<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7784255#post7784255 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MarineGirl411
Hi Calvin,
I've followed your tank progress before. Your tank was professionally done. =( Which mine won't be. Mine is AGA and I won't be able to drill the bottom of the tank. Do you still think I should go with your same set up? I was thinking of the 1 in overflow draining tube, but I've heard they make a lot of noise when draining. Does yours? Do you use a durso standpipe? Do you know where I can get the overflow boxes already made online? I like the adjustable baffle yours has. I haven't been able to find them anywhere online. Esp since I will have to drill mine from the back of the tank and not the bottom. What is the OM Squirt for? Random flow? I can't do the PVC piping on top of the aquarium like you did yours.
I will not have a canopy. I wish I would have made my stand taller. My skimmer won't fit inside so I am going to have to hang it outside the sump by the back wall. =( Hope the cats don't get interested in my ref. I am going to have to cover it up. So to create flow in the front of the tank as well, I was going to buy some long loc-line ball socket flexible tubing. Or something of that nature to T off to run flow in the front as well. Hope that makes sense. Any suggestions? The overflow was going to go in the middle of the tank as suggested from our Reef Aquarium store here. Do you think it should go in the corner? Just didn't know how all the poo and debris would get to it if it was in the corner of the tank. Esp if I have 2 nozzles in the back blowing across each other and then 2 in the front doing the same. I like your ideas on the Quiet One's. How have they been working for you? Do you have any trouble starting them up again say during maintenance or a power outage?
Also, What type of corals are you going to keep in your tank? I have an Aqualight Pro with 150 MH and 2 65 watt actinics. I would like to keep Clams in particular for their awesome coloration, frowspawn, hammer coral, Orange Cap, White Pom Pom Pumping Xenia, Mushrooms in low flow and low light areas, Evergreen Starburst Polyps, Bushy Acropora is what I'd like to keep in the future when my skills grow. Just some possibilities for the future. But are my lights going to be sufficient? I notice you used a 250 MH. Mine is only 150 plus the 2 65 watt PC's. That gives me 7 watts per gallon. I thought this would be sufficient for what I wanted to keep, but did I miscalculate? Thank you for your help.
Why can't you drill the bottom? According to the AGA website they don't temper the bottoms until you get to 37 gallons... You could drill the bottom of you tank if so desired. My drain is silent with the durso stand, I built my own just using a T and a 90* piece then just used a cap and drilled a hole. Works great!
Here's a diagram, of a couple ideas that would work for you depending on where you drilled.
As for the overflow boxes, you can get them here, if you really want to go that route let me know, I'm sure I could build one for you a lot cheaper than these...
http://www.wetdryfilter.com/internal_overflow_boxes.htm
The OM is purely for random flow and for a 15 gallon IMO it's really not needed. If you insist I would go with a SCWD on a closed loop instead. I would put the overflow in the center of the tank as well especially with all the return ports you are talking about, however without a canopy to cover them it might not look great. I'd just go with 1 return through the overflow and then T that into 2, one for each side. If you still need more flow add a closed loop so you can get the flow lower in the tank. I love the quiet ones but if I had it over to do I would run it externally on the return instead of submersed. They are quiet, but they get really hot. As for start ups, I have had them not start after some maintenance, but after about 20-30 seconds they got going again, so I'm not sure what's up with that.
For your lighting, I think that would be fine. I did 250 cause it wasn't much more than 150 and in either case I think it would be fine for your tank, it's pretty shallow.
BTW, you don't want to look at watts per gallon, watts is just how much electricity is used, it's not a good indicator of how bright the lights actually are. For example a 70w MH is still a lot brighter than 96w of PC lighting. I'm doing SPS, LPS and Clams in my tank and I'm in the planning stages of a clam only tank w/ another 250w MH (only because I already have it) but I would be fine if I only had a 150W HQI...
Hope this answers your questions, feel free to ask any others I might have missed.
