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Tank Set Up - Sump in garage, LED lighting


jrsimank

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I am trying to get our tank back up and running. When we moved we upgraded from the 180g to a 400g. We had it running for a few months but between work and a new baby it got put on the back burner and has been a snail cemetery for the past year. I'm tired of looking at an empty tank and really want to get it up and going again. My husband is the one who has set our tanks up in the past and I've just maintained them, but he is super busy with work so it's pretty much just me getting this thing running again.

Right now I am working on getting the water parameters stabilized. I'm going to start simple with just fish for now then add some soft corals later. The sump is set up in the garage. I'm not running the lights right now and the water is pretty chilly so I need to get the heater hooked up too. The plan is to switch out the MHs for LED and am hoping that will help me not to have to hook up a chiller for the summer.

So I'm wondering, who else runs their sump in their garage? This is the first tank we've had set up this way. I'm interested in what others experiences are with a similar set up. I don't want to fry my tank when it warms up.

Also, what advice/experience do you have on the LED lighting?

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What's the sump volume you're considering keeping in the garage? The reason I ask is, you may be able to get a fair bit of evaporative cooling going via fans, however you'll be putting tools/cars at risk from rusting with the salty air. You may be working against yourself by keeping the sump in the garage, as opposed to keeping the sump inside and simply running evaporative cooling *inside* with the chiller outside and LEDs to keep the temps down.

It also is going to depend on the temperature that you keep your house at, as to how much heating/cooling you're going to have to do to the water.

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I'll have to get back to you on the exact size of the sump. It's pretty good size tho... 4 chamber, maybe 4'x18". Everything is already set up and full of water and rock so I am pretty much stuck with the sump set up in the garage... ohh yes, I have already had the joy of dealing with rusting tools and the humidity in the garage. But we don't keep the cars in the garage so that hasn't been an issue. My husband has talked about building a cover for the sump that would seal it to keep the humidity down out there.

Usually keep the house around 76-78* in the summer.

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Is your sump already plumbed in the garage? I would tend to agree with Victoly using evaporative will work better with the lower and often dryer inside temperatures than the outside temperatures. If you already have the system plumbed in the garage i wouldn't change everything to to have the sump inside. One disadvantage I usually run into is fan noise. Having the sump in the garage fan noise should be moot. 12 vdc box/muffin fans are much quieter if they are run at 7, 8, or 9 volts but there is reduced airflow.

Regarding LED lights one problem I'm seeing is LED fixtures with fans are located much closer to the water surface and there is an issue with salt spray getting into the units as well as fans getting pretty dirty and are not easy to clean. There are fixtures (like ARC sponsor BuildMyLED.com) on the market that use passive cooling but in an enclosed hood fans should still be used to ventilate the hood.

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Timfish - Yes the sump is already plumbed. I have been looking at BML for lighting already, just need to get rid of my 3 MH first. I'll look into installing some hood fans too.

Thanks for your input guys.

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We have never actually used the chiller it just came with the new set up, so it's not hooked up right now. But I might see about doing that just in case. Because I reallly don't want to lose my tank once I get it going again.

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