Help setting up new aquarium

[Viceroy]

Hello I just purchased a new 120 gallon saltwater aquarium and I've been looking for help on how to set up the equipment. I have an Aqua-C skimmer, chiller, 3 pumps (Iwaki mag drive MD-100RLT, WMD-40RLT, MD-55RLT). All of them are external pumps and the previous owner used one as a sump, one to run the skimmer, and one to run the chiller. I'm looking for some help if anybody is interested. I would be willing to pay. Got a box full of extra equipment too

 

[jcook54]

There are a few folks who could probably help but you might be better served by reaching out to a store and having them hook everything up and get the stuff running. If I were in your shoes and wanted to get everything set up in one go, I'd call Classic City Aquarium and get a price. I say this because typically when I set up a system I set the tank, sump and return and get things maturing. I'll then add once piece at a time as needed so the entire job can be spread out over months. External is a good way to go but a lot of times it can be more involved.

Where are you at in the process at this point? The first step would be a good cleaning if you haven't done that yet. Citric Acid from Amazon is how I do it.

 

[Viceroy]

There are a few folks who could probably help but you might be better served by reaching out to a store and having them hook everything up and get the stuff running. If I were in your shoes and wanted to get everything set up in one go, I'd call Classic City Aquarium and get a price. I say this because typically when I set up a system I set the tank, sump and return and get things maturing. I'll then add once piece at a time as needed so the entire job can be spread out over months. External is a good way to go but a lot of times it can be more involved.

Where are you at in the process at this point? The first step would be a good cleaning if you haven't done that yet. Citric Acid from Amazon is how I do it.

Thank you for the advice! I'll call them to see how much it would cost. Trying to not break the bank of setup costs. I have started cleaning everything, currently building the stand. Do you recommend citric acid over something like vinegar (already did some cleaning with vinegar).

 

[jcook54]

Vinegar used to be the standard as far as breaking down calcified material and salt creep. It still works well but a lot of folks have switched over to using citric acid. You can buy the stuff by the pound on Amazon. I switched a few years ago and find it works better and is a lot less smelly. Citric acid is supposed to be gentler on rubber and silicone but that's "knowledge" I picked up from the internet and I don't have any facts or research to back that up. In my experience it works a lot faster than vinegar because you can increase the concentration depending on what you're doing. You can do the same thing with vinegar I suppose but I was always one of those guys that threw in some water, some vinegar and just went for it without paying attention to the ratio.