starting 2 new 120's

[T.KING]

just purchased 2-120 gal tanks along with 2-55 gals to use as sumps. still need to purchase everything including plumbing. canopies came with new vho's and ballasts. going to add halides as soon as possible.looking to go with onw reef and one agressive, both using their own sump. any suggestions as far as plumbing, filtraion pumps etc, wuold be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot, T.

 

[Krish]

Sounds great! Are they glass tanks opr acrylic? Also, are you cansidering drilling or just using powerheads for flow?

 

[T.KING]

glass, predrilled through the bottom of the tank. 2 in and 2 out per tank. looking at about a 3 foot drop for each from the bottom of the tank and aobut 5 to the top.

 

[Krish]

2 in and 2 out per tank

No sure what ou mean here Is that 4 holes total drilled in each tank?

 

[T.KING]

yes, 4 per tank.

 

[Krish]

K...Well, for starters, there's a few ways you can go about it all and all really depends on how you want to go about it. You can use the 2 drains to feed the sump (seeing it's a nice sized sump) and depending on what size holes they are, will determine how much flow they can handle (any idea what size they are?). The other 2 holes, depending on placement in the tank, can be used for the returns from the sump which will add some flow to the tank. If the holes are drilled too low, then it may be a problem to use them as sump returns as you will need to be able to break the siphon in those lines when the power is cut from the return pump to prevent your sump from overflowing. What people typically do to prevent this from happeneing is by putting a small hole in the return spout/nozzle right below the water line so when the power is cut, and that water level drops below the hole and it is exposed to air, it will break the siphon and stop the back flow of water. So you'll need to check the height of those holes you have drilled in the tank to see if they are high enough to work this way. If not, then maybe they can be used as outputs for a closed loop and just do a manifold over the top of the tank, to return water from the sump. As for extra flow in the tank, seeing the return from the sump probably won't be enough flow to catch all areas in the tank, you can either drill more holes in the tank to do a nice closed loop like Nikki did here for eg. http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2062 or do it over the top like Matt did here without the need to drill http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20640&page=2 . If neither one of them appeal to you, then you can always make up for flow with a few powerheads like Tunzes, or Seios. Just a bit of food for thought. Hope that helps some