Help me plan under my tank

Eb0la11 · #1 07-02-2009, 05:16 AM

Hey guys,

So I'm building a 165G and have a metal stand so plenty of room under it.

I have 6 feet to use. I am planning on having the sump under there, which is 30 gallon 3 foot x 1 foot tank and also a QT tank which is a 10 G. I also will need a bit of room behind the sump for an out of sump skimmer.

What else should I plan to leave room for under there? I wont need to put food or nets or anything like that under there, really, as I'll have a cabinet designated.

I need a place to store the 3 ballasts for my light, but I dont want any chance of them getting wet so Im thinking more beside the tank.

What do you guys think? What else should I plan for or at least plan to leave room for?

MikeP · #2 07-02-2009, 05:42 AM

Off the top of my head I would say reactors (phosban and/or calcuim), UV sterilizer, powerbars, lighting for your sump (I assume you'll have a fuge in the sump).

HTH

Eb0la11 · #3 07-02-2009, 05:50 AM

Prob a dumb question, whats HTH stand for?

Lighting for sump, yes I'll need to get that as there will be a fuge. I should have room for phosban and calcium reactors if/when I get them on one half of the under the tank behind the sump.

Anything else you guys think I should plan for from the get go so I dont limit myself down the road?

hummer · #4 07-02-2009, 07:41 AM

HTH probably stands for Hope That Helps.

HTH

lastlight · #5 07-02-2009, 02:58 PM

I'd mount the ballasts to the back of the tank if you have room. When I removed mine from my canopy (dumb move) and then stand, it made a huge difference in temp.

If this tank is on the main floor why not put a drain in it that heads to a floor drain. Or a sealed drip tray at least.

kien · #6 07-02-2009, 05:46 PM

Leave room for a fresh water auto top off reservoir. That is unless you are going to plumb your sump right into a RO/DI unit or something like that. I wouldn't mind doing that except that my tank is on my main floor and my RO/DI unit is in the basement. Anyway, a tank that big will evaporate A LOT of water. Evaporated water will raise your salinity over time because salt does not evaporate. My current 90 gallon tank (48" by 24" by 18") evaporates roughly 7 gallons a week. That's a gallon of fresh water a day almost that I had to manually dump into my sump before I got an auto top off system. Now I just refill my fresh water reservoir every sunday evening. When I did it manually it was easy to forget sometimes, or sometimes life in general gets in the way of tank chores.

K.