New Tank Plans

CKreef

CKreef

New member
Ok so I know I just sold my 90 gallon but I need a reef tank. Its like crack so addictive. Here is what I plan to do. I want to buy a 60 g cube. 24"x24"x25" from glass cages. I plan on building my own stand 24"x24"x30". In the stand will be a 15 tall sump 20"x10"17". This will have an octopus 150 skimmer and a return pump in it. I will also have a ATO resevoir in the stand 10"x10"x12". I want to have a reefkeeper 2 to controll the tank. In the i want the tunze 6045 powerheads. One will be hidden in a deco rock. I want to know what you all recommend for lights? I want something I can hang. If I left anything out please let me know. Thanks Chris
 
By hanging do you mean no canopy? the 2' x 2' footprint would be fine for either t5s or a single 250W halide pendant. Not sure what you could do for a hanging pendant that also had actinic supplementation if you needed that.

If you are looking for a list to price out the costs, you'll also need a heater, an ATO pump/controller, probably some quiet fans to blow stuff out of the stand (if you do a fuge).
 
I have a heater and some fans for the stand I also have my ATO pump and controller. I was looking at the Current USA 24 inch Outer Orbit 1x150w 10K HQI-MH w/ 4x24W T5 HO & 12 Lunar Lights for the light. Do you think this would work or should I do the 250w version? Also trying to figure out if you can hang this light.
 
Well I have priced everything for the tank EXCEPT FOR THE STAND,PLUMBING, AND A QOUTE ON THE SUMP AND ATO TANK

Here is the total $2116.21
 
You can hang them. They even come with a hanging kit. Do you think I should go with a 150w or 250w light?
 
If I was you, I would try to find one that didn't have 4 24w T5s. If you could find one with 2 39w or 54w bulbs because there's no price difference between the sizes which means half the cost in bulb replacement.

Just a thought. :)

Brandon
 
Sorry... I wasn't clear. :)

I'm saying I would try to find a fixture that had 2 larger (39w = 36" : 54w = 48") T5 bulbs as opposed to 4 smaller (24w = 24") bulbs since every size is pretty much the same price. That way your bulb replacements will consist of buy 2 $20 bulbs instead of 4 $20 bulbs and would also give you the same coverage.

Its not a huge deal, but something I would look for personally.

If that doesn't make sense, let me know. :)

Brandon
 
you can't go wrong with a halide....I like the shimmer on the tank...Plus I love opening my hood to light up the street infront of our house....HA! Go halides that way you don't have to worry about what you can keep....HQI DYIreef pendent is cheap and works great
 
sINCE THE TANK WILL BE 24"Lx24"W I dont really want a fixture that is any longer than the tank. So I guess I will just have to buy 4 bulbs. Thanks anyway Brandon
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12582423#post12582423 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CKreef
sINCE THE TANK WILL BE 24"Lx24"W I dont really want a fixture that is any longer than the tank. So I guess I will just have to buy 4 bulbs. Thanks anyway Brandon
Click to expand...

Oh, ok man. Thats cool and makes sense then. I was thinking it was longer for some reason. :)

Brandon
 
which do you all prefer internal or external return pumps? If external which one? I plane on splitting the return with two loclines going intoo the tank how many gph should i look for? Thanks Chris
 
On a tank that size, I would go internal (it takes up a bit more sump space, but I'd say less space underneath overall and quieter to run). That's just my thought. Depending on your skimmer size and your bubble trap, you might not have that option in a 15 gallon sump.

I don't think there's any way you'd be able to push more than about 500 gph through a 15 tall sump (especially depending on your overflow design and plumbing). Mag5's are pretty cheap and it could be throttled back if it is too much. They run a little hot, but if you are going topless I would think that you'd have enough evap to offset a little additional heat. Good perk to a Mag5 is that, if you think you could use more flow or need more flow for something in the future, you can always just but a Mag7 impeller and upgrade the pump by 200gph for (I think) about $10. If you're looking for cooler/quieter/more reliable, I'd check Eheims... but I don't know what they have in that size range. I don't know if they fixed their restart issues, but my personal experience would indicate that you should stay away from quiet ones.
 
For the halide, if you want to keep sps, I'd go with a 250W. If a mixed reef with not much sps a 150W would probably suffice. If it were me, I'd look around a bit more for the pendant. It seems like you are really going for nice overall look (wanting to flush mount the controller, etc) and I think there may be sleeker looking pendants. That's more about physical appearance than how it will light the tank, though.

For the return pump, I'd go internal to keep the space down, but external would be ok. Mags are loud and generate a bunch of heat, IME. For an internal pump, I'd go with an ocean runner 2500. With about 4' of head I think it would be pushing around 400 gph. Since you are going with powerheads for your main display flow, you can get by with much less flow through the sump and could also go with an eheim 1250. That would put out about 200 gph at the tank. The OR and the Eheim pumps would be quiet, and the eheim setup would be the most quiet because it would have less water flow through the overflow/drain. If you go external, a nice quiet pump would be a panworld 40px. It would push around 300 gph or so at 4'. It's an awesome little pump. All three of these pumps have reasonably low power consumption which equates to not much added heat.
 
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