Hey everyone!
I'm coming back to the hobby again! Long story short, I found a career, got married, bought a house, got a puppo, and now I want a reef back in my house since life isn't quite so young and unstable, lol. I figured I would use some of this quarantine time to set up this new tank I got. Last time around I set up my 90 gallon as a reef. While it was a fantastic experience, it cost me a lot of money and headache due to inexperience and poor design/planning from the start. This forum was a wealth of knowledge for me in the past. I want to do things right this time around, and already came across a question pretty early on that I don't want to move past without advice on. I think I know the answer, but I've been out of the hobby for several years now. So here's the plan, and then the question. I'll post photo updates to go along with it as I make decent progress markers, but the photos attached are the tank as I received it, and the work i finished today which is noted later.
I received a 150 gallon tank with a black oak stand and hood for free from a nonprofit if I was willing to drain and relocate it. Done deal. The tank looks good, and was set up as a basic freshwater with two massive canister filters. The idea is to set it up as a reef tank with a sump, refugium, skimmer, uv sterilizer, and then for potential addons I have a RKE Titanium Plus controller(which i'm not sure is still relevant with tech moving the way it is these days) and I'll likely add dosing pumps as they become necessary. I'm going for a design that's quiet and easy to work on underneath to keep things as simple as possible. My prior build ended up with so many addons along the way that working under it became a nightmare. I want maintenance to be a positive thing rather than a negative one
The question: The tank has no holes in it since it was used with two canisters. I've been looking a lot at sump designs, and will either go with one large sump that feeds everything, or two sumps, one with a large refugium in it. I geek out over underwater plants and critters so a refugium is basically just another tank for me. I'm trying to decide how to move the water to the sumps and back. I've looked at hang on boxes, and technology has made them pretty slick, but I'm still wondering if i just need to have the tank drilled. If so, and you would recommend it be drilled, do you have a recommendation over what design to put in for either 1 or two sumps? I've had my eye on the bean animal design, but i know nothing about cutting glass, and i'm curious how much space it starts to take up in the tank. If you run two sumps, can you cut the size of the piping down to account for that, or is that a no-no in a tank that will have snail shells/obstructions? I'm just thinking about the size of the pipes coming up into the tank, and then the partition around them x2, and whether anyone thinks it's worth it or what your best recommendation would be.
Any input would be hugely appreciated! =D
Progress: I just got the hood and base sanded and painted, and moved into position in the house. The tank is way to heavy to move more than necessary, so I want to leave it as it until I get the sump/plumbing/tank cutting figured out.