Josh's New 120g (in Planning)

[Josh]

I have not bought one yet. I have already bought too much lighting to sway from a 4ft tank. I want a reasonably large tank without going over 4 foot length. Thus i basically have decided on the 48x24x24 120gallons. Theres a couple options on overflows, dual middle or dual corner. Tank will be visible from all but the back. I was going to have a custom cabinet made with scotch/bar shelves on both sides however the more i read about having a tank set into something the more i read about the nightmare it is to service, clean, and arrange.

Approximately what im looking for. Havent found a heck of a lot of places that have good selection on tanks.

As difficult as it may be i think im going to stick with the dual overflows and just try to throttle the flow the best i can. Im pretty sure if i use 1 gate valve and possibly add a balancing valve after it i could get really good control out of my flow. We use balancing valves at work on heat pump loops and can dial down to flow to almost whatever we want. This piping arrangement going to cost me a fair bit however im with salty, piece of mind knowing that 1 pipe clogging can overflow my system worries me.

Not sure who mentioned it but ive actually had 1 of my nerite snails plug a line on me. Luckily it was closed loop so the worst that happened was my pump struggled to pump for a few days until i caught it. If that was an overflow i think i might have been in trouble.

 

[Josh]

So it looks like most of my coral/fish have survived my move. I have them temporarily in my 5 ft sump tank for my future build. using the 4ft 6 bulb t5 fixture on the tank currently.

I am somehow down to about 5 snails so it looks like either something was eating/killing them and i never noticed the shells stopped moving or something got them during the move. Either way if snails is the worst of my problems i am feeling pretty good about how it all went.

I have not seen my royal gramma since i put them in the tank. When i put my 1 piece of liverock into my transfer bucket he fell out of the rock into the bucket then disappeared again. When i moved the rock back in the tank he was not in the bucket anymore (it had a lid) so im assuming he hitchhiked his way into the tank.

Past that i have seen all my other livestock moving around healthily. Most of my coral are half closed up however i do not expect any different since i have changed from LED to t5 lighting. I am sure they need to acclimate.

I was fairly worried about the move but it seems things have worked out ok as long as i dont get into any "crash situations"

 

[Josh]

Picked up my 48" reefbrite today, will work on mounting that to my t5 fixture sometime soon. Still hoping to find a 2nd 48" reefbrite to add to the backside of the fixture. While i was at [removed store info. Store requests their name or anything related not be posted on this site - Torx] I picked up a few frags, Came home with a small frag of the ultra rasta as well as some fruit loops and a small piece of GSP (the gf loves the "wavey hair") I am placing the GSP on a lone rock as to isolate the "weedlike" properties of the GSP. Hopefully everything acclimates well.


[Removed - Torx] suggested i stick with the dual overflows except pipe them into 1 common line and to put my gate/balancing valve on the common side. Ill admit i hadnt considered this. Anybody have any experience twinning together dual overflows? I assume twin the main overflows as well as the emergencies. Probably will have 1" bulkheads then combine them with a 1" to 1-1/2" drain to the sump.

 

[jeffopentax]

You mentioned a person and store that wants absolutely no association whatsoever with this site, or its members. Be careful!


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[TORX]

You mentioned a person and store that wants absolutely no association whatsoever with this site, or its members. Be careful!


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Yes. Edited thread accordingly.

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[TORX]

Picked up my 48" reefbrite today, will work on mounting that to my t5 fixture sometime soon. Still hoping to find a 2nd 48" reefbrite to add to the backside of the fixture. While i was at [removed store info. Store requests their name or anything related not be posted on this site - Torx] I picked up a few frags, Came home with a small frag of the ultra rasta as well as some fruit loops and a small piece of GSP (the gf loves the "wavey hair") I am placing the GSP on a lone rock as to isolate the "weedlike" properties of the GSP. Hopefully everything acclimates well.


