Modular Design plumbing help needed

About ten years ago I kept a 10 gallon nano that was grossly overstocked. Somehow I managed to stumble through an keep it alive for 18 months. Unfortunately I had to deploy for a short work up of two weeks. At that time my roommate was taking care of it and neglected to close the shades in the house during that day. Long story short, I came home to cyano and brown slime.

Well I'm ready to try again. I'm starting a bit bigger this time around. Looking at the seaclear rectangular 29 junior executive kit from petco. The price is right, the dimensions fit my shelves. I am going acrylic because I will be building my system modularly. My first tank is going to be my display tank. It will be drilled, and plumbed to connect to a future fuge. All the modules will be built around the 29 gallon acrylic tanks each tailored to the livestock inhabiting them.

My display tank

I'm highly considering the following hardware.
Ecotech battery backup ( expanded as needed )
Ecotech radion xr30w
Ecotech VorTech mp10w ES
Eheim compact+ 2000
unsure of my heater needs yet
I will be using 20-25lbs of live rock and 20-25lbs maybe more of live sand for biological filtration.

Initially my nutrient export will be via weekly cleanings and water changes. By the time my dt has completed its cycle I'll have put together a second 29 gallon tank as a fuge containing more LR and LS as well as chaeto and an alge turf scrubber.

I've yet to decide on my livestock, my wife likes the bright and different looking coral. I figure the light spread @ 18" will give me a lot of options for coral of all types / lighting requirements. The mp10 should be able to provide enough turnover and the eheim compact + 2000 will feed the fuge which will be where I grow my pods , snail, and shrimp. My third tank is one special to me. It will be yet another 29gal acrylic to house an O. scyllarus.

Each of these tanks will be setup modular to daisy chain enabling further expansion. I figure the expanding volume of water as well as the ability to keep different species separated can be beneficial. I will have a smaller tank setup with the basics as a QT. the modularity will allow me to build my system in stages. Granted it will always be utilitarian in styling, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Thoughts, suggestions, criticism all welcomed.

 

Sounds like a good plan, I would get a Radion. There are other LED's that are just as nice for far less. What corals are you looking to keep? ( LPS, SPS, Softies, NPS )

 

I haven't decided . Basically I will be taking my daughter and wife to my LFS and they will each pick one and I will have him hold them for me while I research the needs and behaviors and make an informed decision before I commit. I am trying to build a system capable of sustaining sps, lps, zoas, and so on. Not going to impulse buy. I am looking at the ecotech line because my LFS carries it, other than the premium price I've yet to hear a bad thing about the lineup. I believe you get what you pay for. Lastly I would rather support a local establishment rather than an Internet based business or big box store.

I'm looking at the Eheim Jäger heaters, 100w for each tank in the system. From my time on the ocean I know redundancy and over engineering is a good thing.

The Eheim compact+ 2000 has 3/4" inlet and outlet , pretty much sets my supply line size, my return will be based on the static head pressure of the fuge, er well the top inches of it, I figure gravity will be the power for the return, my return lines will be redundant for each tank will I be okay running dual 3/4" returns for each 3/4" supply line?

 

I'm looking for suggestions for fish for the dt. Preferably reef safe fish, no tangs or gobies that solely live on pods ( perhaps in the future for the mandarin ) I plan on having a 29 gallon fuge for each display tank to grow food sources. ( shrimp and snails for my peacock mantis shrimp, and pods for a single mandarin once I have 2 or more fuges setup and breeding pods.

My wife saw a flame scallop in the LFS this weekend and thought it was the coolest.

 

Mandarins are actually dragonets. Most gobies tht eat pods mostly eat algae, and flame scallops have bad survival rates and are hard to keep IIRC. I recommend ...
clownfish, mostly smaller species
dartfish & firefish
fang blennies
shrimp gobies
basslets
assessors
etc

 

Thank you for your suggestions I truly appreciate them. I do like the fire fish and gobies. I had a green clown goby in my first nano. Very interactive and personable little fella. ( come to think, this tank will start out a nano, however by the time I get my O.scyllarus habitat setup and plumbed in I'll have about 75-80 gallons of actual water volume total. Not really going to qualify as a nano after that.) by the time my second fuge is setup I'll be looking at 100gallons +.

 

I'm looking for quick disconnects similar to ones found on newer canister filters. If those aren't readily available a good globe valve setup that won't leak is high on my list. Any suggestions? I'll be using nylon reinforced 3/4" flexible tubing for my plumbing.

Any suggestions?

 

Here are my thoughts on how I would like to plumb the modules together. The flow between modules is merely for system circulation. Each tank will have a powerhead(s) to create the flow needed by the inhabitants. I'm shooting for 10x flow circulation for the system as a whole. This will be kind of a closed loop system beings the tanks do not drain to a single sump. The flow path will be : Display Tank > Pump > Fuge > Mantis Tank > Return to display tank.

Originally I had considered using 3/4" flexible PVC hose to plumb everything with. I've since decided to go with 1" plumbing to help avoid any possible restrictions as the system grows. Each tank will be outfitted with 2-1" bulkheads per end for a total of 4 bulkheads per tank. The tank interconnects will have ball valves enabling me to close off tanks for removal from system or manually bypassing via jumpering it out of the system. Y adapters will be installed at the system supply and return points.

How close to corners and edges can I drill an acrylic tank for bulkheads?

 

Hmmm 110 views and no one wants to touch this subject. Lol

No sweat. I'll be pushing forward and researching as I go. Just thought I'd bounce the ideas off the community to see if anyone had any knowledgeable input towards my proposed design. I know it isn't a traditional setup and is slightly unorthodox in design.

 

Hey Nubcake.

Perhaps edit and change the title of your thread to attract those with experience on sump design and plumbing.

Wish I could help, but my head spins when I even look at PVC.

To edit the title, choose the edit option in the right hand corner of the post, then "Go Advanced" that will allow you to edit the title.

Good luck