newbie questions

I am sort of new to the saltwater life and I am setting up a 120 gallon tank. I was wondering why people drill their tank? also would this combo be good fx5 canister, powerhead, and protein skimmer? or do i need more supplies since its eventualy going to have many reefs in it any suggestions?

 

people that drill their tank are doing it because they didn't buy a tank that is "reef ready". reef tanks use sumps to hold equipment like heaters, protein skimmer, probes and what not. the sump is basically the "mechanical filter".
if they drill reef ready tanks, it's because they are doing a "closed loop". a closed loop is where you provide water flow in display tank from one big pump mounted outside of tank.

 

I'd look into refugiums. They are a place to hide heaters and such, help filter water, add more volume to dilute pollutants, and help combat algae (you allow algae to grow in it to suck up the nutrients). If you decide to go with a refuge, I'd also look into beananimal plumbing.

I'd also look into a RO/DI unit. There are many good reasons to have them. And I assume you looked into live and dry rock but if you haven't definitely do some research on it.

 

i would do alot of more research before starting a tank of that size, no offense but its easy to tell how much research youve done if you say reef instead of coral. drilled tanks take the water down to a sump where it is then pumped back up into the tank.

give us a list of all the supplies you have, and what you plan to do with the tank.

 

I would say larger is better than small imo, unless you are worried about his plumbing failing and flooding the floor.

 

I did research on the refugiums and I think thats my best bet to go with. Im going to probably build my own sump/refugium do you know of any good videos i can watch. Plus what would I do if there was a power outage because wouldnt it just leak all over the floor.

 

larger is better, but only for someone that has rewarched alot, i mean alot. any tank requires tons of research. and i think fishdoody needs to research a bit(alot) more

 

Basically, the refugium has to be big enough and empty enough for the water to drain into it but not overflow when the power goes out. An internal overflow is used around the drain pipe in the main tank which is high enough that only a small amount will drain in.

The piping can seem overwhelming at first because most sites imo don't explain well to people completely new to it but this site was useful to me.

BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill - Silent and Fail-Safe Overflow System

 

I def think you have the right idea going with the bigger tank but def do your research and ask questions I cant stress that enough if you cant find something or can't seem to find the answer ask questions.

 

IMO you don't need a canister filter. Just a good skimmer. You'll probably need a couple powerheads for that size tank.