaining 2 holes as a closed loop system( both draing to the pump and then bringing the return back thru the back of the tank) My question, is this the best way to utilize the 6 holes or is there a better way?
Second the sump is located 18' away as i said earlier and will actually be fed by gravity( the tank is 30" high and the sump is at 18") so it should drain naturally correct? The sump is a 125 gl that will have numerous baffles in it for the skimmer and fuge and will then be drilled for an external return pump. The external pump (What kind and model?, based on the head calc, the head loss id 9.68) will be next to the fuge and what i would like to do is run the return up into the ceiling, back to over the tank and back down into the aquarium with 4 returns. Is this feasible or am i over engineering this thing? I want to have minimal exposed piping in the tank and also outside the tank in the fish room. If you have any suggestions, opinions or otherwise I would greatly appreciate it and I will be posting pictures of the build and progress as i go.
There is also a question of lighting so before I start to build the stand and canopy, what recommendations do you have for lighting style for a mixed reef, please give me specific here because I am a little unsure of all the bulb configs. As I said this is going to be a mixed reef, but I only want to do this once!!!
Also what type pump should I use for the closed loop? And will this setup be enough flow for this system with a mixed reef?
One last item is that all of this is on the same level of the house so this is not a basement fish room, it is all on the same floor.
Thanks to all for your help, and I am sure I will have numerous questions as I go.
Once again thank you in advance for all your help!
First off, I am going to place the tank in my rec room in the basement and set up a seperate fish room with all the supplies about 18' away. The tank is used and has 2 overflows with 3 holes drilled at the bottom of each overflow. My thoughts are to use 4 of these as drainsto the sump and use the remaining 2 holes as a closed loop system( both draing to the pump and then bringing the return back thru the back of the tank) My question, is this the best way to utilize the 6 holes or is there a better way?
Second the sump is located 18' away as i said earlier and will actually be fed by gravity( the tank is 30" high and the sump is at 18") so it should drain naturally correct? The sump is a 125 gl that will have numerous baffles in it for the skimmer and fuge and will then be drilled for an external return pump. The external pump (What kind and model?, based on the head calc, the head loss id 9.68) will be next to the fuge and what i would like to do is run the return up into the ceiling, back to over the tank and back down into the aquarium with 4 returns. Is this feasible or am i over engineering this thing? I want to have minimal exposed piping in the tank and also outside the tank in the fish room. If you have any suggestions, opinions or otherwise I would greatly appreciate it and I will be posting pictures of the build and progress as i go.
There is also a question of lighting so before I start to build the stand and canopy, what recommendations do you have for lighting style for a mixed reef, please give me specific here because I am a little unsure of all the bulb configs. As I said this is going to be a mixed reef, but I only want to do this once!!!
Also what type pump should I use for the closed loop? And will this setup be enough flow for this system with a mixed reef?
One last item is that all of this is on the same level of the house so this is not a basement fish room, it is all on the same floor.
Thanks to all for your help, and I am sure I will have numerous questions as I go.
Once again thank you in advance for all your help!
