LIKE SOME ADVISE FROM THE GROUP ON MY NEXT PURCHASE

[Gato 1]

Hello all

Like some input from the group. We have built a 100-gal reef tank in the past in Anaheim Cal, was nice had a few clams that were beautiful. Anyhow job moved me to Arizona now I still have my dry rock, a/c unit, AMS G3 oh ya 35-gal sump. I like to get a tank up and running here soon. I did see aqua Japan. I believe still made in China. I like the SCA 150 GALLON STARFIRE PNP SYSTEM, I would appreciate any input on the equipment

 

[Reefing102]

Welcome to RC! Equipment really depends on what plans you have. Are you just trying for fish only or looking to get into clams and corals again?

 

[griss]

Welcome to RC! Equipment really depends on what plans you have. Are you just trying for fish only or looking to get into clams and corals again?

What Shane said.

 

[Gato 1]

Plans are clams and corals again. going to need to change my lights I have the old school Hamilton metal halide for main tank that work great I like them, led for the refugium. ASM G3, TUNZ ATO. I have a sump 18 x 35 going to need larger sump for bigger tank. SCA sump 52" x 17 tank 60" does not leave much room. will need a reactor. still in the planning stages. and looking around for ideas. thank you for your feedback.

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[Reefing102]

Metal halide is still a thing. Just the options have reduced over time. If you like it and it works, I’d stick with the halide. LEDs are fine too. Most of your reef LEDs can do what you need from Chinese black boxes like Viparspectra to your expensive Neptune, AI, and GHL

Can’t go wrong with the Tunze ATO. I can’t really help out with the rest except to say make sure the sump you go with can handle the drainage from the display during a power outage.

 

[griss]

Metal halide is still a thing. Just the options have reduced over time. If you like it and it works, I’d stick with the halide. LEDs are fine too.

Yep, I’m using a 175w MH and LED actinic on my current 40. Plans to upgrade to 175 and will then have 2 175w MH and T5 actinics

 

[kharmaguru]

There's so many lighting options now I think someone needs to make a list of lights NOT to buy. Even if we did, someone would say "that light works great for me".

 

[Gato 1]

Hope everyone had a great day

Been doing a lot of reading, seems things have change, what is the difference of an overflow box inside the tank, and what I have been reading on a bean animal. am a little confused, pros and cons

Thank you

 

[Gato 1]

Another question, I do plane to go with apex controller, but does anyone have experience with their pumps

COR-20 Intelligent Return Pump (2000 GPH) - Neptune Systems​

should turn 150gal 12 x, plus Mp 40 should be good for 150 gal. I will have a lot of questions.

Thank you all for the feed back

 

[griss]

I’m very old school when it comes to equipment, so I’m not much help on controllers. I still just use regular timers and gravity fed tip-off

Even thought the bean animal has been around quite a while, I honestly don’t know much about them, but they’ve had a lot of positive feedback here over the years.

 

[Reefing102]

I could be wrong, mainly because I don’t know much about the bean animal overflow, but I think the bean animal is more based on how the overflow pipes are designed. Like I think you can have a bean animal style overflow set up in an in tank overflow. I could be completely wrong but that was my thought? If they hop on, perhaps @BeanAnimal can shed some light.

I run an Apex (in the most simplistic way possible) but I have no experience with their return pumps. I honestly can’t say I’ve hear too many bad things about it though

As for tank turnover. It’s really going to depend on on what your keeping. I have a 600gph return on my 65 plus a Neptune WAV (set at 60%) and Jebao SW-8 at 100%. So that’s somewhere abound 4600ish gph of flow through my tank but it’s a very wide flow so it’s not as bad as it seems

 

[kharmaguru]

Silent & Fail-Safe Aquarium Overflow System | BeanAnimal's Reef

gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

Beananimal is basically the Herbie with an extra safety overflow. It doesn't matter if the box is in the tank or outside the tank, the purpose is just to make a silent overflow with safety when things start to clog. I'm currently using a Herbie that I DIY'd and it's silent except when the mp10 near the overflow start ripping and causing some extra turbulence to go over the safety pipe. I don't think I'd do anything less than a Herbie ever again. My old drains were just too loud. Many people just use these external eshopps eclipse kits that are based on Herbie (although the Eclipse L can be made Beananimal if you match your flow I believe since it has 3 pipes). They have everything including the holesaw:

The general trend in flow these days is low flow through the sump and high internal flow in the tank ( with the awesome wideflow powerheads that are available) . While these DC main pumps seem like a great idea, if you use them for their variability ( as in program them to run slower at night) this has an effect on ATO's and the actual temperature of the tank, not to mention messes with the Beananimal that you just tuned to be silent. I'm pretty sure I saw in 1 of @melev livestreams where he said slowing the pump down for periods each day made his tank temperature drop. Anyway if you want it for the monitoring through the Apex, that would be why I would go that route. I personally would rather run 2 AC main pumps for redundancy than have an expensive DC return pump.

 

[griss]

Silent & Fail-Safe Aquarium Overflow System | BeanAnimal's Reef

gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

Beananimal is basically the Herbie with an extra safety overflow. It doesn't matter if the box is in the tank or outside the tank, the purpose is just to make a silent overflow with safety when things start to clog. I'm currently using a Herbie that I DIY'd and it's silent except when the mp10 near the overflow start ripping and causing some extra turbulence to go over the safety pipe. I don't think I'd do anything less than a Herbie ever again. My old drains were just too loud. Many people just use these external eshopps eclipse kits that are based on Herbie (although the Eclipse L can be made Beananimal if you match your flow I believe since it has 3 pipes). They have everything including the holesaw:

View attachment 32374669

Hmmm, didn't know the eShopps was based on that, learn something new everyday. My current tank has an eShopps overflow that I drilled the tank for.

 

[kharmaguru]

Hmmm, didn't know the eShopps was based on that, learn something new everyday. My current tank has an eShopps overflow that I drilled the tank for.

Yep, tune the drain with a gate valve so the the water level sits at the top of the emergency red pipe (just trickling over) = Herbie.

 

[Gato 1]

Thank you all for the response, I will be going with the internal Herbie, I did not like the box on the outside of the tank and to run the pluming on the outside as well. To many possible outside failures Like it all be eternal, the builds will be with the SCA 150-GAL, sump still looking SCA sump 52” almost as long as the tank 60”, do not get me wrong great sump, but I want some room to expand inside the cabinet not outside. AMS G-3 skimmer, SCA skimmer back up, pump APEX Core 20, Marco rock just came I am going to give the NSA aquascape a try. Oh, yea just put up my RODI water system up, now that am away of TDS, I will be carful on what water I drink or give to my dogs.

Here I have question am thinking about going with
TROPIC MARIN Tropic Marin Syn-Biotic Salt, so many benefits with this salt, so if I like to change salt, I would be ok as long as I stay with Tropic Marin. Or I start with Tropic Marin Pro Reef, and switch to Tropic Marin Syn once my build matures in time?

Thank you all for your time

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

I have never had a problem using a different bucket of salt I 'won" & going back to my regular IO.