75 gallon set-up help

re:

one down, one up. Look at the way my picts are.

 

I would have 1 overflow line going down behind the tank. Use a "T" fitting in PVC to divert the single line to go to both the refugium and the skimmer section. One return line should go back to the display tank from your return pump.

 

ok, i got it, and couple more questions and i believe ill know everything i need to at this stage....

1-what do i put in the refugium
2-all all goes in a sump (rock, sand, bio balls, foam sponges)
3-700 gph overflow means 700 gph return pump?
4-does the refugium just overflow into the sump and get pumped back into the tank then?
5-i put wave maker blowing good clean water towards rock in direction of over flow box?
6- do i need a light on a refugium? if so what kind
7- what are best lights for corals, mushrooms, coralline algae

 

Sumps are usually designed to hold extra equipment and such to clear up space in the Display tank. If you are planning on having your sump and refuregium combined. then I would suggest doing a T on your line down to the sump. One would put water into the skimmer chamber, it would be cleaned there, then it would travle through the baffles up to the return pump. The other chamber would house your macro algea (chaeto usually) that would clean the water and then it would flow into the chamber with the return pump. I would stay away from bioballs completely, as for the sponge you can do that but make sure it gets cleaned out and maintained so it doesnt become a nitrate trap.

For the lights and corals .. usually any standard plant daylight bulb 6500k usually works for a sump ... As for corals it ranges to what you want. Most soft corals can stay under standard PC light and lower amounts of T5 lighting.

As for the future, before you buy a light fixture for your display tank, look at the corals you want to keep and type of setup you want. Do you want Soft Corals, Non Photosynthetic Corals (no light, usually harder to maintain), Large Polyped Stony Corals, or Small Polyped Stony Corals. The light needs very for those corals. And nothing sucks more then having to pay for multiple light fixtures!

 

that helped a lot i thought corals in general just needed certain light, guess i got lucky before, lol....as for bio balls, whats wrong with them? i hear they were supposed to be super great.....here is a new diagram i just made that i believe is correct now...idk what chaeto algae is or what it looks like...this is where i am at, THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! YOU ARE HELPING ME SO MUCH AND ARE VERY PATIENT WITH MY LACK OF KNOWLOEDGE, LOL

 

Bioballs tend to trap stuff which building up degrades and creates the whole nitrogen cycle, which makes ammonia and nitrate and nitrite, cause of the rotting material, you want to avoid that lol. Most people if you use the 3reef search bar and search bioballs, alot of issues are had with them.

as for the what goes here on your diagram, Um anything you want i guess, that sump is settup the same mine is, however I do not have anything in the baffles. I run my skimmer, chaeto, probes and heater down in my sump besides my return pump and thats it!

 

ok, yea id throw my heater in the last baffle closest to the pump.....can i put live sand in there? along with some live rock AND chaeto algae??

as for the refugium.....what goes in that????

 

You can put chaeto rock and sand in the chaeto chamber, thats kinda a mini refurgium,

Or the option is to have another tank. which some do as a Display, Growing all sorts of other kinds of macro algae's and even putting fish in there with the algae.

 

cat wanted to be part of the return chamber.

 

In the refugium, you want aragonite (Dead sand) and cheato in it. Yes you do need a light over it to help the cheato grow, any light you can get at walmart will work for that. You want a slow flow going to it, controled by a ball valve. It will overflow into your pump return area. The protein skimmer goes in the other compartment. You will need a bigger pump to return the water to your tank. It depends on the height the pump has to push the water. I have a rio 2800ss, and a pf800gph overflow box. At 4ft high, the pump will pump 642gph. My overflow will pump up to 800gph. I have a ball valve at the end of my pump to slow it down. You want atleast a 4 bulb t5 light for your tank, there are alot of different ones to choose from. Any other questions?