Help with a new tank

[JimKelly12203]

Hello All!

I have had one fish only salt water tank in my life. It was a meager 20 Gallon. That was in high school. I went off to college and after 4 or 5 years, my fish finally all passed away. I never thought it was viable to keep corals alive. Then my friend got a coral tank up and running and that was all it took for me. After months of planning (in my head only) i've finally decided that it's time to make this happen for myself! But i need help.

I'm going to go with a 90G (48x18x25) tank. Since space is a concern, i may end up having to go with a 70G tall (36x18x25). I do not, unfortunately, have the luxury of putting a fish room behind the tank. With that said, i am absolutely dead set on having a closed loop for this system.

Can anyone recommend a relatively quiet, small and powerful external pump for such a system. I will most likely have to mount the pump under the tank by the sump. It will be a challenge to fit everything in neatly, but i'm determined to do it. Obviously having the extra foot in length that comes with a 90G would help, but if i do have to go with the 36" length, is it still possible to get a sump, pump, in-sump protein skimmer and all that other garbage under the tank with this limmited space?

As for lighting, i'm planning on running duel MH's. I'm assuming 250 watt will be needed for a tank of this depth (25"). Can anyone recommend a good bulb/balast combination that has worked well for them in the past?

thanks much. I'm sure there are going to be many questions i have as i set up this tank over the course of the next half year or so. Having lusted over the prospect of a reef tank for well over 2 years now, i'm rather well read on the hobby. Sadly it's all theory and no practice.

And with the money that goes into running these tanks, i don't want to have any regrets. Any advice regarding pumps and ballast/MH combo's would be much appreciated!

CHEERS!

 

[JimKelly12203]

I should add, that i do plan to have SPS corals in this tank. Some would say that's aggressive for a beginner, but i'm very confident that i'm up to the task. I've read so much about this hobby, i'm really seeking confirmation more than anything.

I guess i need at least 10x water turnover in the tank (varied if possible though i have no clue what to do about that since wavemakers seem to get mixed reviews) and the fact that i'm going SPS is my reason for thinking 250 watt MHs are going to be necissary.

I have done some research on bulbs/ballasts and pumps. I think i'm close to a decison on the pump but i'm totally and utterly clueless when it comes to getting good quality lighting equipment.

 

[JimKelly12203]

Thus far the pumps that i have looked at include.

1) WMD - 30 RLXT Iwaka Pump (960 GPH)
2) Supreme Mag Drive (1200 GPH)
3) Supreme Mag Drive (950 GPH)

The magdrive's are significantly smaller than the Iwaka (a good thing for me). But i don't know how they are in terms of heat, noise and relyability.

 

[riley290]

I like my Mag 7, but that being said it does run a bit hot and the vibration noise was a little surprising. The heat was a non-issue and I live in SE Texas so I don't think it should be too much of a problem. But I could see how the noise could bother some people. I did all I could to get rid of the noise including flexible pvc, rubber mat under the pump, placed foam on the inside walls of the stand. I still have a bit of a vibration hum but not really noticable. To tell you the truth I don't know that many people would have noticed the sound in the first place as long as there was ambient noise in the room.

As far as turnover, this can be tricky and took me a while to fully grasp. Since you plan on running a sump the max amount of flow only needs to match how much your skimmer pump can process. There is no need to dump 500gph through your sump if the skimmer can only process 300gph (obviously made up hypothetical numbers). Issues with large amounts of water through the sump are noise, splashing, and microbubbles. Most people push as much water as they can while being able to control these issues. As for keeping SPS, there are many reefers on here who have 40x or more in their display (of course most of this coming from powerheads or CL). Right now I push 1400gph around the DT at a turnover of 35x but am considering upping one of my powerheads (IMO gph rating as well as type of flow (velocity) should be considered, ie 400gph through a .25" hole creates a much more water velocity than 400gph through a 1" hole) You are aiming for wide distributive flow as compared to concentrated laminar flow. You could put all of the pumps in the world in your tank and not recreate the ocean's turnover but the velocity of the water would disturb wildlife.

That lighting setup up sounds good for the depth of your tank but some low to medium light species may want a bit of cover from the direct light.