new set up, help...please.

[areefdream]

What I have is a dream. I am building a house in Nelson, BC and moving my cramped 33g reef tank. What I need is a design. I am still in the electrical and plumbing rough in stage of the house and was hoping for a tank system design soon so I can start planning. Most likely a four foot tank but I have room for six, with a sump (filter, skimmer, refug, auto water top off, and good circulation in the tank, maybe a closeed loop system. The problem is right now everything is piggybacked on my small tank and the thought of designing a new system seems crazy. I would greatly appreciate the help and if you are in the area drop a line. P.s. pictures help

[Albertan22]

If you're at that stage of building the house, why not consider building a fish room? Put all the noise and smells and messiness of the sump in a separate room (basement even). You could have a bigger sump and much more room to work in it than anything you could do under a stand. It's something that I had considered doing, but decided the renovations involved would be a bit overboard for my first tank (which is still in it's early stages).

Otherwise, you can check out my build thread if you haven't already for some ideas on a 4 foot tank, sump in stand setup. There should be a link to it in my signature line

[mark]

Really consider Albertan's suggestion for a fish room.

Rather than a dedicated fish room, I just enlarged my furnace room. My display is on the main floor, with the CL plumbing and pump directly below, but everything else is down in the basement.

It's great as a lots of room for the sump, fuge and equipment, then storage, for water, buckets, hoses, etc. Also a have a laundry sink which I find really convenient.

With the house still being built, it's easy to run all your plumbing and returns lines, get your electrical sorted, etc. Can get a sub-panel in if you you want just for the tank, have your ballasts remoted in the basement, etc.

Get on it soon before the drywall is up.

[areefdream]

Thanks for the great suggestions. We probably won't live in this house for more than a couple of years so I would rather not make anything too built in and we son't have any extra space in our basement, so it would have to be a more compact unit very similar to your system Alberta22, but I could plumb in a water line if that would help. How exactly do auto topoffs work? If it is off of a reservoir than does that water need circulation? I would assume so.

[intarsiabox]

ATO system can be as simple as an empty salt pail full of fresh water with a small pump in it with a line going to the return section of your sump. You just need a hi/lo solenoid to tell the pump when to turn off and on. Some people put a sperate compartment in their sump to supply the fresh water for the ATO pump if your sump is large enough.

[Albertan22]

The auto top off reservoir is fresh RO/DI water so it doesn't need any circulation. When water evaporates from the tank it leaves the salt behind, so you need to top it off with fresh water to prevent your salinity from going out of whack. I used a double float switch system that controls a maxijet 400 that pumps water from the reservoir (a food grade recycling bin I found at Canadian Tire) into the return pump section of my sump. I've also seen gravity feed systems that use a float valve, but they kind of scare me. I'd be worried that salt creep or a snail would prevent it from sealing properly and result in a flood. Something similar could happen with a float switch system as well, which is why I have a second float switch set slightly higher than my first to act as an extra safety measure.

As far as permanency of a fishroom, I had also considered that when I was thinking along the reno route. I think I would put the fishroom in the basement, and run the plumbing up through the floor through a hole the size and position of a furnace vent. Then when you go to sell, you can pull the plumbing out and put a vent cover over it and no one is the wiser. Put the sump in or next to your laundry room, put in one of those laundry sinks and your laughing. Of course, if you don't have room, you don't have room.

[areefdream]

Thank you all for the input, I think I will end up going with a design much like your own Albertan22 I am interested to watch it grow the tank looks great thus far. Good luck

[chris121277]

How are the build plans coming? have you decided what size of tank your going to do?

Were abuts in Nelson are you building?

[areefdream]

Hey,
Thanks for the reply. The tank build is simply in the planning stage, we think that we would like a 120g RR but if we can get a deal on something used we would be a little flexible. We are going to keep using the 36" light fixture as we don't want any corals situated on the sides of the tank anyway. Currently it is a strugle just to look after the lilttle tank well enough while we are in the midst of the house build. All is well though. The house is at the very top of Chatham overlooking Hume school. It would be great to meet up sometime, I have never known anyone into reef keeping maybe I could glean from your vast knowledge. Do you live in Castlegar or Trail?

[soapy]

Alberta22, but I could plumb in a water line if that would help. How exactly do auto topoffs work? If it is off of a reservoir than does that water need circulation? I would assume so.

I know it goes without saying but if you are going to have a water line you will want a drain too.