As an off shoot of my hair algae thread I thought I would post my ideal tank and see what others would have as theirs. While I would love something like Paul's or Steve Weast's, I simply have no place in my home for something like that. My ideal would be an oceanic 120 reef ready with the oceanic stand and a custom canopy. It would have 2 250 watt se radiums on HQI ballasts on the pfo reflectors (using one of these now for my 58) and as big a sump as I could fit while leaving room for a calcium reactor, external closed loop pump and a heat exchanger (more on that later). In the sump I would have a recirculating skimmer, either ASM, euroreef or deltec depending on funds, a refugium, and a return pump, probably an eheim 1250.
The flow through the sump would be kept low for a number of reasons, mainly noise and dwell times for the refugium and skimmer. I would use a closed loop pump of around 1500gph to 1800gph with two 3/4" sea swirls for the main circulation. I might drill for the intakes I might not, depends on if I could get it done professionally or how much oceanic would charge. If not use black pvc intakes placed along side the overflows.
Now the heat exchanger is something I have wanted to do with the existing tank but never had the funds or time to accomplish. The heat exchanger is something like here although I have seen them several places. The water circulates through it just like a regular chiller, but the compressor is placed outside the home just like a central air conditioner. You just run the freon lines through the wall, not water lines. The heater is also contained inside the exchanger. Gets the noisy and heat producing part of the chiller outside of the home. With a heater they were around $450 when I checked a few years ago. A compressor would run less than $1000 but would depend a lot on what I get. Control would be through the same controller as the calcium reactor.
Livestock would be something similar to what I have now, a clam or two, a dwarf angel, a goby or blenny, a tang (permanent resident this time), mostly LPS with a few lower light SPS, ricordia and zooanthids. I would add a few schooling fish like some chromis to the 120 over what I have now.
One thing that might be added is a phosphate reactor but I am unsure if I would need one. Have to wait and see. My time frame for actually setting this tank up is another three to four years.
What would be your ideal you could actually fit?
The flow through the sump would be kept low for a number of reasons, mainly noise and dwell times for the refugium and skimmer. I would use a closed loop pump of around 1500gph to 1800gph with two 3/4" sea swirls for the main circulation. I might drill for the intakes I might not, depends on if I could get it done professionally or how much oceanic would charge. If not use black pvc intakes placed along side the overflows.
Now the heat exchanger is something I have wanted to do with the existing tank but never had the funds or time to accomplish. The heat exchanger is something like here although I have seen them several places. The water circulates through it just like a regular chiller, but the compressor is placed outside the home just like a central air conditioner. You just run the freon lines through the wall, not water lines. The heater is also contained inside the exchanger. Gets the noisy and heat producing part of the chiller outside of the home. With a heater they were around $450 when I checked a few years ago. A compressor would run less than $1000 but would depend a lot on what I get. Control would be through the same controller as the calcium reactor.
Livestock would be something similar to what I have now, a clam or two, a dwarf angel, a goby or blenny, a tang (permanent resident this time), mostly LPS with a few lower light SPS, ricordia and zooanthids. I would add a few schooling fish like some chromis to the 120 over what I have now.
One thing that might be added is a phosphate reactor but I am unsure if I would need one. Have to wait and see. My time frame for actually setting this tank up is another three to four years.
What would be your ideal you could actually fit?
