My first reef! Planning stage underway!

Guys, thanks so much for all the comments and kind words! I really appreciate the advice.

I haven't mapped out the exact layout of the baffles yet but I will be sure to create enough room for the skimmer. Unfortunately, I'm pretty limited in space in the room the tank will be set up in. I'm going to try to put the ATO resevoir outside the stand but everything else needs to fit inside. I'm a little worried that anything bigger than 40g will make it tough for me to work on things around the sump.

Speaking of skimmer... after a lot of tweaking, I made enough room in the budget to upgrade to the Reef Octopus SUPER SRO 2000INT. In order to make room, I changed by dry rock and sand. I now plan on using 50# of liverock from Saltwaterfish.com and 100lbs of dry rock from Reefrocks.net. They offer 40lbs of their livesand for buying 25lbs of dry rock. Nice deal.

I've also received this suggestion several times... changed to two single reactors rather than the dual.

Man, I know... I struggled with this. That $500 would go a long way in other gear or even some nice corals when I'm up and running. But... the controller piece is pretty high on my list of things that have me excited about the hobby. Since I'm doing DIY LEDs, i'd still have to invest in a controller for them. At the very least I'd need to buy power strips and timers seperately. I think just for my own personality, I'd rather invest in the controller and if need be, drop to a 90g tank setup if I REALLY run into budget issues.

This is another piece of advice I've heard multiple times. I've changed things around to go with 3 Koralia Evolution 1400s. I was debating between the 3 1400s vs 2 Koralia 5s. The Koralia Magnum 5 pumps put out 1650gph for $86 each while the 1400s are $50 a piece. Since I'll be running these on an on/off style wavemaker, I figured that at any given time I'd have one of the powerheads off and the other's on. So my thought was by using 3 powerheads rather than 2, I would always have 2 on at a time thereby increasing overall flow rate. Seem right?

Also, a new wrinkle... I did some checking and absolutely every outlet in my living room are all on the same 15amp breaker. Sucks! Based on my current build, I figured out that I would be using about 11amps. I'm going to need a new breaker. I'll have to add that into my budget as well. Plan on adding a dedicated outlet to the room on it's own 20a GFI breaker. Need to get an estimate on what this will cost before moving forward.

Not including the new breaker and outlet, my budget is currently sitting at $4725. Again, this is before coral and fish so when you add in the cost for electrical work I'm out of money

So I'm trolling Craiglist at the moment seeing if I can find some good deals on some used stuff.

Thanks again folks for the great feedback!

 

Oh, forgot to answer this one... no, I don't plan to use socks. Depending on the space I have left in the sump when I lay it out, I'm going to try to integrate a 2" media chamber preceding the last chamber of the sump for a sponge filter. Seems those are a bit easier to maintain.

 

In this case, if you know anything at all about computer programming (or at least not scared of it!) I highly recommend getting a Reef Angel. Out of the box it will control 8 outlets, 2 of which are dedicated to wavemakers, 3 for lighting (daylights, actinics, and 'fuge), ATO (comes with floats, so it will activate the outlet your ATO pump is plugged into when needed), heater (comes with a temp probe), and one for the return pump (always on, except when you select Feeding and/or water change mode, I can't remember). It also has either 0-10V or PWM control built in (2, so you can dim daylights vs. actinics separately for example. Plus it comes with a pH probe.

From there, you can upgrade as needed, but everything mentioned is out of the box! Just my opinion of course, as there are plenty of other options out there.

Yes, see above. With my Reef Angel, I put the wavemaker outlets on a random timer. So each outlet will go on for between 15-60 seconds, and then off for the same amount of time. But they are independent so at any time neither outlets could be on, one, or both. You could either put two on the same outlet and one on the other so that at any time you could have either 0, 1, 2, or 3 or you can just put 1 on each outlet so that you would always have 1 on, and then either 2 or 3 on. I like option A, as it really changes up the flow in the tank!

And...now I just re-read your first post and saw you were planning on Apex. Hopefully some of the info is still helpful.

11A just from the build? Or total based on what you already run?

You can get some awesome deals used, especially on a tank break down!

 

Nope, 11A just from the build... that wouldn't include all the other stuff I already run in the living room (including 80" DLP TV which has a pretty big draw by iteself!)

That's why, to be safe, I figured I'd do a dedicated circuit for the tank. I'm planning the build without a chiller right now but as time passes, if I find I need to add one, I have to make sure I have room on the breaker.

 

Wow! I don't know what I am missing, but I just added up everything you listed (assuming a 250W heater) and I am around 5.5A (~630 watts) if everything is running at once. This doesn't include the consumption of the controller itself, but I can't imagine it is anything crazy.

More curious than anything...

 

Im running all of this on two wall sockets that goes to a 15 amp breaker:
Reeflow dart
MAg 1800
Mag 1200
sedra 3500
2x rios
chiller
3 heaters totaling about 1000 watts
reefkeeper lite
5x ecoray led fixtures
2x koralia mag 5's
bubble blaster pump
3x 18w CFL.

Never tripped a breaker nor has my old aluminum wiring exploded.
My electric bill for the tank alone is about 150 a month... I keep getting letters from Edison saying I consume too much power. They prob think i'm growing marijuana.

 

Yeah no, I screwed up in my initial total... I was adding in a header and pumps from my water station which would be on a different circuit. With my new parts list, here's where I stand for power:

Mag 12 return pump: 110w
Heaters (2 250w Jager heaters): 500w
Lights (4 60w drivers for LEDs): 240w
Skimmer Pump: 30w
Reactor pumps: 40w
Powerheads: 18w
Refugium Light: 40w

Gives me a total of 978w or 8.15A. I assume this is a "worst case" estimate with everything kicking on at the same time.

Certainly not as bad as I thought but enough to still make me nervous.