design my Closed loop

[Reef obcession]

I have been in this hobby for 3yrs and Im addicted , so I bought a acyrlic 450g tank 62W X49H X 30 :bounce2:. I want to make this a closed loop system with mybe a ReefFlo Dart to drive it :idea:. Im just un certain how to layout all the holes and where to have the inlet and output ports into the tank. I will also have 4 wavy sea's driven off another Reef Flo pump. No power heads for me. Can someone draw it up on CAD?


Thanks peolpe..... Bill

 

[teesquare]

Bill...
You are asking an awful lot here!:rollface: Why not start off with WHAT you want to keep in the tank? Then look at HOW you plan on maintaining it. And then WHERE the rockwork will go or - how you will aquascape it. And - then- where will the sump be located? Do you have a basement? This can be useful information so that someone will be more able to help direct you to information, or lend a hand with some meaningful suggestions.

Best of Luck!

T

 

[Reef obcession]

Ok it will be a SPS dominate tank, I am making most of my rock myself so I will scape it to fit. The tank will have a huge 200g sump, The wet room below will be built to suit. I have to put an addition on the house so when I plan it I will aslo plan a lerge wet room below.

 

[teesquare]

Can you sketch out the layout of your proposed rock work? This can - will influence the flow in the tank.

A top-down look at the layout would be very useful.
T

 

[Steve175]

I would rethink a 49" height SPS tank (although I suspect by "H" you actually meant width with 30" depth) unless you have 1000W halides and arms longer than a chimp.

 

[noobtothereef]

im on my 2nd tank with a closed loop, i recomend not doing a closed loop, its old inneficient technology, my tank is a 120 with a dart for the closed loop, with the pump , bulkheads, locline, valves, unions, etc i have about $550-$600 in it, for that price i could have had a mp40 and money to spare and had a ton more options with wave action etc and also much more energy efficient and no worries of leaking bulkheads, and the ability to move the powerhead. If your going all sps your going to need alot of flow for that tank, 450 gallons x 30x flow at least and would be about 14,000gph, which would take 3 hammerhead pumps minimum, just tha there is $1200+ another $500 in plumbing and then the high energy usage. then to create random flow you can get om 4 ways and add another $1200 in cost for those 3 pumps and then youd have $3000+ in the closed loop, ditch the closed loop and go 4-6 mp40's and be done with it, place them in the tank, plug them in and be done with it.....

i plumbed the back of my 120 as nice as can be with my closed loop but is still ugly and just a bunch of unneeded crap

fyi, 2 darts for flow on that tank will not be enough for sps at all

mp40's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

MP40's aren't extremely reliable and wouldn't be my first choice if you went the way of powerheads. I'm also not sure that 6 would be enough for a tank that size, but possibly. I love my closed loop and I get a tremendous amount of flow from a Barracuda. The dart definitely will not be enough, however.

On a different topic, random flow is overrated. I buy the argument that a reversible gyre is ideal.

One of the LFS's went with a big dual closed loop on a 600 gallon tank and they've had nothing but problems. You have a lot of decision to make, though. I decided to go closed loop because I already had a Barracuda pump, and mine's fairly obtrusive. If you're trying to hide the closed loop, that makes this design even harder.

I spent months planning my system, I don't think you're going to be able to get someone to just design yours for you. I did CAD renderings of what I wanted the rockwork to look like so I could view it from all angles. All lots and lots of work.

 

[Paco]

Sure, no problem. 4 x Tunze 6305 plus controller of your choice. All set!

 

[dahenley]

i have been interested in a closed loop for a while, and looked at a lot of different ones, but there is no real place to go and find out ideas or flow information about them.
is there a place to get information or is this the only way to find out? (sorry to clog your thread)

 

[Reef obcession]

The tank is not 48 H, its 60wide x49L x30 D. I guess I will just have to come up with my own idea of a closed loop. I have Tunzie's,Wavy Sea's on my existing
tank and they always break/come apart. I want an advanced closed loop system with two reeflo pumps on two Ocean motions *way units. This system is goning to cost somewhere in the 3k range but well worth it

 

[dahenley]

if your doing OM, then they have a forum for that kind of thing. the owners are really good with helping design closed loop systems.
i think they help most of the people that want closed loops.....

if they do give you information, dont forget to update us here. (im still looking myself)

 

[goodreef]

Yea, I've been thinking about closed loop for my next tank also ... my problem is that things don't always turn out the way you imagine. I always worry that it will limit the potential to re-scape, should things go wrong.

But currently, I'm leaning more towards just getting a couple of MP60.