Building a 180L with Tunze Streams

[hambalid]

Hi,

I'm in the process of building a new 180L ( 72"x24"x24") which will host predominantly SPS, but there will be a 12" elegance coral, 10" carpet and several rose anemones and polyps. The tank will have a 4" DSB (sugar fine sand), and the live rock will be shaped predominantly into two islands centered around the 1/3rd and 2/3rd's mark measuring from the of the front of the tank (but this is subject to change).

I'm thinking about putting in two 6100's with the multicontroller. The two streams would be at opposite end of the tank. I'm a bit concerned, though, that the strong current may blow my elegance and anemone's around too much.

Given the cross sectional area of this tank, how high should I place something like a 6100, and should my rock work incorporate some form of grotto for the non-sps specimens? Should the Streams blow directly against each other or at glancing blows to each other? Have other hobbyists had sucess with a similar setups and specimens in the tank?

At this point, I have only purchased the new tank and lighting, but have not filled the tank, nor purchased sand. Are there any best practices that should be followed regarding sand and the Stream product?

Thanks!

dan.

 

[rvitko]

I generally advise against sugar sized sands and the Stream pumps, this fine sand tends to make it into just about every pump and cause some headaches down the road. I would use 2mm Aragonite Sand- the coarser stuff. In general people don't use both pumps on a 180 simultaneously rather they alternate one pump on then the other using the tide mode of the multicontroller. Being electronically variable you can dial in the flow rate to suit your needs. Their are several Stream users on this board and you might post a querry in Reef Discussions. I feel that this would be a good set for this aquarium but will suggest against the sugar sand or at least place a coarser substrate on top of it. It sounds like a tricky set up as you are keeping corals with very different needs. SPS corals require very clean water, Elegance live in sea grass bads and enjoy turbid waters with suspended food particulate lower flow and high nutrients. Also remember that anemones of different types have no problem killing each other and taking out a few SPS in the process. I too am a fan of polyps but they can grow out of control and encroach on SPS colonies and cause tissue damage.