Time to set up my 72x30x30 tank...

[thirst]

I think that's roughly a 280 gallon tank?

I have 2 smaller tanks that I am planning to merge to seed the new tank. The other tanks are a 80 gallon + a 35 gallon.

What I currently have from all tanks:

1. Skimmer: Warner Marine K-2 skimmer. I am not going to stock this heavily, and can't afford to buy a new skimmer for now..., will this be enough for now?

2. Lighting: I have a couple of choices.
Currently on my 80 gallon, i have 2 250 watt MH in Lumenmax reflectors (at least I think they look like that). I don't think the spread will be enough for my tank? I will be keeping some SPS, but I don't want to go crazy and do like 3x400 MH.
Also i have Sfiligoi 12x 54 T5 set up that I could bust out of the box. I think if I raise it a tiny bit, it should be enough coverage.
The tank also has a canopy with a hamilton MH + VHO set up. Old school reflectors, not even sure if the ballasts are working.

3. Sump: It has a sump, I think roughly 3'x2' or so. It has a bunch of baffles, not sure if it will fit the footprint of my K2 or not given the amount of dividing going on. I as considering adding my sump from my 80 gallon, which currently houses the K2 okay, and use that as the skimming compartment, while leaving the other sump for other purposes, rdsb, etc.

4. plumbing: it has some plumbing, but I think some of them are kind of old... I figured I should consider buying all new plumbing for safety sake? What do you guys think? Should I order online or goto local shop ( I am located in socal)

5. Return pump: I currently have a Iwaki 30RLXT that I am using for the 80 gallon. I think it does like 800-1000 gallon per hour or something. Definitely not a super high flow rate, but I tend to not like So much water going thru the sump. What's the minimum flow rate that I should have? Should I change out my return pump?

6. Circulation. I have a combination of nanostream 6025, korrallia 4s, and an MP20. Nothing too grand. But I am thinking if I don't care about looks, I can just stick them all in and it should move the water sufficiently. Any thoughts?

7. misc stuff:
I have a kalk top off, i think its about 28 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter May consider getting a calc reactor later
I've got an aqua controller JR, monitoring the temp/ph, turning on/off lights, shutting down system if it gets too hot.

I've been putting this off for months, it's finally time to get started. Any thoughts and insights would be appreciated. I haven't been around the hobby for some time now, will be doing research to see what awesome new developments have occurred.

Will start taking some pictures and post

 

[Texastravis]

I am setting up a tank exactly same dimensions as you. Your welcome to check it out for any ideas.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1802407

1. Skimmer: Warner Marine K-2 skimmer. I am not going to stock this heavily, and can't afford to buy a new skimmer for now..., will this be enough for now?

I would personally get the biggest baddest high end skimmer you can get. Most important piece of equipment for your tank, ESPECIALLY if its a reef tank. I highly recommend the new Super Reef Octopus skimmers. IMO they have the BEST price vs quality ratio.

2. Lighting: I have a couple of choices.
Currently on my 80 gallon, i have 2 250 watt MH in Lumenmax reflectors (at least I think they look like that). I don't think the spread will be enough for my tank? I will be keeping some SPS, but I don't want to go crazy and do like 3x400 MH.
Also i have Sfiligoi 12x 54 T5 set up that I could bust out of the box. I think if I raise it a tiny bit, it should be enough coverage.
The tank also has a canopy with a hamilton MH + VHO set up. Old school reflectors, not even sure if the ballasts are working.

Three 250 Watt MH at a minimum for this tank. Although it depends on aquascaping and bracing placements. I think three of them are perfect though, thats what I am doing.

plumbing: it has some plumbing, but I think some of them are kind of old... I figured I should consider buying all new plumbing for safety sake? What do you guys think? Should I order online or goto local shop ( I am located in socal)

Shouldnt need all new plumbing. Just do a leak test and see. PVC is made to last a long time. If you say its "old" I am assuming this is a used tank. MAKE SURE that the seams are in good condition AND the tank is built properly to last a long time. You dont want to spring a leak later down the road. My thread gives a bit more detail on this but if you need some help let me know. Posting some pics will help.

5. Return pump: I currently have a Iwaki 30RLXT that I am using for the 80 gallon. I think it does like 800-1000 gallon per hour or something. Definitely not a super high flow rate, but I tend to not like So much water going thru the sump. What's the minimum flow rate that I should have? Should I change out my return pump?

