What about the sump under the tank, in the stand. Friend of mine has a 240 with sump in the cabinet and practically silent.
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Need advice on new reef tank
- Thread starter Dave T
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So long as your fully vaxxed and boosted you're welcome to come visit my tank. I'm in the middle of redoing the aquascape, but hey, that can be informative as well.
Go and see Joe's tank. It's amazing.
Alas, no. It’s a finished basement. I can’t have pipes running across the room. I guess I could drop the hung ceiling another foot, but it’s a low ceiling already. So I need to come up with something that works with what we have.
I wish I was willing to do that, but I really want as near to total silence as I can get, all the extra space in the basement would be so much nicer, and I don’t think I could fit everything I want to do under there anyway.
I will take you up on that, thanks! I’ll send you a PM.
Getting a tank "silent" can be one of the hardest things to achieve. Especially with the distance and method you have to acheive it. As soon as you start having to put elbows and bends you start to get resistance. And if the level shifts too much, you can easily get pockets of air, that could even eventually lead to an "air lock" Think about possibly venting along the drain line too, with that distance.
As for placement of the tank. Based on 25+ years of design and installation, i would strongly recommend the spot where the piano is.
From looking at the flow of your house from the rest of the pics, this location makes the most sense (especially astheticly)
As for sump, I would definitely put it against the wall. Not much need to work on both sides of a sump. And would just take up SO much less room.
Start with a seperate tank as a refugium (it will take months for this to truly become functional anyway. You could even set it up before and just tie it in to the system later
And I would definitely add an Algae turf scrubber as the nutrients build up. Regardless of the fuge. Ideally they preform very different functions, and the ones they both do they do at drastically different rates. Most of the large systems I set up run both.
As for placement of the tank. Based on 25+ years of design and installation, i would strongly recommend the spot where the piano is.
From looking at the flow of your house from the rest of the pics, this location makes the most sense (especially astheticly)
As for sump, I would definitely put it against the wall. Not much need to work on both sides of a sump. And would just take up SO much less room.
Start with a seperate tank as a refugium (it will take months for this to truly become functional anyway. You could even set it up before and just tie it in to the system later
And I would definitely add an Algae turf scrubber as the nutrients build up. Regardless of the fuge. Ideally they preform very different functions, and the ones they both do they do at drastically different rates. Most of the large systems I set up run both.
Thanks Nemo!
I agree about the living room. Both spots in the kitchen have their drawbacks. The issue with the living room spot, though, is that I don't use that room at all. And as the tank starts to lose its shiny new toy glow, I'm afraid it could lead to neglect if I don't check it regularly. Plus the tank will be a showpiece and it would be nice to use it in a room that gets a lot of traffic. But there's no denying that the spot in the living room would work best aesthetically.
I have a question about one thing you said - what purpose does a refugium have if you have an algae turf scrubber? For growing pods? Are you saying you'd still have chaeto in a refugium in a system that also had a turf scrubber?
Also, if it matters, I will have a separate 40 gallon frag tank plumbed into the sump...
And I'm trying to get my head around maintaining calcium, PH, and alkalinity. So many tools to do these things.
Calcium reactor? C02 scrubber? Kalkwasser dosing? Dosing something else? Any advice on this? My ideal solution would be something that's automated and will help me maintain a stable tank at the correct levels.
I agree about the living room. Both spots in the kitchen have their drawbacks. The issue with the living room spot, though, is that I don't use that room at all. And as the tank starts to lose its shiny new toy glow, I'm afraid it could lead to neglect if I don't check it regularly. Plus the tank will be a showpiece and it would be nice to use it in a room that gets a lot of traffic. But there's no denying that the spot in the living room would work best aesthetically.
I have a question about one thing you said - what purpose does a refugium have if you have an algae turf scrubber? For growing pods? Are you saying you'd still have chaeto in a refugium in a system that also had a turf scrubber?
Also, if it matters, I will have a separate 40 gallon frag tank plumbed into the sump...
And I'm trying to get my head around maintaining calcium, PH, and alkalinity. So many tools to do these things.
Calcium reactor? C02 scrubber? Kalkwasser dosing? Dosing something else? Any advice on this? My ideal solution would be something that's automated and will help me maintain a stable tank at the correct levels.
As for the location, I highly doubt you will ignore it in that spot. If anything it will draw more people into that space. And it is a little bit away from the main traffic, so you can actually go sit in front of the tank and totally escape. From your pics it is the perfect spot for both function and form, IMO.
And I feel you will regret putting it in either of the other spots, as it is totally out of place, and rather intrusive. You want the tank to be living art, not just a piece of furniture. In the piano spot it will look like it was always meant to be showcased there, as opposed to an afterthought, like the other 2 spots. And just a BIG hell no, to having it anywhere near a family room TV. lol
So, the turf scrubber will aggressively remove Nitrate and Phosphate, while a refugium (if set up properly) will remove excess nutrients at a much slower pace while per Most "refugiums" people set up are actually not really refugiums, lol. I use refugiums for slow excess nutrient removal, as a refuge to put things that might need a break, microfauna production and forage, and as a place for nuisance algaes to grow, instead of on the display.
As for additive supplements I use dosers and test regularly. I find it is the least likely way to have a catastrophic disaster from this topic. All methods have their pros and cons for sure. But this method has worked the best for me long term, with the least amount of issues.
But this topic is widely debated, and IMO can really depend on specifically what Corals you plan to keep.
Here is a pic of the sump area of one of my systems
300gallon display in front of these and a 120g upstairs and 50' across the house in my clients office attached to this. Here is a 75g acclimating tank, 80g frag tank, and 80g refugium. All attached to a 150 gallon rubbermaid sump. Both 80 gallon tanks are getting stripped now, to be replaced with two 120 gallon tanks.
Lol, nope its what I do for a living. But I also did not have any drop ceiling to deal with on this one. But no issues, and the tank upstairs is just a standard AGA 120g. with a corner overflow using the standard durso overflow. We will soon be swapping out the 120 for a custom 280 gallon. So I will be redoing the plumbing soon. Fun fun fun, lol
yes it is.
Look into the difference between a drain and a siphon. Pitch isn't required for a full vacuum siphon. Your tank is not a sink. The head pressure is caused by gravity which doesn't care about pitch. Once flowing the drain can literally go up in pitch. This will take a little longer to go full vacuum, but it will.
Yup, that's me
But in this situation, up (depending on how much) will eventually cause an air lock(unless vented properly). As the vacuum will be broken every time the pump is shut off when doing service, or an unexpected power outage.
But Level is not really a problem.
