Anyone with 120 Gallon Reef

[cam78]

Underneath your 120 is there enough room for your sump and equipment? I am considering buying one but want enough room underneath for maintenance and room to work with. I was actually considering just drilling into my basement and having all equip down there, Not sure how practical that is though.

 

[scsinet]

I have a 120g perfecto.
The dimensions vary, but I have nowhere near enough room. My ballasts and chiller are remote and the space under the tank is packed. That's packed by my definition... I prefer nice organized layouts and plenty of clearance around things to let me get to them.
Most tanks don't provide "enough" room for a full reef deployment with all the trimmings though.

 

[bountyhunter23]

You could always build your own stand and make enough room? Thats what I did. I didnt make enough room, but my next stand there will be plenty!

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by Bountyhunter23
http:///forum/post/3203105
You could always build your own stand and make enough room? Thats what I did. I didnt make enough room, but my next stand there will be plenty!
exactly

 

[scsinet]

Unless you want to stack equipment or want it to look strange, I don't know how building a stand is going to do much to help. I agree that factory stands are pretty cramped, but the amount of area in stands to place equipment is based on the size of the tank.
About all you can do is go higher, which gives you more room to maneuver, but it doesn't give you much more real estate for placement of stuff.
Every tank I have is on a stand I've built, and I always run out of room.

 

[cam78]

Well how about the idea of drilling down into the basement? Has anyone else done this? Is it possible? Pros, cons? I have all the room in the world for that. I guess I would need powerful pumps though?

 

[scsinet]

Lots of folks have done this. Search around here a bit and you'll probably find some stuff on it. Yes, you need powerful pumps, but besides that, there really isn't much to it.

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3203301
Unless you want to stack equipment or want it to look strange, I don't know how building a stand is going to do much to help. I agree that factory stands are pretty cramped, but the amount of area in stands to place equipment is based on the size of the tank.
About all you can do is go higher, which gives you more room to maneuver, but it doesn't give you much more real estate for placement of stuff.
Every tank I have is on a stand I've built, and I always run out of room.
Think of a pyramid cut the top off to accommodate the tank. Or as you go from your tank perimeter you expand the size as you drop down every foot so you have in effect a stand of expanding open top and bottom boxes

 

[king_neptune]

Never enough room is right. I built my stand with 40 inches of room inside...and last night I had to turn down an awesome skimmer because it was 8inches too tall.

 

[cam78]

Could anyone tell me what sort of pump would pump up one floor? Would it be loud or expensive to run?

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by CAM78
http:///forum/post/3203852
Could anyone tell me what sort of pump would pump up one floor? Would it be loud or expensive to run?
Measure the height you need then go on line for saltwater pumps that will give you that head. Two you may want to look into are Turbo-Sea External Pumps and Gen-X Pumps

 

[cam78]

Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/3204603
Measure the height you need then go on line for saltwater pumps that will give you that head. Two you may want to look into are Turbo-Sea External Pumps and Gen-X Pumps
Thanks for answering Joe. Figure if I was pumping from floor to second ceiling it would be 16'. Thats not accurate though. In actuality it would prob be around 12-13'. How many pumps would I need and what do you recommend for that distance?

 

[scopus tang]

I built a stand for a 120, and we put a sump/fuge, skimmer, chemical storage etc. under the stand. The sump/fuge is a 40 gallon breeder, and the skimmer is an in sump skimmer. The chiller is external in the basement. The return pump (I believe a QuietOne 4000) handles the drop to the basement and back to the tank, however, the chiller is up in the basement, not one the floor so head height is actually only about 7'. We tried a QuietOne 6000, which handled the flow well, but was way to loud. An external pump of somekind set in the basement would also work, but external pumps also tend to be noisy. Look into the Reef Darts.