900 minimum and 1500 maximum for that size sump. I have a larger pump for mine (3600 GPH) BUT I am running reactors and skimmer off of it, plus I will probably end up toneing it down anyways.

 

[thirst]

Thanks for all your advice. Will definitely keep that in mind. Here's just a picture of my doing a water test... didn't get to finish it, but filled it with a little water, will continue during the weekend

 

[Texastravis]

Ha nvm about those seams, looks like acrylic. Good ole peninsula tanks.

 

[thirst]

Yes it's acrylic. I had it refinished when I bought it. Buffed out all the scratches and reinforced some panels that didn't seem as strong. I'll post up more pictures of the refinishing job later.

 

[isseym328]

Sweet looking tank. When are the rocks going in?

 

[thirst]

probably in a few weeks, need to do some water testing to make sure it doesn't leak. probably going to need you to come over and help me move it!!

going to home depot and fish store to get some more plumbing stuff...

some more pictures

overflow, there are 2 return jets coming from each column

stand + sump

sump outlets, 2 for return pumps and 2 for

 

[thirst]

Plumbing is basically all done!. I've only got 1 return pump going right now, a MAG 18 that came when I bought the tank. I may plumb a second return pump using a Iwaki RXT30, which I think does 1200 or so.

Have 2 1 1/2 drains. Will post pictures later.

leak testing. Target transferring the tanks in 2 weeks!

 

[thirst]

some pictures

sump 42x22x16 (60 gallons or so)

sump from other end

Drain and return plumbing, keeping it pretty simple

one return pump plumbed. planning to have 2 return pumps plumbed for redundancy.

Water testing for leaks.

 

[thirst]

I've installed the hanging kit and the light fixture is in place!

Sfiligoi 12x54 T5s

The water leak testing is pretty much done. I now just need to make 160 gallons or so of RO water so that I can fill the tank. Maybe I can do the transfer this weekend!

Still haven't gotten better powerheads yet, so I think I'll just have to make do with my bunch of random powerheads that I have.

 

[thirst]

Room that the tank is going in

draining the water out of the tank for testing leaks, gave me a chance to wash the tank too.

T-2 days!

 

[thirst]

5 hours after getting water in the tank


still calibrating things

 

[isseym328]

Very cleaning looking J. I can't believe you still have so many toadstools. The mother toad looks like a monster!

I'll drop by to check it out one of these days. You'll have to drop by too I'm pretty much done except for the lights.

 

[Marc]

You might have an issue with your Mag Drive pump running externally like that. They leak and accumulate salt creep due to the thin o ring Danner uses for there Mag drives. You should run that pump internally because heat will destroy that pump as well running it outside the sump. Love the toadstools though. Im a huge toadtool fan!!!!

Marc

 

[thirst]

@ james.. yea i need to come check out your set up.. and i need u to come check mine out and give me any advice.

@ marc thanks for the info on the Mag. It came with the setup I bought. So at least to get it up and running, I wanted to get a return pump going. I have an Iwaki that I also plan to plumb in as a redundant parallel. Still going to be spending some time tweaking the set up, so any suggestion is certainly welcome.

Thanks!

 

[thirst]

bought some fish ... bought 10 chromis (they kind of just disappeared after i added it into the tank) a juvenile imperator, a foxface, and an anthia.

also changed out some bulbs. Now running 6 ATI Blue+, 3 Aquablue special, and 3 KZ Fiji Purple (used to have 6 Blue + and 6 Aquablue special)

 

[Paulairduck]

how do you like that light???

 

[thirst]

its pretty nice so far! I was using 250 Watt radiums before. The light is still very high off the tank, trying to acclimate it slowly. I dont' have much to compare to though, never used a T5 before. What kind of lights are you running?

 

[thirst]

added a dual NextReef MR1 media reactor. One chamber will house EcoBak, the other probably carbon.

here's the plumbing, t'ed it off my return pump. For return, I decided to use 2 Mag 18s for redundancy. I am not always around watching this tank, so if a pump were to fail, it would be good to have the tank still running.

 

[thirst]

decided to reaquascape the tank. Wanted bigger islands so that i can put more corals on them.

The frag rack that i had in the middle, i broke it up into 3 long pieces so that I can put along the perimeter of the tank at the bottom. that way i can still have a place to put frags.