new large (for me) tank setup ideas needed

[Reef55]

Ok, here is what I have at my house... I am looking for advice on how to set this all up.

Main tank is a glasscages 120 gallon with overflows on both short ends, to be installed in a wall that goes between the living room and dining room, both long sides will be visible. I have the tank, but it still needs a month to cure.

All the equipment is going in the basement. Right now sitting in my basement I have the following:

150 gallon acrylic, seperated in the middle by an overflowing divider (so it is basically 2 75 gallon tanks connected, I can keep them seperate if need be). Each 75 gallon part has 3 holes drilled in the back. I also have a 50 gallon glass tank with 1 hole in the top left and one in the top right. I also have a roughly 60 gallon reefmania sump. A 30 gallon hospital / quarantine tank, and two 10 gallon tanks.

Equipment I need to get in the system is a reefmania.net ps250 protein skimmer with iwaki 55rlt pump, a reefmania CR450.2 dual chamber calcium reactor with a 10 lb co2 tank, a reefmania KR200 kalkwasser reactor, ro/di system, top off system.

I definitly want a refugium as well. Right now I am overwhelmed with choices, and am looking for advice on what to use for what and how to set it up. The room is roughly going to be a 12' x 12' room, that I still need to pour a concrete floor for, and make walls!

HELP!

 

[Anonymous]

My strong recommendation is to get the refugium going as the first thing and then do the rest.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

>...but it still needs a month to cure.

Are you curing live rock right now? My suggestion is to use the 150 gal acrylic tank for sump, unless you have other plan for it. Set the plumbing up between the main tank and the sump, and get the skimmer up and running the first thing. Once the rock is cured, then you can add light, fine tune the plumbing, and set up other equipement. What do you think?

 

[Reef55]

>...but it still needs a month to cure.

Are you curing live rock right now? My suggestion is to use the 150 gal acrylic tank for sump, unless you have other plan for it. Set the plumbing up between the main tank and the sump, and get the skimmer up and running the first thing. Once the rock is cured, then you can add light, fine tune the plumbing, and set up other equipement. What do you think?

The "curing" is the tank seams The tank was built less than 2 weeks ago, and glasscages said not to put water into it for about a month (2 more weeks to go).

I am not curing live rock... I have about 100 lbs of live southdown sand and 200 pounds of live rock from a person's tank they just took down this past weekend. Also plenty of macro-algae from him. I am a ways away from having the main tank's final resting place complete though.

What I am debating is how to use the items I have in the basement. Use 1 side of the 150 for the refugium, and the other for the protein skimmer intake / output and the rest of the stuff, then sell the 50 gallon and reefmania sump? Or do it the other way around, selling the 150 and using the reefmania sump and 50 gallon? It seems that all 3 plus the main tank is too much.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

That's what I thought you meant when you say curing, but just want to make sure.

Depends on your layout, you can go either way. Personally, without knowing much about your floor plan, I tend to be toward with the acrylic sump and get rid of the other surplus. Actually, I would sell the more marketable items, since it is quit a waste to use a perfectly good tank as sump if you can sell it.

Once I move to a more perm. place, I will use one of my tank that has a partition near the middle like your 150 gal as sump. My current resident is too small for my sons and my hobby...

 

[Reef55]

That's what I thought you meant when you say curing, but just want to make sure.

Depends on your layout, you can go either way. Personally, without knowing much about your floor plan, I tend to be toward with the acrylic sump and get rid of the other surplus. Actually, I would sell the more marketable items, since it is quit a waste to use a perfectly good tank as sump if you can sell it.

Once I move to a more perm. place, I will use one of my tank that has a partition near the middle like your 150 gal as sump. My current resident is too small for my sons and my hobby...

The floor plan doesn't exist at this moment. I haven't built the room in the basement yet (unfinished basement), so I can do whatever I want there. I was thinking of a linear layout, where all the water flows in one direction and finishes under the tank above it.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

>...thinking of a linear layout,

Sounds good to me. More accessible too.

 

[grav]

Bob,

Are you in the "fuge" business. Sell them? Own stock in a Macro and pods company? Do you post about anything else?

The man needs to pour a cement floor and you are talking about a fuge... what is that?

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Bob got no commerical interest in the refugium business, but his stock answers ("plant life" and "refugium") are two main arsenals in his portfolio.