New house= new tank

[BigRed]

Hi all,
My wife and I just moved into a new house in Berkeley Heights. After having to breakdown my 46 gal bow in my last apt. (Fortunately before Sandy would have killed everything) we're chomping at the bit to get a tank up in the new house.

I'm starting from scratch here, and I'm looking for some advice.
The tank is going into our family/rec room.
I only have enough room for a 36" long tank. I'm thinking about going with an acrylic tank this time around.
I'd like to plumb the tank into the basement so I could setup the sump down there.

So to begin, I guess these are my first set of questions:
Does anyone have any suggestions on where to get an acrylic tank, or even if its worth acrylic at this size.
Same question with the sump (probably a 40 gal breeder would suit me fine, but custom acrylic might be nice.)
If I go glass, any suggestions for buying a predrilled or drilling it, I will admit I'm hesitant to drill it myself.

Thanks in advance for the help guys, it's really the thing I love the most about this club.

Brett

 

[Baxreefs]

36" cube would be sweet!

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

That's what I was thinking, a marineland 150 cube (36x36x27).

 

[mnat]

adesimone has the 3x3x3 cube which is 150 gallons and it is a stunner. If that is too big I would go with at least the 75g or 90g. I had the 57g which was three feet but it was narrow which you will want to upgrade from down the line.

In my opinion and only my opinion, I would not get acrylic. It scratches way to easily and can get hazy. If it is not built correctly it still can fail along the seams so not too much of an upgrade over glass. The biggest thing it has going for it is that acrylic weighs so much less than glass so if that is a concern than go acrylic.

If you are going to go down into the basement and you have the room go BIG. I have learned from going downstairs that the more room the better. Even if you went with a 55g display, you could do like 200g downstairs which would make the system much more stable and give you room downstairs for frag tanks and other grow out type areas. Just like with the display, figure out how much of your basement you want to use, and then plan from there.

 

[Coolaid]

I agree go as big as you can get downstairs.. I am in the planning stages of our upgrade (still waiting on the house to be ready) and I'm going into the basement as well.. I've been thinking 3x 150g stock tanks in series.. Equipment in first, rock pool in 2nd DSB / regugium in 3rd. mainly I want to have as much water as possible running through my systems.. more water = more stability..

Either way, I like the idea of having all the equipment downstairs. I don't see an issue about the sump being acrylic.. but the first time you are moving stuff around and a rock falls over and puts a 6 inch gash in that glass.

 

[Fish Brain]

Welcome to the neighbor hood! I'm just down the road in Stirling and I also just moved from an apartment in to a house. I used the move as and excuse to upgraded from a 40B & 65G to a 120.

I would stick with a glass tank and as others have said, if you have the room downstairs use it.

 

[TanksNStuff]

+1 on the 36x36 cube. It's an awesome size tank if you can fit that in your spot.

Also agree on the "go big" theory for the basement. More water volume is always better for stability reasons. Keep in mind though that this will also mean bigger water changes (more costly).

If you do end up going the basement route for sump... think about adding a slop sink and/or floor drain in the fish room.

 

[BigRed]

Thanks for the input.

After looking at some options I'm thinking about the RR Marineland 60 gal cube with stand (that's about as big as my wife will ok for upstairs). Anyone have any insight on where I should get it? There was another thread today talking about Tropaquarium as a good place. Any suggestions further north?

I still need to map out the basement space but I'm thinking probably 125-150ish. I'll need to purchase this as well, although it's an easier size to pickup.

I'll update again as plans firm up.

 

[Fish Brain]

Unless your willing to take an hour + ride to Trop, Aquatic Obsessions would be the place to go for the cube around here.

 

[magic]

Ocean Gallery II on Rt 22 also carries Marineland Tanks.

Bob

 

[BigRed]

So,
New update on plans. Going with a 65g upstairs with a 70g sump in the basement.
Gotta try to draw it up in sketchup or CAD or something.
Looks like it'll be a custom stand upstairs and down.

Now looking for a little guidance on skimmer and return pump. Looks like it'll be 10' of total lift height (including in tank pumbing.) I'm thinking mag 18 or something. I definitely want to go with an internal pump. I like the look of the aquamaxx cone skimmers. I'm planning on running 2 TLF reactors off the return pump, and having a fuge in the center part of the sump.

Until we move further, that's where it is. Once this all get's started I'll start a tank build thread.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Looks like the start of a plan.


FYI, MAG pumps are not pressure pumps and therefore won't be able to lift your water ten feet. Going to have to find some other pump.


If you're going two reactors, check out BRS dual reactor.....I really like the clean look and that it definitely does not leak.

 

[NikkiT]

Our return is a Blue Line. It is lifting about 15'.
It could be too much for your system (our DT is 205, basement system is about 200).

 

[BigRed]

So even though its rated for 21' of head height it won't actually push the water up? That's rather annoying. Hmmm

Looks like the start of a plan.


FYI, MAG pumps are not pressure pumps and therefore won't be able to lift your water ten feet. Going to have to find some other pump.


If you're going two reactors, check out BRS dual reactor.....I really like the clean look and that it definitely does not leak.

 

[BigRed]

Is there a way to run pellets in the brf reactor?

 

[jgraz]

Is there a way to run pellets in the brf reactor?

Yes, providing you buy new. All the newer ones come with everything you need to run them. You can't/shouldn't run them in the dual reactor though. If you get that you will need to split them in two. There were a few guys here that used the BRS reactors for pellets and reported that they worked however I think the all eventually changed to a reactor made for that purpose.

 

[redfishbluefish]

So even though its rated for 21' of head height it won't actually push the water up? That's rather annoying. Hmmm

Check out your head loss HERE.


I use a MAG 18 to empty my waste water from the RO/DI. In the summer, most goes on my lawn, an approximate seven foot head. Now it's only going through 3/4 inch pipe/hose. I have to run that pump at least a half hour to empty the 55 gallon drum.

 

[BigRed]

Here's an idea of how the DT should look in the room

https://www.dropbox.com/s/543tv3wi3yjixqt/fishtank.jpg

For some reason I couldn't get the picture to upload here

 

[redfishbluefish]

For some reason I couldn't get the picture to upload here

POSTING PICTURES: If you take the web address (http://blah, blah, blah) and place it between this:

You will see the picture within the post…..

EDIT TO ADD: For some reason that didn't work....maybe because it's a secure website....https. Let's try making the thumbnail a picture:

EDIT TO ADD2: I don't know what I'm doing! Again, my guess is because it's a secure website location.

 

[TanksNStuff]

I've had trouble posting pics from dropbox before on here too. I think if you move the pics to the "public" folder, it will work fine.

Paul, your syntax was correct and it's likely a dropbox security thing blocking it.

Brett, is that some sort of closet next to where the tank will be? Any chance you could just make that a "fish room" and have the sump in there? That would solve the head pressure issue.

Edit - Oh, and I use a TLF 150 reactor for pellets. It's pretty cheap and it worked well for me... but I had that on my 75g with a 30g sump (I estimate around 70g total). You're system will be around 125gal +/- after rock and sand, etc. You may want to go with something a bit bigger than what I used. The BRS (single) reactor would be plenty and work well.