Not completely new but so new to this situation...Upgrading to a 75 gal RR.

L

lacybiker2000

New member
I need guts, not only faith that this will happen but also what kind of filtration to go with.

Ok, back story...I've had freshwater tanks since I can remember. At one time had 15 going at once including a 55 and two 30s. Long story short, husband passed away and I got down to two smallish tanks converted to salt water. Started the saltwater hobby about 9 years ago, but largest tank has been a 30 gal with HOB refugium. Live rock, deep sand bed, softies and fish. No major problems. I've always gone with the HOB fuges as I was afraid of power outages up where I live and flooding of the fish room. So don't know any other filtration.

As I've lived in E. Texas near Rusk for the last 23 years, saltwater is a little harder to find, so a 30 gal and nano tanks were great for me. However, now I'm moving to Houston, I have opportunity for a larger house and larger tank.

I've been looking for a while for a 55 gal with stand, thinking I could use two HOB refugiums for main filtration along with live rock and sand. This morning I came across a 75 gal RR in my price range. Only has the connectors on the bottom and in tank over flow etc in a corner. Would the two HOB refugiums (assuming they both fit on the back wall with the overflow too, one of which is running on the 30 gal) handle this tank where I can cap off the RR until I know how to work the plumbing or am I hopeless trying to go this route? I'm still afraid of tank flooding in outages as the BF in Houston has carpet, lol. I am at sea where to go from here. Reef community help please...

Needless to say, after getting this tank up, running and cycled I will also need help with sequencing the transfer of a 30 gal full of LR and sand, fish and softies; and a 5 gal with one fish and a few rocks and sand into the big tank...over a distance of 186 miles.

Although I am not completely a noob, I am so feeling like one in this situation. I also posted this in the main forum. If the mods feel it needs to be somewhere else, please help there.
 

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I'm fairly new to the hobby myself, so take this with a grain of salt.

I'm not sure why you are concerned with using the overflow. If you use something like a herbie or bean animal plumbing set up there really isn't any way that I am aware of for your tank to overflow, unless both your drain AND emergency drain become clogged. As long as your sump is sized to handle whatever volume of water is left in the overflow after your return pump stops working, then there are no issues with power outages.

These systems work by having a vertical stand pipe where the water drains through down into the sump. If your return pump is off, then what will happen is the remaining water in your overflow will be siphoned down to the sump, but once your main drain becomes exposed to air, the siphon will stop and no more water will go down into your sump. The main problem with one of these systems is the danger of one of your drains becoming clogged, and in this case you build in one or more emergency drains. One in the case of the herbie and two with the bean animal.

This is one of the best articles I found describing how this works:
http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/
 
it's going to be hard to plumb in a RR tank to a sump after it has been running. it would be better off to just start with the sump.

to keep my sump from overflowing in the event of a power outage, i just make sure that i have enough head space in there to handle to the back flow, and i test it. just yank the return pump and see how much drains.

my sump only runs half full (guess that makes me an optimist?) at any given time when the system is powered. when power is lost i get some back flow and some reverse siphon from the return lines, but i have verified that it only ever comes 3/4 the way up the height of the sump. you wouldn't want it brimmed, since then it would overflow.

i would also strongly recommend the 75 over the 55. even though they're similar length and height, the extra depth the 75 gives you makes aquascaping much easier.
 
also, additional thoughts, when plumbing the tank i always remove and toss old bulkheads. over time the plastic stresses and the rubber washers can break down, they're cheap, so replacing them now is good peace of mind later, and also usually helps to make them seal better first shot.

i've had good results with CPR brand schedule 40 bulkheads as opposed to others. you can get them off amazon or pretty much any pet website (BRS, marine depot, dfs, etc...) for fairly cheap.

it looks like they had the line on the left in the shot there (maybe the return?) run through a barbed fitting. these are OK for returns, but since they narrow down considerably i wouldn't use them on a drain line. my typical preference is to use slip x slip bulkheads, using pvc cement to secure a union to the dry side of the bulkhead, in case i need to change the tail piece later, but this is not required. you could just as easily straight pipe the drain right down below the water line.

also, correct me if i'm wrong, but that border looks an awful lot like an Oceanic brand tank?
 
I bought the75 gal RR tank because I thought it was a good deal. I do believe it's an Oceanic tank that has been converted. As it started raining and it was my last day down for a couple of weeks, it went straight to a storage facility until I can get the plumbing figured out. In the picture it's upside down as the stand had not been drilled yet to accommodate the fittings. Not sure how to change out what's there, what's missing, etc. The corner overflow and those two fittings are all that's there. Sorry for the pic not being easier to see...that's the one the previous owner sent to me. I'll try to take better ones next time I'm down.

re76...thanks for the link, the boyfriend and I will examine that together next time I'm down.

Aquarium plumbing really baffles me...give me a break in the water pipes out in the front yard, no problem (fixed that myself last winter). Have the probability of 75 gal of water spilling across the floor and killing my fishies and I quake.
 
Ha yeah. The importance of keeping water contained takes on a whole new significance with fish tanks.

The bulkheads are three pieces. The inlet which has a threaded tail piece, a rubber washer, and a plastic nut. You can unscrew the plastic nut then remove the inlet and washer since they will no longer be secured to the tank.

The plumbing seems a lot more complicated than it really is. I know starting out it was one of the more intimidating parts of the hobby.

Good luck getting set up
 
I'm just starting out to and the plumbing scares me to death LOL. I'm hoping to bribe local reefers with beer and pizza to come help me....
 
You originally asked about filtration. Corals are filters. So is your live rock. If you feel you need more you can add a filter sock in your sump, at the inflow, but those need to be changed and washed every few days, or whenever they get dirty: you do NOT want bioactivity setting up in there. I run a filter sock only occasionally, when I've kicked something up into the water that's nasty.

And join a reef club. They'll help you. Houston? THere's got to be one or two. Look in our club listings: use the top menu and look under Forums, I think it is.
 
Thanks, Rio1969. :)

BTW, for a 75, I forgot to say the other part of filtration for what you CAN'T see: the skimmer. I just put an Eshopps cone 150 on my 105 gallon and the stuff it gets out that my prior skimmer couldn't touch is just amazing. I put the skimmer on, skimming fairly dry, and the skimmer literally blew its lid off from the pressure of the bubbles coming up. The cone skimmers don't bubble so much as foam, and are quite potent in what they can pull from the water (amino acids, building blocks of high nitrate levels) that you don't want. It won't work much for the first half year of operation, but beyond that, it'll work increasingly as the water gets a little 'richer' in unwanted gunk.
 
Sk8r said:
You originally asked about filtration. Corals are filters. So is your live rock. If you feel you need more you can add a filter sock in your sump, at the inflow, but those need to be changed and washed every few days, or whenever they get dirty: you do NOT want bioactivity setting up in there. I run a filter sock only occasionally, when I've kicked something up into the water that's nasty.

And join a reef club. They'll help you. Houston? THere's got to be one or two. Look in our club listings: use the top menu and look under Forums, I think it is.
Click to expand...

Totally understand this...what I was asking about filtration was the actual plumbing of an already drilled 75 gal tank...I'm working on doing a sump from a 29 gal high aquarium, but the ins and outs of everything confuse me. It's like I've got the bare bones (corner overflow in tank with two drilled holes with fittings) but not sure what to do with it from there.

I've checked this site and couldn't find anything specifying Houston...but I used to be a member of Marsh a very long time ago. So will check that out.

Am I hoping too high for someone willing to help me physically with this project? I did offer pizza and a beer (if you're over 21). lol
 
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