Will this Seahorse tank setup be ok?

[biggredd]

I tried seahorse. org. Won't let me post even after registering but....

My plan is to make my own stand about 36" tall. I will use a 29 gallon - tall aquarium with a 15 gallon sump. I plan to drill the 29 so I don't need to use an overflow box. The water will run down to my sump where my heater will be. I will put a ball valve to adjust flow down to the sump. I'm guessing a 100 to 150 watt heater. I want to use a maxijet 1200 (rated 295 gallons per hour) as my return. I figure it will lose some flow in order to travel back up to the tank. So maybe 175 gph'ish? Don't really know. I plan to use a black flexible tubing up to the top of the tank and then run it into a piece of pvc that will go vertically in the tank with small holes drilled in various places so no detrius will build up. I figure I'll be around 5 or 6 times turn over - guestimate. I'll probably push for a 2" sandbed and probably 25# baserock 5 pounds live.

How does this sound so far?

The only 2 things I haven't decided on is lighting and filtration. I plan to do this on a budget since all my money goes into my 125 reef. I want simple lighting that can handle basic corals like a couple mushrooms or something.

As for filtration, again on a budget but still doing it right, I am not sure what to do. I have a pump for a Coralife 220 skimmer. I could build my own skimmer tube I guess but might be overkill with the amount of water that pump would push. any ideas on that?

 

[pledosophy]

Tanks sounds fine.

With that setup and a good amount of LR you won't necessarily need a filter. You could go all natural with a filter sock in the sump to get rid of detritus. If you want to go with a filter I like cannisters myself. Perhaps a Fluval or a Magnum.

Skimmers are great, just make sure it's in the sump, more the merrier unless you want to do a heavily planted tank in which case over skimming can compete with the macro's for nutrients.

If you want to get really fancy with your return and in order to help eliminate even more detritus you could run two MJ 1200's on a wavemaker connected to different spraybars, have one on the top of the tank as planned and one that goes behing the rock, just make sure you have a syphon hole on that one. You still get the low flow, but you also get alternating current so less detritus build up. Just a thought. It's my plan for my return on my 65 I'm building. I'll be running a CL sprayabr as well. I'm not a detritus fan.

HTH good Luck, your plans sound good. Keep us posted on your DIY skimmer, would love to see it.

 

[Fredfish]

I f your pump sits below the tank, I would use a preasure rated pump instead of maxijets. They will move a lot more water using a lot less hydro.

That said, my sump sits beside my tank, so I have no idea what a good small preasure pump is. I do know Eheim makes good pumps, but they are expensive.

For lighting, most anything will do. I tend to go for a good quality MH because it gives the best bang for your buck (par/watt, bulb life). In your case, probably something like a 150w Radium would be plenty.

If you don't want that much light over your tank, you could go for something like 96w pc.

It really depends what you mean by 'basic corals'

Fred

 

[biggredd]

I was only suggesting the maxijet so I could potentially do this on a , since I have a couple laying around. Plus since I don't need a ton of flow I thought this would be right around my target flow. I will probably do a pc light rather than an MH strictly because of cost (and bulb replacement cost as well) and I don't really want this to be a display tank for corals, I have my 125 for that. I just want some fun with this tank. I do have an extra pump for my coralife 220 skimmer but I think that thing is going to be rated pretty drastically high for my flow needs. I found a 30 tall for $30 but am holding out just a little longer to see if someone locally has one cheaper. (but I won't hold out too much longer). I have most of the material for the stand ready to go and some small pieces of live rock.

 

[Fredfish]

Well, give it a try and see how they work. I don't know how far up they will push.

Fred

 

[pledosophy]

MJ 1200's will push about 5 ft or so IME. You loose some flow to head, but it's worth it for the cost and ability to run on wavemakers IMO.

Other returns pumps that I like are the Iwaki, Mag Drives, Hikari, and Dolphins.

 

[pottsburg]

get a quietone pump. get it online at petsmart and you can save like 20 bucks