Need help getting started

[Capsle]

Hey guys and gals,

I am new to this site and have gone over already a lot of different post and there is tons of great information, thank you already!

I have had many freshwater tanks over the years and have always wanted a reef tank. I haven't had any tanks for the last 5-6 years now. I got lucky and one of my friends gave me a 75g tank about two weeks ago. My goal now is to finally setup the reef tank I always wanted, seeing as I am older and have more funds available.

As previously mentioned I have already gone through a lot of posts looking into setups, sumps, equipment, plumping, stands etc...

This is what I currently have and plan on working with / building and doing a lot of it myself. I am very handy and not scared to try new things or build new stuff.

I have 75g main display tank, bought a 35g used tank for a sump, just purchased and waiting to be delivered, protien skimmer (REEF OCTOPUS CLASSIC 150INT 6" INTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER), Gyre XF130 power head, SYNCRA SILENT 5.0 PUMP for my return.

I need to build a new stand for my display tank as the sump doesn't fit under the one that came with the tank. Both tanks are 36" long and I want some extra space to work with so I will be building a 48"x 24" stand. I have it figured out

I need to drill my tank and setup all the plumbing, I pretty much have that all figured out.

My question comes when building my sump. The skimmer needs 6-8 inches of water and the tank is 18.5" high 12" wide and 36" long. I plan on having 3 sections, skimmer, fuge and return. The question is how high should my baffles be? Im doing over, under over for the first section and then over under for the return. I figured that i needed about 8g of free space for overflow if the power shuts off. So like i said my baffles are the question, for the first section does baffle 1 and 3 need to be the same height or does #3 need to be shorter than number one? Also I imagine #3 and #4 need to be the same height and 2 & 4 as well?

I had thought about starting my system off with 100 lbs of live rock, but was suggested today that i could do 60 lbs live and 40 lbs base. Whats the difference with base rock? Is it any good or should i just go with 100 lbs of live rock?

Lastly, I am starting everything from scratch right now so everything is dry and in the planning stage, if you all could start over of change or add something to you system what would it be? What do you thing I should plan for or add to the system?

Sorry for the long post and many questions but i am trying to get everything figured out before I start everything up.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jwheld]

My question comes when building my sump. The skimmer needs 6-8 inches of water and the tank is 18.5" high 12" wide and 36" long. I plan on having 3 sections, skimmer, fuge and return. The question is how high should my baffles be? Im doing over, under over for the first section and then over under for the return. I figured that i needed about 8g of free space for overflow if the power shuts off. So like i said my baffles are the question, for the first section does baffle 1 and 3 need to be the same height or does #3 need to be shorter than number one? Also I imagine #3 and #4 need to be the same height and 2 & 4 as well?

I just build my sump last weekend. I have a reef octopus 110 and calls for 7.5" depth. My sump is a 20 long and my first baffle is 10" and my third is 9.5". I build a platform from egg crate with pvc legs to raise my skimmer 2.5 inches. Hope this helps! Good luck.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Welcome to RC as a poster.

Don't over think your sump. I have a big system and my sump is 8'x2'x18" and I just put in 3 weirs to divide the tank into 4 sections of 45 gallons each. From left to right there is a refugium, a Deep Sand Bed, an evaporation/ return pump section and a skimmer section. All the walls are 16" tall. When the water level gets low in the evap section it does get noisy, but that tells me it's time to add water!

 

[Capsle]

Awesome guys, thank you for the input!