Best maintenance system hook-up

[1slapnuts]

I'm a bit ahead of myself, but think within the next year I will be trying to do corals again. I completely failed last year, and gave up, and went to FOWLR. But I figure if I get the right set-up going, it should help me get it right. My worst downfall is the water changes, you have to admit on a 210, that is alot of water to change! Going to set-up in my 150 this time, and try out a refugium to help with the high nitrates I had before. I'm also going to commit to the water changes this time, which should be less after all the extra equipment listed here that I didn't have before. The high Nitrates never hurt any of my fish, but killed the heck out of my corals.

Here is my list of things I will need to buy/install into my 150 before getting any corals this time. My question is what order are they set-up in the cabinet, and what actually will sit in the sump? What does the overflow water go to first, next, last, ect? I would like the best possible order for as much maintenance free operation possible. OK, here is the list of everything that needs to be installed/bought if I can't transfer from my 210.

Aragonite/Southdown Sand (whenever I can find it)
Liverock (more)
Refugium/Sump (biggest that will fit in my cabinet)
In Line Pump (not sure what brand I will go with, trying to get away from the excess heat produced from my in-sump style)
Sump fan (to possibly eliminate need for chiller)
Mini grow light (for cheato)
Skimmer (rated at least for 250G, possibly 300+G)
Auto Top Off System (for maybe a 5 G bucket under cabinet)
Calcium Reactor
DeNitrifier
Wavemaker/4 powerheads/pumps
4 Canopy exhaust fans
transfer hallides (total of 675watts)
transfer actinics (about 80 watts)
Maybe a UV sterilizer, (not sure at this point if it would be better or worse to have).
Either a heater in tank, or a heater/chiller combo if sump fan can't keep tank cool enough.

My main question applies mostly to the whole sump set-up and where everything will need to go, and what I should buy first, second, third, based on importance to system.

Thanks for all your help in figuring this out right!

 

[waterfaller1]

The overflow should go directly to your protein skimmer, and this is one of the most important components. Don't skimp on a skimmer..get the best you can afford. The size pump you get, flow you need...depends on what type corals you intend to keep. Using a quality salt mix is also more important to corals than fish. Choose fish types that are'nt messy eaters, or need excessive amounts and feed healthy but sparingly. Get the right amount and variety of clean-up crew to help out.
The heater can be kept anywhere it is out of the way in the sump. I don't do denitrifiers, UV sterilizers, and don't recommend them on a reef tank. I run a heavy bio-load in my tank w/ a refugium and have 0 nitrates and PO4. Maintenance is still imperative to corals....additional equipment is nice to make things easier, but will not stop the need for water changes. Corals use elements that need to be replaced through dosing and/or water changes.
If you take your time and set it up right...go slow, you will do fine.

 

[orb]

here's what i'd do. 2nd on the biggest/best skimmer, and no uv. maybe you can get a skimmer where the drain goes right into it. the southdown can be replaced with slicate sand-many people use it with no problems, lots cheaper too. i use tropic marin salt, and so does my favorite lfs. if you design a sump-do the baffles right, to stop micro bubbles. instead of one big a$$ heater, get a few smaller ones that make up the correct wattage you need. that way you won't cook your tank...as fast, if one breaks. for topoff i use the osmolator, $$$, but is totally awesome. i'm switching it out for a parastaltic pump i got off ebay-i'm going to dose kalk from a 55 gal barrel with it soon. you could use one of those for topoffs. i got a lab grade pump worth 1000 bucks for 75 off there. search for masterflex. and i made my waterchange procedure easy-as i knew i wouldn't do it enough if it wasnt easy. i have some true unions right above my return pump to pump in/out the water-from a SW reservoir in the garage. no more siphoning/buckets for me.

 

[rdmpe]

Take your time on the plumbing setup and think everything through really well. I agree with Carole that the water from the tank should immediately hit the skimmer.

What I decided to do was feed my refugium (you WILL have a refugium right?) from a split off my return pump. That way I can control the flow in there and leaves me options for going to a bigger refugium or whatever down the road. Some people will run their water from the skimmer area - through the refugium - then to the pump area. But then your refugium flow is fixed at whatever your total sump flow is. In my case I didn't want that much flow in my fuge.

I use a UV and really like it personally. My tank has no lack of pods and such, I keep a lot of pod eaters with no trouble. UV is definitely one of those items that some people like and others don't.

 

[rdmpe]

I couldn't set up a permanently plumbed water change. But I wanted to make it as easy as possible. So I did rig up a drain that allows me to easily drain the tank to the outside of the house with no buckets or anything.

