help me choose my sump/refuge size

I am in the planning stage of building my 150g reef tank. I would like to use one of the tanks I have laying around to build my sump/refuge out of so im not wasting money buying something I already have.

as I said I am still in the planning stage but as of now I plan on having 4 sections to the sump. skimmer, bio balls, return section with heater, and refuge in that order from left to right. It will have two inlets on either side feeding both the skimmer and the refuge.

I will work out all the build details later, my question now is what you you guys suggest using as my sump tank. Im sure any of them will work but with the brief description above which would be the best choice.

I have the following tanks to choose from

40g breeder
75g
90g

let me know what you guys think!

 

Personally I would go with the 75. If they are standard dimentions the 75 and 90 should have the same footprint just one is taller? The extra height of the 90 really wouldn't add that much of a benefit over the 75 imo.

 

+1 on the 75

 

75g would give plenty of room for what ever you want to run.

90g would give more room for emergencies and drain back. You do not need to run a sump fuge deep, but all that extra room at top wcan hold a lot of water if need be.

I would probably go with the 75g and just make sure drain back is held to a minimum.

Also, the bio balls are completely uneccessary in a reef tank. Skimmer/return/fuge. Make the return bigger if you want to run reactors in if you want. You have plenty of room to do what you want.

 

it doesn't look like the 75g (or 90g) will fit in my stand, so this brings me to my next question.

Is the extra room in the 75 worth building a new stand for, or will the 40 do just fine?

keep in mind that im a carpenter so building a new stand is not a big deal at all. Im just wondering if it's worth the extra effort when I already have so much to do to this new tank. Im in no hurry to get it done but I can't let this project consume my life either.

 

Well obviously that is subjective... but I can tell you my experience. I had a 60g on my 90g... neccessary no, but nice. Basically a 36" 90g. you woul dbe suprised how quick the realestate gets taken up. With just a 40g sump/fuge... you will run into a lot of problems getting a big enough skimmer to fit, and a decent fuge. And that 40g breeder will be shallow and limit drain back. It will be tough getting it all to fit.

 

well thats all I needed to hear on that. Ill be building a new stand to house my 75g. It will be much easier to build a new stand now and design it especially for what I need then it will be try to fix all the problems it seems I will run into later on from having to small of a sump.