rogermccray
Active member
I currently have a standard 125 gallon tank in my living room that I thoroughly enjoy. The tank is mainly on cruise control with it just needing to be filled out with corals of my choosing, but my wife was complaining about it the other day because it's just too big. So I asked her if she would rather have a few smaller tanks than one huge one and she said that she definitely would. So I started thinking about this and the more I think about it the more I like the idea, I know that getting smaller tanks limit my fish options, aka no tangs and probably no anthias, but other than that I don't see any huge downsides. So I came up with the idea of setting up three tanks, I was thinking of sticking with 3-40 gallon breeders (though I might have to make one a 50 gallon depending on my fish choices, but I will get to that).
So, the first tank I was thinking of setting up is a temperate tank, I would like to keep the tank around 68 degrees and keep a few catalina gobies and a blue spotted jawfish in this tank. I would probably make this tank sumpless or at the most a small ten gallon sump depending on what I did for a pump. What I am thinking of doing is drilling one hole in the glass (I would just go over the top for the return line) and hiding that with a small overflow. I know that I would run about 10 feet of vinyl tubing through a dorm fridge set to 68 or whatever is required to keep it at 68, but my question is what type of pump. Should I have a small ten gallon sump and just put a small mag pump in there or should I get an external pump. My worry with the mag pump in such a small amount of water is the heat from the pump running up the temp. I think the pump would be fine at that temp because the mags are built as pond pumps but would the heat be too much to keep the water in the tank at 68 all the time. I think that I could fiddle with the temps in the fridge to get it where I wanted, but I am interested in other peoples thoughts on this. My problem with the external pump is that along with never having used one before the only amount of water I would have to compensate for evaporation is the water in the over flow. I know that there is a lot less evaporation in a temperate tank but only using an overflow for evaporation just does not seem like a good idea. Also I think with at least a small 10 gallon sump water changes are going to be a lot easier. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
My other two tanks would be two small reefs plumbed to a mutual sump. One tank would be built with the thought of keeping both a flame angel and a lemonpeel angel, who are not exactly reef safe. These two angels will leave the more "noxious" type of corals alone, things like frogspawn, hammer coral and torch coral, but are definitely not safe with meaty LPS corals. I would put a few more fish in this tank, probably a diamond goby and a wrasse or two. This tank would probably have to be 50 gallons to house both angel fish.
The second tank would be for all the rest of the corals I wanted to keep an assortment of fish, I would probably try and get a "designer" pair of clownfish for this tank and a different sand sifting goby. That's about as far as I have gotten on thinking about this tank, but I'm sure by the time I got there I would have more ideas of what I wanted.
And if I ever did make it to this stage with three tanks set up I would definitely be willing to host a meeting (though I don't see this plan getting pulled off for some time).
I'm very interested in what people think of this idea so please comment.
Thanks
So, the first tank I was thinking of setting up is a temperate tank, I would like to keep the tank around 68 degrees and keep a few catalina gobies and a blue spotted jawfish in this tank. I would probably make this tank sumpless or at the most a small ten gallon sump depending on what I did for a pump. What I am thinking of doing is drilling one hole in the glass (I would just go over the top for the return line) and hiding that with a small overflow. I know that I would run about 10 feet of vinyl tubing through a dorm fridge set to 68 or whatever is required to keep it at 68, but my question is what type of pump. Should I have a small ten gallon sump and just put a small mag pump in there or should I get an external pump. My worry with the mag pump in such a small amount of water is the heat from the pump running up the temp. I think the pump would be fine at that temp because the mags are built as pond pumps but would the heat be too much to keep the water in the tank at 68 all the time. I think that I could fiddle with the temps in the fridge to get it where I wanted, but I am interested in other peoples thoughts on this. My problem with the external pump is that along with never having used one before the only amount of water I would have to compensate for evaporation is the water in the over flow. I know that there is a lot less evaporation in a temperate tank but only using an overflow for evaporation just does not seem like a good idea. Also I think with at least a small 10 gallon sump water changes are going to be a lot easier. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
My other two tanks would be two small reefs plumbed to a mutual sump. One tank would be built with the thought of keeping both a flame angel and a lemonpeel angel, who are not exactly reef safe. These two angels will leave the more "noxious" type of corals alone, things like frogspawn, hammer coral and torch coral, but are definitely not safe with meaty LPS corals. I would put a few more fish in this tank, probably a diamond goby and a wrasse or two. This tank would probably have to be 50 gallons to house both angel fish.
The second tank would be for all the rest of the corals I wanted to keep an assortment of fish, I would probably try and get a "designer" pair of clownfish for this tank and a different sand sifting goby. That's about as far as I have gotten on thinking about this tank, but I'm sure by the time I got there I would have more ideas of what I wanted.
And if I ever did make it to this stage with three tanks set up I would definitely be willing to host a meeting (though I don't see this plan getting pulled off for some time).
I'm very interested in what people think of this idea so please comment.
Thanks
