theres what i've drawn up in auto cad so far

dimensions are 30x16x16
the back filter area is going to be 6" wide so the length of the display will be 24"
in the back chambers at the first overflow i plan on making some acrylic boxes and using filter media from a canister filter
i will be using eheim substrat pro and ehfi mech. there will also be a carbon pad layer aswell as a sponger between the two filter medias. Basically what im trying to do is make a canister filter that runs on nothing but gravity . im wondering how well this will work in the long run. or if any one has any better suggestions
the refug area is going to be about 8"x6" so there will be plently of room for live rock and chaeto. The overflow into the next area is the return which will have my heater and a maxijet 900 pump with a ball valve to control flow.

please give me some input here, any knowledge would be greatly appreciated

what i know i needa do is change the top peice up to allow room for filter cartriges

changed the design a little bit. The top peice will be in two parts. The bracing will be around the display half of the tank, and there will be a lid to cover the over flow area.

a view of the peices so far.


the black box above the tank in the first pic is going to be my second led build. Hoping to figure out some dimming effects and computer control for the leds

There is no dougt it wii work (just look at the all in one section) are you going to run extra power heads pointed towards the over flow. If it was mine I would do the lengt with over flows on boath ends . Returns in the center chemical filter material one side refugium the other.

Im trying to keep the design as clean as possible an keep the amount of equipment low, ill be using a koralia nano on the other side of the tank pointig at the overflow

Sounds good to me as far as the filter. And the flow will be good in front of the return. I don't know what you are stocking it with but you should have plenty of light. A nano might not be enough for some corals in a 30 plus gallon tank .

i plan on making an led light system for this aio. Should have plenty of power to grow lots of softies. the rock is going to be set up peninsula style. i plan on using a 24 led array over the display and some sort of grow light for the refug might make a small led array to go over it using pc heat sink maybe?. Lighting is still out in the open on this one, until i have the funds for such extravagance. I'm hoping to grow some montipora's as well as zoas mostly. probably some blastos and gsp's. Also might buy a torch coral as well.

acrylic . as well as pvc fittings for the pump

tank is taped up to show the size of it. Im really liking it so far. I already know what to do with the rock scape

media rack is complete. Just used acrylic with holes drilled in it to hold the filter media

it holds 1 bag of each media type. Just needa find some filter pads and im set.