 

[florida joe]

Originally Posted by Scopus Tang
http:///forum/post/3204670
I built a stand for a 120, and we put a sump/fuge, skimmer, chemical storage etc. under the stand. The sump/fuge is a 40 gallon breeder, and the skimmer is an in sump skimmer. The chiller is external in the basement. The return pump (I believe a QuietOne 4000) handles the drop to the basement and back to the tank, however, the chiller is up in the basement, not one the floor so head height is actually only about 7'. We tried a QuietOne 6000, which handled the flow well, but was way to loud. An external pump of somekind set in the basement would also work, but external pumps also tend to be noisy. Look into the Reef Darts.
Randy lives

 

[cam78]

Originally Posted by Scopus Tang
http:///forum/post/3204670
I built a stand for a 120, and we put a sump/fuge, skimmer, chemical storage etc. under the stand. The sump/fuge is a 40 gallon breeder, and the skimmer is an in sump skimmer. The chiller is external in the basement. The return pump (I believe a QuietOne 4000) handles the drop to the basement and back to the tank, however, the chiller is up in the basement, not one the floor so head height is actually only about 7'. We tried a QuietOne 6000, which handled the flow well, but was way to loud. An external pump of somekind set in the basement would also work, but external pumps also tend to be noisy. Look into the Reef Darts.
Yeah actually I have a stand for the 55 gallon in the basement so it will not be pumping from the floor. So that should help, cost, power, and size of pump. I would assume.

 

[florida joe]

first exactly what do you want your pump in the basement to accomplish. I would assume power-heads in your tank are going to be the main method of water movement

 

[cam78]

Yeah prob Joe. The main purpose of the pump downstairs is this. What I want to do it have EVERYTHING, except the Display tank in my basement. I want to drill the holes through my floor and place a sump downstairs along with a refuge. I have a 30 gallon sump that is coming with the tank and I have a 55 gallon sitting around so I figured I could make that into a refuge. Then I assume the pump would be needed to get the water from downstairs back to my display. Right? Sound good? I am willing to take ANY suggestions.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by CAM78
http:///forum/post/3204807
Yeah prob Joe. The main purpose of the pump downstairs is this. What I want to do it have EVERYTHING, except the Display tank in my basement. I want to drill the holes through my floor and place a sump downstairs along with a refuge. I have a 30 gallon sump that is coming with the tank and I have a 55 gallon sitting around so I figured I could make that into a refuge. Then I assume the pump would be needed to get the water from downstairs back to my display. Right? Sound good? I am willing to take ANY suggestions.
You gonna drill and connect the two tanks or are you using pump and overflow to provide the water to the fuge and back to the sump? Yeah, you'll have to use a return pump of some sort to get water back to the DT. The reason Joe asked about purpose, is if you're only using it to return water, flow rate isn't a huge deal (i.e. the pump only has to return a sufficient amount of water to keep up with the overflow). If you want the primary method of water movement in your DT to be your return pump, then you need to increase the size of the pump significantly, but again, don't exceed you're overflow capacity or you'll end up pumping the sump dry all the time.

 

[cam78]

OK, thanks. So what is better than? Get a pump that is powerful enough for flow and return or just concentrate on return? If its a matter of a couple more dollars to gain more flow then I'm willing to do that.

 

[florida joe]

First let me say as I do to everyone when I get involved with a project such as this. This is your tank and your set up you have live with it. All I can do is give suggestions it is ultimately your decision
If I were undertaking this task. I would start with the location of my tank in respect to the location of the holes I would have to drill in my floor. Once that is done I will say to myself 1000 times that I have all the time in the world to finish. Rushing through this project would be my worst enemy.
I would work up my sump/refuge in my basement just as if I had unlimited space under my tank.
I would tie in my sump and refuge via bulk heads partition off the areas for my skimmer et's. I would not glue any of my piping between the two just yet.
My biggest concern would be how to pipe the external pump to my sump. With the sump and refug in place in my basement it would be much easer to visualize what is needed.
Basically when that is accomplished you are in actually just increasing the distance for your tank to you sump over what it would be if it was inside your stand.
Pump size will be determined at this point.
A few things to consider
If your pump is in your basement the ambient temp is most likely on the cool side. you can build a box to hold the pump and add some sound damping material.
IMO drilling the bottom of the tank requires making sure no critters get stick to the screen and also make sure they are easily accessible for maintenance.
Before I forget check valves would be a must for your lines BTW lets hope my compatriot Randy gets involved