My 210 gallon plan so far...

Just making sure; your RO system does have a DI canister as well? Is that the "glass thing that has sand in it"? I would still make sure it was coming out at 0 TDS before using it. And don't run the RO/DI line directly into the tank. Instead, run it into a small container with a float valve and use a small pump to fill the sump using the controller.

And I have never had a jawfish yet, but I plan to soon. The two main things with them is that they are big time jumpers; every 1/4" of the tank needs to be covered! Second, they are very shy/timid and I don't think do to well in a tank with lots of fast swimming (tangs & angels) fish. But someone with more experience could follow up on that.

 

And for sand, I am a big fan of the reefrocks.net sand. If you buy dry rocks from them, you can get as much sand as you want for $15/40 lbs. It is definitely on the finer side, but you won't have much blowing around after the first day or two. And its great for sand sifting creatures

 

Well the room this tank would go in has no water so I cannot put a R/O unit as close as I would like to. What I was thinking was whenever the water gets low just run a line to the refugium and than when it's filled I would have to ravel it up and hide it under the cabinet. I cannot figure a way to run a line that would be concealed. I was thinking of getting Caribbean live sand it's pretty fine, not sugar sand but close.

 

You only need 1/4" tubing I run one line through a wall for my 55, and another through the basement and up the floor of my living room for my 28. You can get 25' of tubing for $3 from HD.

You can do live sand if you really want, but if you are going to use live rock it seems to be not necessary. Up to you though.

 

The tubing price isn't the problem. There is a way i could run it but, it is very roundabout and there are 2 doors that may make it a problem.

 

I have a 210 gallon tank and don't need a chiller. Although one came with the tank I have never needed it only a heater. Also for RO's you don't really need anything crazy a 75 GPD is fine except for the initial setup lol. I have a 150 GPD and it works great, but it's not like I'm setting up a new tank every day and wish I had gone smaller..might have less overflow accidents lol.

How are you going to set up your sump? Is it going to have a refugium?

 

Yes it will be a refugium. I'm not sure exactly what I will do with it, but y'all may have ideas. Is there any a particular set up you would recommend for the refugium? Meaning the way I would set up the partitions....probably something like this

 

About the chiller. I know it is not ideal but, the only room I can put the tank in is a Sun room Fortunately the windows are tinted so I hope that would help with algae, I also am planning on having a large amount of tangs. I will probably get some kind of shade for the windows across from the tank. The room does not have much traffic which is good. Temperature control may be a problem, but the room does have it's own A/C and heater.

 

So I have a question since the mp40's have their own controllers and the reefbreeder's have their own controllers, would I need a any separate controllers. If i did add the T5's would a simple timer do or should I get a control for those. I want the system to be very self sufficient. Although the Lifeguard is not a controller, but a monitor I think it is a very worthy addition. I saw digital aquatics also makes a control module that controls and monitors and you can add probes to measure water parameters.