180g acrylic tank confusion

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swnewbie22

swnewbie22

AC Members
Nov 30, 2007
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St. Pete, FL
I've been shopping all over the place (random LFS's, craigslist, ebay, amazon..just to name a few) for used tanks. My most recent find is a 180 gal acrylic tank for $475, which includes a 40 gal sump and a 35 gal ref, a pump (1/15 hp dolphin) and what I think are a couple of powerheads (mag 7 and mag 12?) correct me if I'm wrong.

What I'm confused about is the number of holes in the back of the tank. It has an overflow on one side of the tank but there are four more holes, two next the the overflow and two on the opposite side of the tank.

I feel silly for asking, although I know I shouldn't. I'm completely new to saltwater. I would've posted this in the newbie forum, but I thought more people might see it here.

Here's some pics of the tank. The stand looks kinda icky but I'm not worried about that, should be easy for my bf to fix-up. The man that's selling the tanks took the pics for me when he was in the middle of cleaning it...he said to "please excuse his mess" lol...I thought I would pass that message on to you guys..




 
dorkfish

dorkfish

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Jul 25, 2005
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Windsor,Ontario,Canada
Most likely they were used for a closed loop and/or returns. You could either use the holes to set up 2 closed loops with 2 outputs, or you could use them for 1 closed loop with 3 outputs. Or you could put outputs over the back of the tank and have a nearly infinite ammount of outputs...

I wouldn't advise using any of the holes for return plumbing since water will drain down to the level of the holes when the power goes out, possibly exposing your live rock and most likely floodingt he sump... run the returns over the back of the tank and put a siphon break in.

You could just plug the holes...
 
swnewbie22

swnewbie22

AC Members
Nov 30, 2007
8
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St. Pete, FL
woah....outputs, outputs, outputs lol....what about a return?

what exactly is a closed loop?
 
swnewbie22

swnewbie22

AC Members
Nov 30, 2007
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St. Pete, FL
the tank is close by, we're def going to go look at it before buying it. can minor scratches in acrylic be repaired?
 
swnewbie22

swnewbie22

AC Members
Nov 30, 2007
8
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St. Pete, FL
hmm...

do you think $475 is a good price for everything? he will probably take less, he wants to sell the tank as quickly as possible.
 
dorkfish

dorkfish

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Jul 25, 2005
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Windsor,Ontario,Canada
Output: output from a pump/pipe
return: plumbing that returns water from the sump to the display tank
Closed loop: A closed set of plumbing, involving a pump any number of outputs and usually only one intake, which pulls water from one body of water and then returns it to the same body of water.
 
swnewbie22

swnewbie22

AC Members
Nov 30, 2007
8
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0
St. Pete, FL
ok, so the intake on this tank would be the overflow, right? and if i were to use a closed loop system i would only need that one intake and the holes in the back would be used as returns? i was thinking that an output was the same thing as an intake.

Grins, we're going to start out with FOWLR and get the hang of caring for a saltwater tank. we'd like to eventually have a reef in this tank but not for awhile. i know that you reccommend waiting at least 6 months, a year being better.
 
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