Setting up a 120RR - help me out with your experience!

[fishcam]

In the next two weeks, I'll begin setting up my aga 120rr (with aga pine stand) and I'm looking for lessons learned and suggestions from folks who've been where I'm going. Let me lay out my setup, and then I'll ask general questions after that. If you've got other feedback, please post it here!

 

Current Tank

I'll be migrating a 55g+55g sump over-under style setup, and I'll be keeping most of the same equipment that I'll list below.

 

120rr

Lights - existing current 2x150w mh with 2x96w pc (I'll be looking to upgrade to 2x250 20k's later, for simplicity and to address the added height in the 120 from the 55)

 

Sump - since my 55 wont fit under the stand, and I dont' want a bunch of tanks everywhere, I'll probably downgrade to a standard 30g. This will house my Euro Reef RS80 with a Sedra 3500 pump, some macro algae and supporting 18w lights, and a mag 12 return pump. I've also got a 40w Current Gamma UV, and 2xTLF media reactors. (its gonna be pretty tight... so I may have to revisit this idea)

 

Coral/Fish Care - I've got 2x Bulk Reef Supply dosers and an ACIII with temp and PH probes. Temp control is governed by 500w of heating and 4x80mm fans to cool it down. ATO for keeping the water levels up. For flow I have 4xMJ200's controlled by a wavemaster and 2xK4's, all with magnetic mounts. Finally, I've got 2x of the blue battery backup airstone fellows. I've also got some UPS I was considering hooking up to a K4, but that's for later.

 

Plumbing - I'm going to try to do this right this time. I've got unions for easy maintenance, and flex pvc to reduce vibrations.

 

Tank - I've got my overstocked 55... basically 3x chromis, dartfish, watchman goby, melanurus wrasse, yellow tang, blue hippo tang (hes growing up, my reason for upgrading), royal gramma, and a clown. CUC is several hermits, 3x astreas and one yellow cuke who's been with me since my 12g AP (along with the clown). Probably like 100lbs live rock and 60 lbs sand. As for corals, I've several (at least 25 types) SPS (mostly from reefhunter - cheers!), two LPS and several softies.

 

Questions

Now for the fun part:

1. The stand will be placed on carpet. I'll level it with shims. Should I put some sort of barrier between the carpet and stand? I was thinking some heavy duty trash bags, oil pan, or chair mat. What have you done? Wished you would have done?

 

2. I've got the darn red bugs. I figure this transition would be a good time to do the interceptor treatment. Anyone know a vet?

 

3. I've got 90 more lbs of sand in bags. Do I need to cure this before putting it int my tank? If so, I'll probs do it with my additional base rock later on.

 

4. I ordered some new bulkheads on marinedepot. Hopefully they'll come with gaskets. I read that its flange, gasket, glass, nut, and that two gaskets on either side of the glass is not a good thing. True?

 

For now, thats it, but I'm sure there will be more. Thanks for your thoughts and help! All of the equipment here is bought used on WAMAS, and all the livestock has been bought via group buys - truly the tank that WAMAS built.

 

-d

[steveoutlaw]

120rr

Lights - existing current 2x150w mh with 2x96w pc (I'll be looking to upgrade to 2x250 20k's later, for simplicity and to address the added height in the 120 from the 55) - The upgrade to 2x250w is a must in my opinion.

 

Sump - since my 55 wont fit under the stand, and I dont' want a bunch of tanks everywhere, I'll probably downgrade to a standard 30g. This will house my Euro Reef RS80 with a Sedra 3500 pump, some macro algae and supporting 18w lights, and a mag 12 return pump. I've also got a 40w Current Gamma UV, and 2xTLF media reactors. (its gonna be pretty tight... so I may have to revisit this idea) - 2 recommendations here; 1. See if you can get a 40g breeder under the stand to use as a sump.....you'll love the space. 2. The RS-80 skimmer is not going to be able to keep up with your tank if you plan on having anything other than softies.......I would recommend an upgrade.

Coral/Fish Care - I've got 2x Bulk Reef Supply dosers and an ACIII with temp and PH probes. Temp control is governed by 500w of heating and 4x80mm fans to cool it down. ATO for keeping the water levels up. For flow I have 4xMJ200's controlled by a wavemaster and 2xK4's, all with magnetic mounts. Finally, I've got 2x of the blue battery backup airstone fellows. I've also got some UPS I was considering hooking up to a K4, but that's for later.

 

Plumbing - I'm going to try to do this right this time. I've got unions for easy maintenance, and flex pvc to reduce vibrations. - Make sure you talk to someone about where the unions are going to go......they are great but if they aren't in the right place they won't do you much good. Also, I would go out to BRK and get the good cement to use with flex PVC.......I've heard stories about using regular PVC cement and it doesn't leak, but I've also heard disaster stories about regular PVC cement with the flex.

