Help with build , please

[fishdoc11]

An electronic ballast will give you the greatest flexibility.
The Eheim pump sounds good but you may want to use a 1262 if you are going to split the return. If you add a squid, which will alternate the flow a 1260 would probably work. Also not sure about squids on returns (if it effects anything) but maybe Dave can answer that.
I would get the largest Korailla's and you will probably still want to add more flow eventually if you are keeping SPS.
hth, Chris

 

[Mark75]

If the squid switches fast enough I would not think it would affect the sump level. My other concern with the squid is reliability. In order to keep the optimum flow through my sump I may not be able to rely on my returns to help much with flow. It looks like I may need 4 Korailla's, so much for the clean look! LOL I was just reading a thread in the sps forum about similar tanks to the one I am building and how people are lighting them. It seems when lighting a 36" tank with a single metal halide it causes shadows and dark corners. Especially cubeish or wide tanks such as I am building. I may have to spend a little more for lighting, this is something I want to do right. The more I research building this new tank the more expensive it is getting. I may end up with goldfish.

 

[cee]

The speed of the SQWD has nothing to do with the level in the sump; the return to the pump is a function of the return pump and the head. The SQWD does work and is reliable, I do it, but you get a fair amount of pressure drop through it and will sacrifice flow, but on a return pump, that is OK. I run a Mak4 through mine and get somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 gph. A SQWD, like any pump, requires periodic cleaning in a vinegar bath.

A 36" tank is hard to light, but a single SE MH on a standard-style reflector (spider, perpendicular, etc.) should do it with the edges reserved for lower-light corals like LPS and zoanthids. You won't fit 2 LumenArcs in 3', though, unless you go with the minis (I think?, not sure of their dimensions). You could do DE, but you're looking at about $500 to light with 2 or more. All depends on where you want to go, but sounds like you're decided on SPS/clams.

For flow, 4 of the Korallinas would do but would give you <5000 gph, and I'd shoot for at least 50X in an SPS tank. You can get by on less (I did for awhile), but you'll be adding more later, so plan accordingly. I think I'm running in the neighborhood of 100X now.