New 120 gallon, Need some recommendations

[jjakes24]

I have purchased a 120 gallon, 4 x 2 x 2 tank. I plan on setting this up with a 3 compartment, 55 gallon sump/refuge underneath. The tank will be against a wall, but I want to have the tank viewable from 3 sides in case I want to move it to another room in the future as some sort of room divider. So that means, I want the front, back, and one side completely free of pipes, wires, etc. I am in the process of designing my stand and here are my thoughts.

1) Drill two 1 inch drains on one side of the tank about 5 inches apart. Create a 8 inch wide by 6 inch deep overflow box around the drains. These two holes will be centered on the one side of the tank. One drain will lead to the skimmer compartment, the other to the refuge.

2) Drill two 3/4 inch returns. One on each side of the overflow box, pretty much in the corners of the one side of the tank. I will then run pipe from these returns under the plastic top of the tank brought out to the middle of the tank and connect with locline so I can direct the flow from there. I also will hook up an SCWD here. Need recommendations for a return pump. I have a mag7 I use now but I don't think it will cut it on this tank.

For a quick picture, it would be like this

Top of side of tank
----------------------------

x | X X | x
-----------------

x - return
X - drain

Are these sizes for the drains and returns too big or too small? Too many?

3) I will build the stand to be 5 feet long, so this leaves a foot extra on the one side of the tank. This will help accomodate the 55 gallon underneath and also a 10 gallon for top off water. It will also allow me to hide the pipes on the one side of the tank by being able to enclose it. It gives me 12 inches of space which should be plenty.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[jjakes24]

^

[jjakes24]

No one has any thoughts on these bulkheads I want to put in? I would like to get this figured out because once you drill, its final.

[ljosh]

How much flow do you want to put through your overflow?

[jjakes24]

Not so sure but I don't want it to not be enough. The flow would be controlled by the return pump, wouldn't it?

[jjakes24]

can anyone help here?

[nauticac4]

I have 2 1" drains with a center overflow and a 1 inch return line that runs through a 3/4" locline. I have my pump dialed down (eheim 1262). I got standard black bulkheads from the LFS. Overflow through the sump is anywhere from 5 to 10x an hour.
Mine is stand is 48" long and I have a 20H and 29 under for a fuge and sump.

Your question about flow and the SWCD. What do you want to keep? I have a oceans motions 4 way and a reeflo dart which is a bit on the high side but it gets the job done. When you know what you want to keep in the tank some of your questions on flow can be answered.

[jjakes24]

Well, I wanted to have it open to SPS if I ever went that route and not have to redo anything. I was going to have each drain go to a separate compartment. One drain to the fuge, and one drain to the skimmer compartment. Both of these compartments would flow to the middle chamber through baffles which is the return compartment. I will drain to the fuge at a lip to help roll my chaeto in there so I am probably looking for 20x turnover in there. I am thinking I could T off the return back into the return compartment If I wanted to dial the pump down and decrease flow. Right now I have a mag 7, but I am thinking that is a bit too weak for this new setup. I was maybe contemplating a mag 18 but could that be too much?

[jjakes24]

bump, can't seem to get an answer from anyone

[ReefWreak]

Well, I think your ideas sound pretty good. I've got a 120 but it came drilled, so I can't help with the custom idea. If you're looking to do something really cool with flow, and it sounded like you don't want any powerheads either, I would consider sticking a Tunze Wavebox or 2 vortechs on the return end, then having them do the wave thing in the tank. It'll make for a great effect on the corals as well as impress visitors, especially in a peninsula style tank. You also wouldn't have to have a huge return pump, as it wouldn't be your main flow.

If you're considering having your return as your main flow, and want to eventually make this a peninsula tank, I would highly suggest doing a closed loop along the bottom of the tank, either with PVC inside the tank, or with bulkheads through the bottom.

You can't overdo it on the bulkheads, the larger the better, but keep in mind that you've got to find room for the plumbing under the tank. If you start off really large, say a 2" bulkhead or something ridiculous like that, then you're really never limited to any flow. I don't think you want to do that, but yeah. Maybe do like 1.5" bulkheads, even 1". I think a 1" will do 600gph or something like that. Probably more.

GL

[Otto2]

jjakes, I am planning something like this as well. Just going to follow along to get ideas.

[jjakes24]

I was going to put powerheads in the tank along with the main 2 returns. The two returns will be hooked up to an SCWD, so that will alternate. Then for the powerheads, I was actually planning on having two maxijet 1200 modded with the The gulf stream ii kit in there with 2 402 powerheads too. They would take up all four corners and be put on wave timer so they all would not be firing at once. Could this be way too much flow? The maxijets themself push a ton of water. I was thinking of hiding the powerheads in the top corners, all are magnet mounted.

[sw1tched]

I have a 125. I went with (2) 1 1/2 holes for overflow on both back corners. I have 2 pumps that put out around 600 gph so I get about 1200 gph turnover through my sump. Should be enough flow, but I have 2 small pumps that do about 300 gph on each side of the tank for extra flow. My corals grow like crazy and the fish love the current.
-Joe

[joelr31]

Two 1" drains will only give give 600gph which is too little for a 120. I would suggest two 1.5" drains for which will yield 1200gph (10x turnover).