Help Build my dream 150

eed some help and advice with this rebuild.. I jumped on a deal I found on Craigslist..
I will start the work tomorrow and have her up and running within a few days...

A little about me,I have been out of the aquarium world for about 10 years... Used to have a couple large setups.. 240 custom reef, 120 reef, 400 Aggressive setup. So I do have some experience..

Please let me know anything you think I should incorporate into system or changes..

The Tank I bought included everything.. The owner really had a nice setup and spent money on quality stuff.. Or at least I think he did.

150 Gallon Acrylic black back
50 Gallon sump
Nice Protein Skimmer
Lots of power heads and pumps..
Deltec calcium reactor
3 Ecoray 112 LED setups..
Gamma UV sterilizer
Durso standpipe
Heaters and all supplements etc..
100 pounds live rock - mixed fiji and tonga. I am going to buy another 50 pounds..
Reef Ready system

I am probably going to setup the system the same as it was before except I will not install the UV sterilizer.

I was thinking of installing another sump (there is some room in stand) and I would put the calcium reactor in it or maybe use as a quarantine tank if I could somehow seal it off

I also was considering building one of the upstream algea scrubbers.

1. Should I make any plumbing changes to system or include any valves?
2. There are a lot of hydor kordalia powerheads, is having the two returns on top of water column okay?
3. Sump - Should add another sump into the system for calcium reactor? What are my options for plumbing it?
4. Could that sump holding calcium reactor be a quarantine tank somehow if I run calcium line into other sump?
5. Sumbmersible pump in sump is GEN-x, I presume it has enough power for system or I will replace.

Thanks for the initial help... I will post lots of pictures as I move forward.

Justin

 

Welcome back to the hobby! Sounds like you got some good stuff in that buy, I hope you got a good price.

For the sump, its a little small. IMO, I would go bigger and redesign a new one. Connecting two sumps sounds like a hassle. I have never done this before, so I couldn't give you solid advise. I think you would have to drill them and plum them..that's what just pops in my mind and you would lose valuable space for the unions and bulkheads. I might be way off on that though. Hopefully someone will chime In on that.

. Plumbing... If there are proper unions, flap valves, and ball valves you are good. In the picture I are the flow valve is from lowes or HD. Some of them have metal in them and can fail. I don't recommend those.

Pump sizing and brad is preference. I have no experience with gen-x. You need to find a model to ref GPH. This will depend on what is drilled in the tank for drain and return.

A QT tank needs to be a total seperate tank. Maybe your thinking refugium? I have no experience with a calcium reactor and I don't know what it needs.


Returns on top of the water column? I'm not sure what that means. Is the tank reef ready as in drilled with a built in over flow? The return lines would run up through the overflow toward the top anyways. The koralias will be great for the supplemental flow.

 

The calcium reactor doesn't go into the sump, only it's pump does. It sits outside the sump along with its canister.

 

Thanks for the info!!

I paid $1300..

Will replace those valves.

I will try and find more info on the pump and flow rating..

QT Tank.. My original thought was to have another tank in the sump with its own filtration that is plumbed into the main system however I could easily shut circulation off from the main system with a valve, then it would be completely shut off....

There is an overflow built into the back of tank and the returns are plumbed out of it. There is a picture attached.

Thanks again!!

 

You need the QT to be completely separate from the DT. Otherwise, any parasites or diseases present in your new fish in QT can easily make their way to the DT, defeating the purpose of the QT.

 

i highly recommend the aquaripure nitrate filter. before it i had 40 ppm of nitrates. after 2 months i have 0 ! i also run filter pads and a phosphate/carbon reactor.