 

Tank - I've got my overstocked 55... basically 3x chromis, dartfish, watchman goby, melanurus wrasse, yellow tang, blue hippo tang (hes growing up, my reason for upgrading), royal gramma, and a clown. CUC is several hermits, 3x astreas and one yellow cuke who's been with me since my 12g AP (along with the clown). Probably like 100lbs live rock and 60 lbs sand. As for corals, I've several (at least 25 types) SPS (mostly from reefhunter - cheers!), two LPS and several softies.

 

Questions

Now for the fun part:

1. The stand will be placed on carpet. I'll level it with shims. Should I put some sort of barrier between the carpet and stand? I was thinking some heavy duty trash bags, oil pan, or chair mat. What have you done? Wished you would have done? - If you can't cut out the carpet where the stand is going to go, I would get shower pan material to put under it.

 

2. I've got the darn red bugs. I figure this transition would be a good time to do the interceptor treatment. Anyone know a vet? - Can't help on this one.

 

3. I've got 90 more lbs of sand in bags. Do I need to cure this before putting it int my tank? If so, I'll probs do it with my additional base rock later on. - No......put the new sand in first and then put some of the existing sand on top to seed it........this way you're not trapping all of the detritus from the old sand.

 

4. I ordered some new bulkheads on marinedepot. Hopefully they'll come with gaskets. I read that its flange, gasket, glass, nut, and that two gaskets on either side of the glass is not a good thing. True? - One gasket is all you need and make sure you only hand tighten the nut. If the bulkhead leaks, you can use a bulkhead wrench but I would go for more than 1/16th of a turn.

 

For now, thats it, but I'm sure there will be more. Thanks for your thoughts and help! All of the equipment here is bought used on WAMAS, and all the livestock has been bought via group buys - truly the tank that WAMAS built.

 

-d

[Boret]

I concur with Steve on everything. A couple of my suggestions:

 

Have you thought about a Close Loop? You have a lot of powerheads, taking a lot of space and heating up the water. You can sell everything and get yourself and external pump and put together a close loop with PVC. There are tons of great designs for your size tank (a very popular tank). You can add a SCWD or a SeaSwirl for the return from the sump... by the way, what return pump are you using?

 

Make sure you can tap on different circuits for the tank, that you balance the load and that you have GFCI in all the lines.

 

Make sure your overflows have the durso standpipe (much quieter). You can research it online if you never heard of it.

 

Also make sure your overflow will be able to handle the return. Some people use both holes in the RR tanks as overflows/

 

I regret not painting the back of my tank black. I went for blue instead. Think about it as it is something extremely simple to do while the tank is empty. A pain in the... to almost impossible once you have everything setup.

 

Get yourself some of the pink padding to put between the tank and the stand. (You can get it at home depot)

 

Search online (i.e. Reef Central Tank of the Month) and you can find awesome setups with the same tank as yours. You can get great ideas from those. I love the front to back depth you get in the 120!!!

 

Finally, if at all possible try to place your tank close to a drain. It will make your life easier.

[Coral Hind]

I got my pack of Interceptor at the VCA in Annandale, address below. If you only need the one tablet then shot me a PM.

 

7405 Little River Tpke

Annandale, VA 22003

(703) 941-3100

 

 

Make sure you can tap on to different circuits for the tank, that you balance the load and that you have GFCI in all the lines.

 

I would not put the lighting on a GFCI as it can cause nuisance tripping.

[OUsnakebyte]

I always rub silicone grease (found at Lowes in the plumbing section - looks like a hockey puck), NOT silicone, on both sides of the gaskets of my bulkheads. It helps create a nice seal. It's the same stuff I use on my camera and light o-rings when I go diving.

 

Cheers

Mike

[Brian Ward]

+1 on upgrading the skimmer and adding a closed loop. Get rid of the power heads and drill the tank before you set it up. I drilled mine with 2 2" "drains" and 4 1" "returns" for my closed loop. If you'd like to come look at my setup, you're more than welcome.

Look for the 40 breeder as was mentioned - 36" long and it should give you plenty of room for stuff. Also plan a fuge for somewhere in your system.

As for the bulkheads, yes only use 1 gasket. The bulkhead can be used in either direction, but put the gasket on the side with the water. Ideally, put the nut on the side without the water. If you're not sure where to put the unions, definitely talk to some people about it - nothing worse than a union that won't let you disconnect what you want to. In concert with the unions, be sure you have valves to cut off the flow of water (or use the combo true union/valve).

+1 on the new sand on the bottom. Be sure to rinse it if it's dry sand, if it's already wet (like the caribsea live sand) then just put it in.

+1 on the shower pan liner under the stand. It's a thick rubber mat you can get in the plumbing section at HD or Lowe's. You buy it by the linear foot and you can get either 4' or 5' width. I'd recommend the 5' to go under that stand and then trim the edge. Also line the inside of the stand with the shower pan liner - again, you can come over to see what I mean. It will save you a headache when you accidentally overflow something - if you put it in right, it will easily hold 5 - 10 gal of water giving you some extra margin for error.

[fishcam]

Wow this is a ton of feedback. Thanks everyone. Let me read over this tonight and I'll ask any followup questions!