kinda new...need advice

[77bandit]

So, I'm new in that i haven't had a tank of any kind in well over 10 years. I had a mixed reef w/primarily soft corals and LPS(and fish as well). Anyway, I'm finally putting up my 10'x30"x30" viewed on both sides with center overflows at each end. I've been looking around a little bit and I'm thinking of doing all EcoTech(not because I have to have the same brand of everything, but just because they look like decent products and get fairly good reviews. I would put an MP40 at all 4 corners beside the overflows(which are 15-16" wide). I would use 2 Vectra L1 return pumps, one in each of 2 yoked sump tanks. I plan on a refugium below because I had that with my last tank many years ago and always liked it and had good results. I also plan on a 4" deep sand bad in the display tank. I would get 4 radion xr30w G4 pro's for lighting.
Any ideas and recommendations for and against this set up are greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Kriegad]

I’m pretty new too, but I got about 1-1.5” sandbed and I feel at times like it’s too deep. I think if you go 4” you’ll end up taking a lot out just due to maintenance headache, esp with a 10’ tank! I think the radions are awesome, but a 10’ tank may need more of them than just 4. Maybe you could get away with just 4 with. Softie and LPS tank, but I’m not sure. I think you definitely need more if you get much sps.

 

[HumbleFish]

A 1" sandbed is all you need. Deeper than that and you are just asking for trouble down the road. Like if you happened to disturb it, dig too deep and hit a sulfide pocket.

 

[WVH]

A 1" sandbed is all you need. Deeper than that and you are just asking for trouble down the road. Like if you happened to disturb it, dig too deep and hit a sulfide pocket.

I agree on the sand bed being not so deep . I started almost 15 years ago with the deep sand bed in the same tank I still use today as my display tank. In those days it was thought best. I no longer think it is the way to go. The deep sand always seemed to have negative issues . Plus it wasn't pretty to see from the front of the tank after time for all the stuff to grow in it, see attached shot on lower fight showing the deep bed from 10 years ago. . Although away for years from the hobby due to a stroke, I always kept water and a pump running in this tank keeping the rocks alive. Now a year after returning this tank to "Life" the sand bed is only a inch or so deep because so much of that aragonite simply dissolve over time. The shallow bed has been much better in both appearance
and maintaining the tank. If need be in the future it isn't that hard to add more if needed. Good luck ...........

 

[tkeracer619]

Sounds like an awesome setup!

What are you planning on stocking wise?

Ecotech makes a great product!

You may have trouble getting flow in the middle section though, that's a lot of tank. If you are planning on hard corals you may consider getting mp60qd pumps instead of mp40qd. They push a lot of water.

 

[Green Chromis]

So, I'm new in that i haven't had a tank of any kind in well over 10 years. I had a mixed reef w/primarily soft corals and LPS(and fish as well). Anyway, I'm finally putting up my 10'x30"x30" viewed on both sides with center overflows at each end. I've been looking around a little bit and I'm thinking of doing all EcoTech(not because I have to have the same brand of everything, but just because they look like decent products and get fairly good reviews. I would put an MP40 at all 4 corners beside the overflows(which are 15-16" wide). I would use 2 Vectra L1 return pumps, one in each of 2 yoked sump tanks. I plan on a refugium below because I had that with my last tank many years ago and always liked it and had good results. I also plan on a 4" deep sand bad in the display tank. I would get 4 radion xr30w G4 pro's for lighting.
Any ideas and recommendations for and against this set up are greatly appreciated.
Thanks

:fish1: Hi, with a 10' x 30" tank , you will need at least 5 XR 30 Pro's, if you are keeping mainly LPS corals. If you are going to keep mainly SPS corals you will need a least 8 Radions, with 10 being a more realistic number. :fish1:

 

[dkeller_nc]

Yeah, that's a massive tank, especially with the title to the thread "kinda new". Most folks that are "kinda new" start out with a 20 gallon (much to their detriment, but that's another discussion).

I don't know if you really want to contemplate this, but a tank of that size is the ideal use-case for a couple of closed loops. And with Ecotech's vectra pumps, it could be done without the primary disadvantage of old-school closed loops, which is constant flow that modifies coral growth into undesirable shapes, and dead spots in the tank that accumulate detritus.

I think you will find that you're going to have add some type of power head to the center of the tank with MP40s. With MP60s, I think you'll still have some low-flow spots, but if you put in 4 of them on either end of the tank, it might be enough to avoid having to put something in the middle.

With respect to lighting, the posters above have pointed out the achilles' heel of LED lighting. They have very high intensity, and the modern fixtures have full spectrum that allows excellent coral growth and color rendition, but the puck-type fixtures like the Radions and Hydras don't cover a whole lot of surface area without getting a lot of shading on the bottom of coral colonies. If you're going for a softie/LPS tank, that really won't matter a whole lot, but it will if you're going SPS.

Because the lighting you're talking about will be a substantial investment (to say nothing of the tank itself!), I'd strongly encourage you to watch the BRS WWC Lighting Episode. It will familiarize you with the options, and towards the end of the video, you can see what they did with Ecotech Radion XR15 Gen 4s over an 8' tank.

 

[scattered]

Another voice in favor of a lighter sand bed, and that is for buffering rather than nitrate export like a traditional DSB. I personally don't like the looks of bare bottom, but it makes a lot of sense in many setups I think. All your anaerobic bacteria is going to live in the inner layers of live rock and a refugium handles the rest of the sequestration of nitrate.

I am returned after a 7-8 year hiatus myself so I will defer to others on the lighting and pumps. I'm back with a nano so scale wise I am looking at totally different things. That said the new technology available is the coolest (tunable LEDs - Really? COLOR TUNABLE LEDS!). There is so much that is able to be automated now a good design can make start up and running of a tank so much easier. I just spent the work week remote and I literally could have left it on its own if I had a larger auto top off reservoir. I wouldn't (ever), I still have someone come check on it twice daily but...I could have. It is still in the early bake-in stage right now. Only inverts and fish and at least a few months from coral.

 

[FishAndPhysics]

That is a truly massive tank for a first dive back into the hobby. With a tank that big, you'll almost certainly want a frag tank/coral quarantine tank. Why not start that first as a trial run? Make it a 50g or so? Mistakes that are easy and cheap to fix on a 50g are going to be disasters on a 500g.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Yeah, ++1 to that idea. There's a heck of a lot of "new" things when it comes to both reefing equipment and reefing practice that you might want to check out on a 50g to know what you want to do on such a large tank. Just a few examples - Do you want a refugium or not? Do you want to practice water changes (possibly automated), or go with a calcium reactor and minimal water changes? Are you going with live rock (such as from Tampa Bay Saltwater), or are you going with all dry rock?

 

[77bandit]

Sorry not to respond...been busy and had some family emergencies. Anyway, the tank size is set. This was a new home build and my wife is tired of the empty space between our home office and living room and we just got the tank put in finally. The stand below is the same size with no fish room. From what I've read, I think doing the Mp40's may be better than the 60's and space at the end is tight. I could do 8 with 4 mounted high and 4 mounted low. Anyway, I'll scratch the deep sand bed, but I think I need 2" just for aesthetics and so that I can "kinda" reach the bottom if need be. Anyway, I truly appreciate all advice so far and would love to hear further comments. I have 2 1.5" overlfows and 2 3/4" returns in each end box. I'm planning on 1 Durso style with one emergency overflow at each end, and, again splitting the largest EcoTech pumps through the 3/4" returns at each end.
Any other thoughts?
Again, thanks.