built in tank help

[jiggins93]

hi im Brandon and i used to have a couple of tropical tanks and i was breeding plecos, i have the opportunity to build a fish tank into one of my rooms which i want to build a 7x3x3 or 7x2x2 reef tank. I would build a sump underneath and i suppose the first part of planning is figuring out what size sump should be adequate, so any help on what size sump and equipment needed would be much appreciated as google has left me stumped.
kind regards

 

[gone fishin]

For the basics you will need some powerheads for flow in the tank, lighting depends on what you want to keep for ex: coral type.

For a sump I would look for something in the 75g range. In the sump you will want a skimmer some heaters, an Auto top off(ATO) and a return pump.

Also you will want to look into an RO/DI setup. Depending on what you want to keep you may need to add some sort of dosing for setup for alkalinity and calcium in the future. All of these things can be as basic or as complex as you would like to make them.

There is a sticky called setting up at the top of the page, look for the big red arrow. Good luck just my 2 cents

 

[davocean]

[welcome]

Most will advise going as big as you can fit for a sump, but that size tank you may not need to take up all the space below, just make sure it is big enough to handle back siphon in event of a power failure.

 

[BigEZ77]

From what I've read, sump should be at least a third of your display tank volume but bigger is better.

 

[davocean]

Yeah about a 3rd is a good number to shoot for.

 

[jiggins93]

so for an example i should go with a 4ft tank as the sump and i think i have to allow 30 gallons for overflow

 

[davocean]

Probably about right, keep return lines up high for early siphon break if you can, but just a guess on that size tank I'd say that should be good.