120 gallon tank equipment questions

Statman said:

I also posted this on another fish forum because Im looking for as many answers as I can get. So if you read other fish forums this post may look familiar. =]
<<We all love a variety of answers >>

I need help planning out my product purchases for my upcoming tank. The tank is either a 120 or 125 gallon tank, I cant remember which.
The dimensions are 60L x 18W x 26H.
<<120 Gallons>>
I also plan on putting a 20 gallon refugium underneath, that is as big as my stand will allow.
<<Its a shame you cant go bigger really with a 120gal display>>

I plan on having fish, live rock, and whatever corals my lighting will support. Since i have 60 inchs to cover, im looking at two 30in lights, and they seem to be a rarity as im having a hard time finding them. Ive been looking at t5's in that range but as i said they seem to be hard to find.
<<Depending on your canopy, you could always do a retro-fit T5>>

Also I have zero knowledge at all on skimmers, can somone point me in the right direction here? I plan on hiding it in the refugium so it needs to be able to fit nicely in a 20 gallon.
<<Due to the size of your sump tank, an in-sump skimmer is going to use up too much room, so i would recomend a hang on skimmer, something like the Aqua C Remora with pump upgrade, or Tunze 9005>>
And speaking of refugium, with my tank specs can somone tell me what sort of gear I need to run this? Mainly the pump an all that jazz, also any recomendations on where to get an overflow box from?
<<For the refugium itself, sand - live rock rubble - macro algae - about 50 - 60w lighting, for the plumbing, something like an overflow box rated at 800GPH and return pump at the same size (after head loss)..I feel it's best not to go for a faster overflow box due to the size of the sump. Overflow boxes can be purchased from BigAls, Marine Depot to name a couple.>>

Im going to run koralia's for the flow, but not really sure how many I should use.
<<For flow, you want to be somewhere in the region of 3000GPH (25 x water circulation), so 2 Koralia #3's and a #4 would be good. The is no set rule for placement as every tank is different. What you need to achieve is some disruptive flow and surface water agitation, so, keep that in mind when placing them.>>

Also any idea how many bags of sand I will need to purchase? Anything else im missing other than heaters, sand, salt, and water?

<<Sand is about 1lb per gallon, to give you about a 1 inch deep sandbed, and aragonite sugar grade reef sand is a great choice, made by Caribsea.


Thanks in advacne ;p

Click to expand...

Statman said:

Will this fixture provide enough lighting for most coral types? Also does anyone have any experience with this brand? By the way, i'd be getting the 60 inch version.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12779&pcatid=12779

Click to expand...