[Removed - Torx] suggested i stick with the dual overflows except pipe them into 1 common line and to put my gate/balancing valve on the common side. Ill admit i hadnt considered this. Anybody have any experience twinning together dual overflows? I assume twin the main overflows as well as the emergencies. Probably will have 1" bulkheads then combine them with a 1" to 1-1/2" drain to the sump.

I do not suggest dual overflows. Yes, you can do it and with a little tenacity you can find the sweet spot for it to have equal flow. Some others may have experience with it. My suggestion would be a single center overflow with a dual return on either side of the tank. If you are going for a dual overflow, do the dual center. If you go the dual corner, then you have that huge section of overflow in the viewable area from the side of the tank. On a standard 120, it would probably be at least a quarter of the side panel. yuck.

 

[Josh]

Ok fair enough didn't realize that situation. Yah i honestly want a single overflow but sounds like the tank i want is dual. Maybe i will just go custom

 

[Josh]

You mentioned a person and store that wants absolutely no association whatsoever with this site, or its members. Be careful!


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Thanks will keep this in mind moving forward

 

[jeffopentax]

Thanks will keep this in mind moving forward

Was more of a tongue in cheek shot at the "complainant"


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[Salty Cracker]

I have dual overflows, I can't see how joining them into one pipe would work, since you have to adjust each overflow to the micromilliliter of flow, and each overflow isn't going to drain the same, so you would almost assuredly always have one drain that is either overflowing, or gurgling. I suppose if you had 2 gate valves prior to them joining up it might work, but it also could create backpressure at the junction. All around, that is bad advice.

I have dual ghost overflow boxes, each with a main drain and a dry emergency drain. The reason for the dual overflows is to create redundancy in case of a blockage (I had 2 overflows fail at the same time when I was away in mexico, which is what pushed me to replace the whole system).

It's very easy to keep it silent, generally speaking if the system is making noise, something is off somewhere, such as saturated socks creating backpressure or the return pump needs a cleaning, etc etc.

Best to ask here, where we have nothing to gain except your success. We're not looking to sell you a problem that we can sell you the solution for down the road. We just want you to succeed. (That's why we're on the naughty list!)

 

[Josh]

I want to succeed!!!

 

[Josh]

So a small update, I decided to roll with a 150g instead of the 120g. I ordered a custom 60x24x24 aquarium with dual corner overflows.

On another small update i will be purchasing Ian's Apex. I am getting pretty close to having everything i need to finally start putting things together.

Still need a return pump and 1 more 48" reefbrite. Also want to buy the apex ATO for it.

Getting closer!!!

 

[TheGreenStag]

Wow just finished reading your thread to the post above...so did you go with dual overflows or a single one? I agree with Salty above never safe to merge dual overflows into one...i have a 150G with dual over flows (1 on each corner)...i have always plumbed them separately. Even so early this year when i moved my sump to basement i ran 2 individual pipes for each overflow. Also i have a frag tank plumbed in the same sump and it has its own seperate overflow going down to the sump. So in all my sump has 3 overflows draining into my sump and 3 returns coming out. The returns are out of a single 1.5” pipe brought up to my display and than divided into 3 to accommodate 2 for my display and 1 for the frag tank. You could check out my build thread in my signature. I designed the sump and works like a gem.


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[Josh]

Ill check it out thanks. I havent signed off on the build yet so i think im going to switch to dual back overflows instead of the corners, i do have 1 side thats exposed and i never considered being able to see it from the side.

Edit - No acct on GTA forum so i cant open the attached photos

 

[TheGreenStag]

No worries here is a sketch and the final product of my sump...I added another baffle before my return as I was getting some bubbles there and in between the two baffled I added an egg crate tht keeps the chaeto away from the return section..

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[Josh]

Looks good, Where did you get the glass cut for the baffles?

 

[TheGreenStag]

Looks good, Where did you get the glass cut for the baffles?

Thanks...You can get it cut at any local glass or mirror store..or check with home depot maybe they can help...i got the guy who build my sump to cut it so not sure where they got it cut.

 

[shamous113]

@Josh any updates??