Upgrading to a 120

[fishlover9]

I’m upgrading my 55g reef to a 120g and would like some suggestions on my setup. I will be transferring about 70pds of live rock and will be adding an additional 20pds of live rock along with 60pds of base rock. Currently I have about a 2-3 inch sand bed and I am thinking about only doing about ½ inch in the 120. I have a 10gal sump that will be making the move over and I am wanting to add a refugium. The refugium will have 4 inch sand bed along with live rock, rubble, snails, crabs, and some chaeto. I was thinking about using a mag 5 in the refugium and a mag 12 on a closed loop setup.(any recommendations on this would be helpful.). I will probably add a few powerheads to the main tank to help with the flow as well.
How would you all recommend that I setup the sump and the refigium? Should I run 2 separate overflows? What are you thoughts on the ½ inch sand bed in the main tank?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Tank Inhabitants
1 Maroon Gold Clown
1 Yellow Tang
1 Yellow Tail Damsel
1 Sebae Anenome
2 Peppermint Shrimp
2 Cleaner Shrimp
Lots of Snail and Crabs
Assorted Star Polyps
Assorted Mushrooms

 

[oceana]

Originally Posted by Fishlover9
I’m upgrading my 55g reef to a 120g and would like some suggestions on my setup. I will be transferring about 70pds of live rock and will be adding an additional 20pds of live rock along with 60pds of base rock. Currently I have about a 2-3 inch sand bed and I am thinking about only doing about ½ inch in the 120. I have a 10gal sump that will be making the move over and I am wanting to add a refugium. The refugium will have 4 inch sand bed along with live rock, rubble, snails, crabs, and some chaeto. I was thinking about using a mag 5 in the refugium and a mag 12 on a closed loop setup.(any recommendations on this would be helpful.). I will probably add a few powerheads to the main tank to help with the flow as well.
How would you all recommend that I setup the sump and the refigium? Should I run 2 separate overflows? What are you thoughts on the ½ inch sand bed in the main tank?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Tank Inhabitants
1 Maroon Gold Clown
1 Yellow Tang
1 Yellow Tail Damsel
1 Sebae Anenome
2 Peppermint Shrimp
2 Cleaner Shrimp
Lots of Snail and Crabs
Assorted Star Polyps
Assorted Mushrooms

well i dont like the 1/2" sand bed idea wont be very sturdy for the rock work. on the otehr hand some people have not sand at all but special care needs to be taken when building your rockwork. your rock plans are ok but IMO it will be a bit short as far as pounds go.
i have a 140 with around 300 pounds
is this tank drilled?? you are going to want to run around 1800+ gallon per hour through your system so dual over flow and a bigger pump would be a good idea. i only have one built in over flow so i run a closed loop system as well with a few mag18's
there are about 100 ways to set up your skimming sump and fuge so it depends on if things are drilled and what space you have to work with
i run my main into a sump where it is skimmed then into a fuge with macros . then into a wet dry where it is pumped back into the tank. since i keep the flow low in the fuge not all the water goes through the fuge at once but over the day it all goes through there several times.

 

[fishlover9]

Thanks for the reply. The 1/2 inch sand bed is because I don't like the look of the bare bottom. Adding some more rock shouldn't be a problem as long as base rock is ok. As for the flow the mag 12 will give me around 1100gl and the mag 5 around 300. I will then also have atleast 2 maxi 900 in there as well. I curently use 4 in my 55gl. I will be pushing close to 1800 with that setup. I am curious about you sump to fuge setup. I am guessing that you have a overflow going to your sump, but how do you get your water from the sump to the fuge. Oh yeah almost forgot, the tank is not predrilled, I will be using a overflow rated for around 900gal. I will also be running a small 9watt UV on a maxi jet from the sump to the tank. Did you build your fuge or buy one? I don't really feel like building one, but I also don't feel like dropping 2-3 hundred bucks on one either.

 

[jocoxvt]

See personally I dont go by the # per gallon thing with Live rock and dont neccesarily buy into it either. I have a 90 gallon tank with maybe (a very BIG maybe) 70 pounds of live rock. Yes I realize many people say that it is a good biological filter but at the same time I feel that is more important need for the newer aquarist. I personally feel that you can get away with less than a pound per gallon easily if you maintain good water quality through good skimming. As for the 1/2 sand bed I understand what you are saying about the aesthetics (sp?) my only concern is that you were talking about going with a closed loop system as well as a few powerheads and that may just constantly blow what little sand you have around. As for the rock work on that little amount of sand I dont know if I agree with that because like you mentioned there are plenty of people who go barebottom the main point is to realize you wont be able to put your rocks in as many positions becuase they are going to need more contact with the base of the tank for sturdiness (hope that made sense).
In short I feel that your plan is very doable: I feel you have plenty of live rock and as long as you realize that the sand may be blown around than you should be set.
Just my .02 cents
jocoxVT

 

[dragonboy]

The more live rock the better and thick sand helps since you can get a lot of benefits from critters who lives in the sand to keep the bottom clean. I'm thinking of upgrading later on in the future to a 180 gal tank. I would put a bigger sump and create another enviroment in the sump so you'll have more benefits for your main tank. Also its great to use it for frag tank with the sump and adding a lot of live rocks in there as well.