markbal
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I'm fairly new to all of this with only two years under my belt and am seeking some suggestions and/or advice.
Our 150G reef system has been established for over two years is located in our dining room. Against a wall which borders our garage.
I punched through the wall a few months back and moved our chiller, water change pumps and our r/o system in the garage. It was a great solution and cut a lot of the noise out of the tank, heat from the chiller as well as made water changes a breeze. I rigged a reverse flow pump with digital flow meter. I simply program the number of gallons I want out of the tank and flip the switch. Change the direction of the pump and back in goes the new water.
Anyway, to my question.. Recently my wife let me go on a spending spree (god, I love her) and I picked up a Octopus dual chamber Calcium Reactor, a Two Little Fishes PhosBan Reactor and a Korallin BioDenitrator Reactor. All three units are over-rated for my 150, but I know that sooner or later I'll get a bigger tank so it made sense to spend more now and less later replacing systems. I'm a firm believer in overkill.
I also scored a complete 12Gal nano tank on Craigslist for $40. Corallife CF lighting system, wet/dry, about 20lbs of rock and sand.
My plan/thought was to put the Nano tank in the garage with the three new devices connected to it and then with two small pumps move water from the main tank to the Nano tank in the garage where the three reactors are connected and then back again.
The Nano tank also becomes a good home for some of my frag projects and things that are less attractive in my main display tank.
Not huge flow, but I figured some small Eheim pumps (i.e. the 1048 at 158 gph) between the two tanks. No drilling, just use use U-tubes for feed and return. Total distance is about 3ft (through the wall) so well within the head distance of the pumps.
Granted if the return pump fails, I've got 150 gallons of water in my garage. But that seems to be the only massive faliure point I can find. I was thinking I can rig a float switch with shut off if I got overly nervous about that. Power outages aren't a problem as I've got a whole-house generator system and all of the aquarium equipment is on it. 60 second cutover time.
Is that enough flow? Am I doing this the right way? Will the three reactors that I have work in such a configuration and serve the purpose and work as they were designed to?
With the 12Gal Nano and 150 GPH flow I would GUESS that the water in the Nano is always a good representation of the water in the main tank and will be treated properly by the three reactors. My main tank pump is a Turbo-Sea 1740 so I move a lot of water.
My thinking is that I would drain from one of the overflow boxes of the main tank and deposit back into the wet dry? That way it gets reoxiginated (sp) and makes a another trip through my u/v before going back into the main tank.
I can't find a local aquarium shop with anyone capable of giving me some sound advice.
My alternative is to put the Calcium Reactor, PhosBan Reactor and BioDenitrator in the cabinet under my tank and plumb into my Wet/Dry, but I'm already crammed for space and it would make it tough to properly change media and service the units without tearing it all apart.
Anyone have any suggestions or past experience to do this properly?
Our 150G reef system has been established for over two years is located in our dining room. Against a wall which borders our garage.
I punched through the wall a few months back and moved our chiller, water change pumps and our r/o system in the garage. It was a great solution and cut a lot of the noise out of the tank, heat from the chiller as well as made water changes a breeze. I rigged a reverse flow pump with digital flow meter. I simply program the number of gallons I want out of the tank and flip the switch. Change the direction of the pump and back in goes the new water.
Anyway, to my question.. Recently my wife let me go on a spending spree (god, I love her) and I picked up a Octopus dual chamber Calcium Reactor, a Two Little Fishes PhosBan Reactor and a Korallin BioDenitrator Reactor. All three units are over-rated for my 150, but I know that sooner or later I'll get a bigger tank so it made sense to spend more now and less later replacing systems. I'm a firm believer in overkill.
I also scored a complete 12Gal nano tank on Craigslist for $40. Corallife CF lighting system, wet/dry, about 20lbs of rock and sand.
My plan/thought was to put the Nano tank in the garage with the three new devices connected to it and then with two small pumps move water from the main tank to the Nano tank in the garage where the three reactors are connected and then back again.
The Nano tank also becomes a good home for some of my frag projects and things that are less attractive in my main display tank.
Not huge flow, but I figured some small Eheim pumps (i.e. the 1048 at 158 gph) between the two tanks. No drilling, just use use U-tubes for feed and return. Total distance is about 3ft (through the wall) so well within the head distance of the pumps.
Granted if the return pump fails, I've got 150 gallons of water in my garage. But that seems to be the only massive faliure point I can find. I was thinking I can rig a float switch with shut off if I got overly nervous about that. Power outages aren't a problem as I've got a whole-house generator system and all of the aquarium equipment is on it. 60 second cutover time.
Is that enough flow? Am I doing this the right way? Will the three reactors that I have work in such a configuration and serve the purpose and work as they were designed to?
With the 12Gal Nano and 150 GPH flow I would GUESS that the water in the Nano is always a good representation of the water in the main tank and will be treated properly by the three reactors. My main tank pump is a Turbo-Sea 1740 so I move a lot of water.
My thinking is that I would drain from one of the overflow boxes of the main tank and deposit back into the wet dry? That way it gets reoxiginated (sp) and makes a another trip through my u/v before going back into the main tank.
I can't find a local aquarium shop with anyone capable of giving me some sound advice.
My alternative is to put the Calcium Reactor, PhosBan Reactor and BioDenitrator in the cabinet under my tank and plumb into my Wet/Dry, but I'm already crammed for space and it would make it tough to properly change media and service the units without tearing it all apart.
Anyone have any suggestions or past experience to do this properly?
