Large Tank Set-Ups

puffy_fish

puffy_fish

Member
I am thinking about doing a 150 gallon tank and I have done a ton of reading in books and these forums and I wanted to get an idea of what other people have done for big tanks. I plan on doing a 40 gallon refugium and a 20 gallon sump for my skimmer and return pump. I want to drill the tanks but I am not sure how difficult that is or where I could get it done. But just a few questions for experienced people?
1. Overflow or drilled tank?
2. How big of refug and sump?
3. What Skimmer?
4. Any other comments are appreciated.
Thanks!!!
 
rcoultas

rcoultas

Member
I put a 50ga sump on my 130 tank with a 1200gph overflow
I put a 75ga sump on my 225 tank with drilled 1 1/2" out and four 1" returns
As far as skimmers are concerned that is open to debate - I have had good results with some less expensive models such as Seaclone but that is budget dependant for most people.
 
puffy_fish

puffy_fish

Member
What are the benefits of drilling over an overflow box?
I am interested in drilling but want to figure out the benefits.
Why have 4 inflows and one outflow? I assume water flow.
Thanks!!!
 
lesleybird

lesleybird

Active Member
Buy a tank that is already drilled with built in overflow boxes....this is called reef ready. A twenty gallon sump is not big enough for the 150 gallon. You need at least a 40 gallon sump. You could your 20 gallon for a refugium. Make sure that all will fit under the stand. Do not use hang on overflow boxes if you have the chance to buy a drilled tank with inside overflow boxes as the undrilled tanks with outside overflow boxes are ugly and can flood. Lesley
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by PUFFY_FISH
Why do I need a bigger sump I thought the refug was what you wanted bigger?
You want it to prevent flooding. You want to have enough space in your sump so that if and when your power goes out the sump won't overflow.
I love my hob overflow, but get the Utube style. I personally would rather have the little box hanging into my tank, than one going from the top all the way to the bottom. Even if it does scream cheapo to the diserning aquarist. It is a myth that hob overflows are a risk to flood vs a drilled tank. Both will flood if they aren't used right. The other type of hob overflow that uses the air pumps are horrible don't get one of those.
 
puffy_fish

puffy_fish

Member
My question is if I put baffles in the right place in the refug and sump won't the overflow go into the refug as well as the sump...I am only separating the two because I cannot fit one large tank under the aquarium. See the pic below.
Section A is where the skimmer will be and Section B is where the return pump will be. I calculated the estimated overflow in the event of a power outage at about 10 gallons. So I would need 10 gallons of space in the fug and sump combined.
Am I missing something or would this work??
 
t316

t316

Active Member
Wait... what is the big tank to the left of diagram A. Is this your refug. I'm counting this as my DT. Why have a seperate refug????
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by T316
Wait... what is the big tank to the left of diagram A. Is this your refug. I'm counting this as my DT. Why have a seperate refug????
The concept in and of itself is fine, I have something simular to that but they are stacked. The flaw is the 20 gallon tank size. It leaves no margin for error. In an 150 gallon tank. Dropping the water level in your tank an inch is probably 5 gallons. (doing math in my head). Even if you have 10 gallons left over in your sump. You leave very little room for water fluxuation. Lets think about this another way. Considering evaporation.
You'll probably loose anywear between 2-3 gallons of water a day with that much surface area. (During the summer I top off with 5 gallons every other day) The sump water level is the level that is going to fluxuate. You are talking about loosing 50% of that water every two days. There isn't enough room in your sump to loose that much and your pumps not run mostly dry. This is bad.
You might consider flipping it, and using the 40 as the sump but stick more lr in section A.
 
jonthefishguy

jonthefishguy

Active Member
The difference between HOB overflow box and one in the tank drilled is because the inside overflow boxes sef-prime and the hang-ons sometimes loose theirs. Such as if the Hang on gets a bunch of air bubbles at the U and the amount of water going to the sump either slows down or stops all together. To counteract this, some people add a hose to the U and use a small pump that sucks out the air/water and returns it to wherever they place the outlet. This type of pump is small and has an IN and OUT. I don't know the name off hand but either way, it removes the bubbles and the syphon is never broken due to that. If the syphon is ever broken, the water from the sump pumps into the tank but since the syphon has stopped, it overflows the tanks and causes flooding. (Usually happens during some sorta poweroutage) The built in overflow boxes automatically restart because of the design and you don't have to worry about flooding unless something somehow went down the tube and blocked the water way. HIGHLY UNLIKELY. In all the years that I have come across customers aquariums and even installed them with the overflow in the inside, I have never heard of a flood. I have however heard of them with the HOB's and experienced some of those floods first hand.
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
I really not think a big sump is something you have to have, on my 125 I have about a 10 -12 gal sump, no problem. I have about 5 gal. min. at all times for back flow. worst case if the power goes out and I have extra room in the skimmer compartment and fuge in case that area is needed. my syphon break is at the water level in the DT that way not a lot of back feed and you can have a visual on your syphon break hole to make sure it doesn't plug.
I have a sim. set-up on my 80 gal. never been a problem.
 
jonthefishguy

jonthefishguy

Active Member
When you are building your sump, use this formula: tank length (inches) X tank width (inches) X 1 divided by 231 = volume drained to sump when the main pump is turned off. Add roughly 40% to the calculation for extra volume of water to your sump to cover a rise in the tanks water due to gradual blockage of the drain.
 
puffy_fish

puffy_fish

Member
I am basically planning on just running a refug with Chaeto and a skimmer as my filtration with a 1.5-2" sand bed in the main tank and refug. In addition, there will be 1-1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon. So if I use a 40 gallon tank for the skimmer, refug, and return...this would suffice?? I have read you need between 20-30% of your main tank in the refug. I am just trying to cover all areas before I do something stupid.
Thanks for all your patience additional input would be much appreciated!!!
 
dawman

dawman

Active Member
Originally Posted by T316
Wait... what is the big tank to the left of diagram A. Is this your refug. I'm counting this as my DT. Why have a seperate refug????

In all my tanks I run a sump seperate then my refugium with them connected together with piping .
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
I would go ahead and make a deep sand bed in the fuge, like 4"+ 2lbs. per gal. gices you about 4" more or less.
I don't see how you can use a formula to figure sump size when most of the back flow is from the siphon back from your return pump. so the amount of water that comes back will depend on were your siphon break hole is in the line. If you put the hole right at the water level in the DT you would have a min. amount of back feed, if it's 2" below water level then a lot more back feed, unless there's something I'm missing here. but this has always worked out on my tanks.
 
ameno

ameno

Active Member
Originally Posted by PUFFY_FISH
I didn't use a formula to calculate sump size I calculated overflow from the main tank.
that's what I do, and if all is set up right that's only going to be maybe 5 to 8 gal. of water and drop the Dt level about 1/2"
 
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