New tank setup

[hammerhead8090]

I am planning a new tank which will be 8' x 2'6" x 2'6". The tank will house mostly LPS (euphyillia, platygryra, favia, fungia, trachyphyllia) with a few soft corals (litophyton, capnella, sarcophyton, pachclavularia). The tank will have a 6" deep sand bed and several hundred pounds of live rock. I am planning on using Streams for the circulation. I have 4 main questions:

1) Which streams would be best (I am thinking the TS24)

2) How would you configure the pumps? One in each of the back corners? How far from the top?

3) How would you incorporate the overflow/return of the open loop to the sump. My current tank has an overflow on the left side of the tank with the return on the right side. If I repeated this, would the laminar flow of the closed loop negatively impact the performance of the streams? Should I place the overflow in the rear middle and have the return in the same place? This will be less convenient, but can be done if it will make a significant difference.

4) The TS24 incorporates a single moonlight into the system. What is the coverage of the moonlight? I had been thinking of installing 4 moonlights over the tank at 2' intervals. Can the controller handle 4 moonlights or should I do this separate from the controller?

 

[rvitko]

1) I don't recommend Streams for Euphyllias, they tend to respond poorly to the flow and may not open and start to decline. Your tank is large so a couple 6000's would be gentle enough that it could work. This would probably not be sufficient flow on it's own and would need to be coupled with a closed loop or a wavebox.

2) One in each back corner aimed to the front center about 6" from the top.

3) It would be fine either way but if you will get a wavebox the overflow is best centered and you will want at least 2" from the waterline to the edge of tank- in my opinion the ideal is the 2 6000 and a wavebox.

4) It comes with one 1w LED moonlight and no more can be added, if properly installed it covers a 6ft by 30" area fairly well. I think the mass merchandisers have confused people between "moonlight" and "nightlight" This is a moonlight, very dim, just like the moon, you can't really view too much by it except when it is in full moon phase.

 

[hammerhead8090]

Just to clarify:

When you say 6000s, you still mean the Turbelle stream 6000 (model number 6000.000) from the website? Or am I missing a totally different product somewhere?

I am a little unclear on the operation of the pumps from the website. If I run two 6000s with a (7091) singlecontroller and the Y adapter, do the pumps run simultaneously or does the controller have one pump on and the other off, alternating between the two? If they run simultaneously, does the addition of the wavebox achieve the same effect as running them in sequence?

BTW, I definitely plan on staying with the Tunze products for circulation. I had gotten recommendations to run 2 hammerheads for a closed loop for this tank. With the huge difference in energy consumption, I would break even on the system you were recommending after 1.4 years and save $363/year on energy thereafter (at current rates). Going with Tunze products instead of a closed loop seems like a no brainer to me.

 

[rvitko]

Yes, the 6000 or 6000.000

If you split then on a single controller they will both be doing the exact same thing, in general I don't like that arrangement for that reason, you don't have much control. The wavebox is totally different from any other flow product, it produces an actual wave, it has the flow effect of a wave, detritus is lifted and suspended but the water does not move laterally, it just rocks back and forth. It is a nice addition because it helps control detritus and the effect on the corals with them rocking in the current is very natural looking.

 

[hammerhead8090]

Then what you would recommend is to use 2 of the 6000s with the 7095 multicontroller and the wave box?

I am a little hesitant about the wave box, it is one additional piece of equipment in the display that I was trying to keep as free from equipment as possible. Plus it is an extra expense that I was not counting on. Would the return from my sump give enough extra circulation to skip the wave box or would you still recommend it? I am planning to have 2 x 2" bulkheads in the overflow, going to the sump with an Iwaki 100 RLT for the return. Since the return will be in the middle of the tank, I expect around 10' of head. I haven't decided how to control the output on the return yet. I may just use my current system of a T with loc line coming out from both sides of the T.

 

[rvitko]

The problem is the 2 6000's are marginally adequate, unfortunately 2 6100's is too much. The only other option would be if you can pile all the Euphyllias and non leather softies on one end and the others on the other end you could feasibly use one 6100 and one 6000. Otherwise you will need more flow, whether that is a wavebox, a closed loop or a couple 7400/2's is up to you. I don't think the return will be sufficient to replace anothe flow source. You could get by for a while with the 2 6000's but I think you will find some algae issues develop over time if you don't add more flow.

 

[hammerhead8090]

Thanks, that settles it! 2 x 6000s and the wave box all controlled by the 7095. Overflow and return to the sump will be in the rear center.

 

[rvitko]

The wavebox has it's own controller buit you can connect that controller to the multicontroller if you want to run the wavebox only some of the time.