I also made a pump manifold that allows me to pump the old water out and then just turn a couple of valves to pump the new water in. That is here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8111970#post8111970

 

[1slapnuts]

all the info so far is great....but..... I still don't know where the best placements would be for the remaining items I listed.

So far I am getting that the water from the overflows should go directly to the skimmer first, a really good one, and then to the refugium, and then I am guessing the top off will fill to the refugium area?, I am still wondering where abouts the denitrifier and calcium reactor fit in?

I may or may not do the denitrifier, I will try some things first without it, but if I need it later, I will need to be able to hook it into my existing system, and it would help to preplan where that might work the best.

As for the silica sand in place of southdown....I thought that was a total NO-NO? Am I wrong in this? I thought silica basically poisons the tank? Others input greatly needed on this, as I have silica sand available at our Home Depot, but no southdown is brought there.

Thank you for your help!

 

[orb]

i don't currently have a silica sand bed currently, but my next tank will-and i'll just seed it with some of my current live sand. silica is discussed in this article by Randy Holmes Farly, who also has a forum here on Reef Central in the Chemistry forum if you'd like to ask him any questions.
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2003/feature.htm

as far as placing your denitrator or things you may like to add in the future (like a phophate reactor or carbon canister), you may like to try making a manifold like i did. it kind of looks like this,
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/8354/cid/2104

except on mine, i just glued some 1" T connectors, with the output side threaded, and connected these type of threaded connectors to it.
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=FT7355
the other end of it, i use flexible tubing with ball valves on the ends. i'm able to just turn them off if i don't need them.


i found some compression fittings online that were threaded, and i am able to plug in my ph monitor into one of the slots, the other one, i use for a phosphate reactor. you'd be able to put the denitrator in one if you needed to use it. they are all fed by my return pump, right before they go back up into the tank. this way i don't need a pump for each one, which could add to your tank temp.

also, i have my heaters on the last baffle right before my return pump.

 

[cschweitzer]

Silica sand, 99.99% of the time is fine to use in your tank. It CAN poison the tank, but the chance is extremely unlikely. I will always recommend aragonite sand, as it will not only take away chance of silica poisoning, but it buffers the water, as it is made of calcium carbonate. I also like the look of aragonite much more and the consistency of grain is a little larger in my opinion, which makes it a little nicer and allows more biological filtration from the microfauna growing in the sand bed. It is also a little better color usually in my opinion. The other items can be plumbed right into the sump, of course depending on the types of setups you bought. Wome will work inline, some external, so insump setups. It is a lot of trial and error to get your part working the way you want, but some tweaking will always have to be done at time of setup.

 

[1slapnuts]

I have been soooo busy........

I have been soooo busy........

I am very appreciative of all the info you guys have for me! I really want to do this thing right if and when I start it up again. I have been preoccupied most of the entire day with this thread that rdmpe posted for me. Of course I didn't find what I think I was suppose to find on the page that popped up, so I went to the VERY beginning, and all I can say is wow! What a long thread! I haven't even gotten through 12/2005 posts yet! LOL. But what I have read has definitely helped me out alot, along with all the replies posted with additional links that were very helpful as well! I'm sure that thread will keep me very busy for a couple more days...lol. But this is the very type of info I needed. A starting out, step-by-step, view and photos of how things should go, and trial by erors that can be fixed. Great stuff, and thanks for posting this for me rdmpe!

I also made a pump manifold that allows me to pump the old water out and then just turn a couple of valves to pump the new water in. That is here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...970#post8111970

 

[rdmpe]

I think you would be better off not starting with a calcium reactor. In my opinion it will add another tricky variable to your setup that you just don't need. The most straightforward way to get started is to just dose two-part by hand. You can always add a calcium reactor to your system later when it is demanding lots of calcium and bicarbonate due to the massive coral growth! But to start, Keep It Simple. Buy some two-part.

Same with the denitrifier. You just don't need one. A refugium with macro will take care of it. Especially if you also do regular water changes (which I admit I don't do). I also prefer a DSB but I'm not interested in debating it with anyone, so take it or leave it :lol:

liverock, skimmer, refugium, lights, hand dosing two part, lots of time, that's about all it takes, oh - and some salt water too

 

[rdmpe]

Oh - about that link - it takes you to the correct post but then when it loads all of the pictures it makes the page scroll away so you can't tell where the dang link was taking you. But if you let the whole page load, then go and click the link again, it will probably work because you'll already have all of the pictures ready to go when it loads that link the second time. That's my theory anyway