Need help planning my new setup.

I just purchased a 240 gal acrylic tank. 8'x24"x24". I will be using a 40 gal DIY sump / Fuge. The guy I bought the tank from said he had it set up as a closed loop system. I did not know what that was so I researched it on 3reef and I now know enough to be dangerous. Here are the items I am planing on using for equipment. Yet I am open for any suggestions.

1. aqua C EV-240 skimmer.
2. 72 Inch 8x39 Watt AquaticLife T5 HO Light Fixture w/ 6 Lunar LEDs
3. Reeflow pump. I'm just not sure what size I need?
4. To control my electrical I am going to use two of these. PC-08

I guess my biggest hurdle is the closed loop plumbing. There are two 1.5" and three 1" bulkhead holes below the overflow(see pic). There are also six 1" bulkhead holes on the top of the tank. One in each top corner and one on each side of the center overflow. In the hole on top of the tank do I plumb the return water in that way?

Thank you in advance for any advise. And if you know a good thread or website which will show me how to plumb this that would be great.

 

You might want to go bigger on that sump/fuge. I have a 90gal with a 40gal sump/fuge. As for the lighting, what do you plan on having for corals? You might want to go MH.

 

Thanks for the advise. I am only going to have soft corals. The tank I have now has PC lights and they work great, but I wanted to try this light system since it has the built in timer. I was wondering about the size of the sump. What is the pros / cons of having a bigger or smaller sump?

 

I know there has to be someone out there who wants to help me with this. Please

 

I suggest you check out http://www.oceansmotions.com/ Besides selling a great flow diverter for closed loop systems they have a forum on there. I'm pretty sure that you can get specific closed loop design help from these guys to aid you in incorporating their product into your system.

I seem to recall that Otty has an OM-4 in his set-up.

 

Thanks I'm looking at the site now!

 

+1 on bigger sump fuge. On my 200 I am going with a 75 gallon sump and a separate 20 long fuge. I might even go bigger with the fuge.
The pro's are increased water volume, increased room for equipment, and increased filtering efficiency. The cons are... nothing really. Not that I can think of You will definitely want a bigger sump. That skimmer will just barely fit in a 40. Not going to leave much room for anything else

 

Oh, and here is a big K+ for the rack mount power center. I have two or three of those laying around from old guitar amp set-ups. Never even thought of using them, they would have such a nice clean look. One of the coolest ideas I have seen in a while. Excellent idea dude.

 

Thanks for the replies. I wish I had come up with the rack mount power center on my own. A local Las Vegas reefer came up with it I saw it on a thread on this site Las Vegas Valley Reefers, the reef club for all marine hobbyists in Southern Nevada

I guess what I could do for the sump is wait to find a tank of 60 + gal on craigslist and use my 40 gal for the fuge. I have been working all weekend on refinishing the the stand. It had some bad gaps in the wood and needed a new paint job. Anyways thanks again. I'll find the link to the power center thread and post it in a different thread.