I need help deciding what to buy!!!!

ok, so I decided to upgrade my system to a 120 gallon pre-drilled tank. I want to do a system similar to my 90 gallon bow but need help deciding a few things!
(1) how do u decide flow rate when your purchasing pumps? (if I decide to do a wet/dry again?)
(2) If it's a 120 gallon then what size sump should I be researching?
(3) I would like to go energy efficient but I want to do a reef tank. can I do this without a metal halide? if so what can you recommend? I'm really excited about this but I want to get all the right stuff little by little...
Thanx

 

I recently had an All Glass 120 gal with overflows. I used a mag 1200 in the sump and I didn't have to but I used 2 korelia 4's for the length and 2 korelia 2's on the back wall. That might have been overkill but the flow wasn't overwhelming but kept a nice current in the tank.

 

I'd go with a mag12 for a return or even better a nice external like an iwaki, As far as lighting if you went t5 check out tek fixtures or ati sunpower or powermodules.

 

t5-ho lighting works fine you dont need MH in my opinion but i do encourage you to explore the cost difference. ive been researching lighting on my 75gal and ive been finding some good deals on metal halide on craigslist

on a 120gal, dependent on the height of the tank, you may need an 8x54W fixture to penetrate. dunno tho from lack of experience.

 

yeah, i know but metal halide is cheaper to buy but more expensive long-term to operate!
Thats why I thought paying more for the t5's and making it cheaper to operate. keep in mind that any
light that is selected has to be kept on at least 8 hrs a day!
But thanx!!!

 

I would only do about 5x the display tank volume through the sump so I would only go with maybe a Mag 9 or Ocean Runner 3500 return pump or something like that.

The sump size, I would get the biggest one you can fit under your stand keeping in mind you want to fit a skimmer in there, and you want to be able to take the skimmer cup off easily. You also may want to store some stuff under the stand as well or save room for a carbon reactor or and ATO reservoir or something like that. As big as you can and accomodate everything else you want.

What type of corals do you want to keep and will you have a canopy or do you need a fixture?
T5 retrofit kits are some of the best quality for the money IMO. If you want to keep SPS I would go with 8 T5's, if you don't, 6 bulbs should be fine. 4 bulbs you could get by with but you would have to be more careful about your placement and might find it hard to keep higher light corals unless you group them up underneath all the bulbs.

Something like this would work great, and would even keep some SPS but you probably couldn't do an SPS dominated tank, but could definitely keep some higher up and under the bulbs. Keep in mind it comes with high quality bulbs as well which is worth about $130 alone.
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5...put_Retrofit_Kit_w!_Bulbs_by_AquaIllumination
Otherwise here's a good fixture.
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5...ixture_w!_Bulbs_(Graphite)_by_Sunlight_Supply

Of course if you're looking for used I can't help ya there but there may be some good MH options as well, I prefer T5 personally.