recommendations for my new tank =)

hi all

i'm going to custom make my tank soon, need help on the design of the sump, as i have never had one before ;D this will be an upgrade for my current 22 gallon, set up for 3 months!

i'm hoping for a more natural system if possible, can i make a big refugium with lots of chaeto in it ( say 2 feet long ) to remove my nitrates and phosphates, are they sufficient? and if i dont plan on sps, is 2 x 150w MH enough?




ps. i've attached a design of my tank as well, it'll be pretty similiar to the attached picture ( the 61 inch length design )

 

The refugium should be perfectly fine. Cheato is a great, hardy macro algae and there is a very small risk of it going asexual and reproducing throughout your tank. Whose tank is the top picture? It looks amazing.

 

Lighting would depend on how deep the tank is, really. What are the dimensions you are thinking of?
A nice big refugium would be cool. If you want something around 2', maybe go with the good old 20 gallon long (they are 30"). Cheap tank that is easily available.

 

hmm the dimensions are actually in the pdf file? it's actually a 5 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet, but the right part of the tank, ( like 6 inch width ) will be covered as the overflow would be there. so the length of the tank that you can view is actually 4.5 feet.. i'm wondering if i can use 8 x 54 watt T5s over it. it's a custom made giesemann fixture. with individual reflectors, would that be enough for anemones , softies and LPS? ;D

 

alright, coz i don't really wanna put nitrate reactors and phosphate reactors, just refugium, filter floss and skimmer in my sump, it's my LFS's display tank, should be 7 feet long, a really nice tank ;D

 

I think the 8x54w T5s would work, the problem with the halides is that generally, you need one for every two feet of tank, so you would have a darker area in the tank. Plus, 150w MH I don't think would cut it for that size tank.

 

I have a 20 gallon long sump/fuge for my 90g. It works OK. I wish I would have gone for the 30 gallon (it is 36 inches long). Would have given me more room. Chaeto is good. Gives you the option of reverse lighting. You can also go Caupera....probably a better choice for NO3 reduction, but you need 24/7 lighting in order to keep it from going sexual. Chaeto is tougher. Fern Caulpera is tougher than Grape. Grape is really tweeky stuff man.

 

alright, my LFS said she'll custom the largest sump possible for my cabinet apparently. what about water circulation? how many powerheads of what power is needed for my size tank? the corals i currently have, likes low flow actually

 

The flow from the sump to display tank should, IMO be around 5 to 7 times total water
volume. By the book is 10x, but I think that is too high. I run 7x.

Within the tank, the flow is much higher and depends on the type of corals you keep. With softies and LPS, I would keep water flow somewhere in the neighborhood of 50x the DT water volume (I run around 52x). In SPS tanks, it's not unheard of to run 80x to more than 100x, an environment that would lay waste to softies and LPS.

 

alright, i guuess my water volume after rocks and stuff would be 400 , so a return pump of 2500 l/ h would be sufficient. i'm planning to add a carpet anemone to my tank in the future, do they require MH lightings or will thoose T5s be good enough?