Critique my new Reef plans

[sweevo]

First of all, thanks for looking. These posts can be quite long winded and incredibly confusing !

 

To try and help i've drawn up some diagrams to try make life easier for everyone.

 

I'm planning to upgrade my current 35G setup (27G Main + 8G sump) in which I have kept softies (sarcophton, sinurlaria, mushrooms, anthelia etc) for nearly 3 years. The new tank I have opted for is a 24" cube but this time i'm going without a sump.

 

Initial plans are to bed the tank in with my existing softies for 3-6 months. After which I plan to try my hand at keeping LPS and then if successful at some point in the future introduce a small SPS frag or two.

 

So to begin with, taking two inches off the tank's height (estimate for max water level) would give me a 55G setup. All equipment for this new setup will be internal and will include a DIY unit which will surface skim, filter (mech and chem) and heat the reef water. The unit will have a Seio M620 PH fitted at the bottom which will be used to expelling water from the unit. I've built a prototype unit and tested in my QT to make sure the theory of it all is sound. Here's a rough diagram of the unit and how it will be installed. It's my own version of a Tunze Nano Cleaner but with much better flow and also the heating feautre.

 

 

I've discussed this with a few helpful people on RC so here's a link if you want more info:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1144393

 

 

 

FLOW:

 

I was planning on using 3 x Seio M620's ( 620G/ph x 3 = 1860Gph )

 

The combined flow is nearly 34x the tank volume. Would I be right in assuming this would be sufficient for LPS and SPS?

 

Their placement would be as follows.

 

No1 Top RH corner. Flow aimed at front of tank somewhere off center. Flow pretty much horizontal to create surface motion

No2 Top LH corner but deeper under water. Flow aimed at front of tank and on an upward elevation so that it will cross flows with No1 before reaching the glass

No3 Inside DIY Unit but positioned at bottom of tank and central. Flow aimed directly towards the front glass. The flow is intended to flow through the back of the LR construction.

 

Here's a few diagrams to make sense of all this! The green lines are an eggcrate construction for reef scaping.

 

M620 positioning looking through the front of the tank:

 

 

 

Intend directions of flow to create turbulence, ie no linear flow:

 

 

 

Side view to give an idea of how I intend to aquascape:

 

 

 

Using the eggcrate ( something better? ) I envisage that looking through the back of the tank would be something like this:

 

 

My line of thinking is that the flow through the back of the LR to the front will help improve natural filtration as not only will the water flow through a lot of the rock in the direction of the M620's flow, but that the flow will draw water from outside the LR structure into it too. It'll also help keep gunk off the bottom of the tank I hope as i'll be going BB. The eggcrate will be suspend above the glass floor by approx 1" to help with this.

 

I did wonder about adding a spray bar across the bottom of the rear of the tank but I can't make my mind up on this yet. I have an NJ2300 in my current setup and could use that is some way, shape or form I guess.

 

 

LIGHTING:

 

On my current reef I've got by on 48W ( 2 x 24W) of T5's. My softies have grown steadily over time and I've been quite happy with it. Obviously if i'm going to enter into stoney coral keeping I'm going to need more oomph. What I don't want however is a big jump in electric bills !!!

 

I've done a bit of lurking on these and other forums and I really feel I can upgrade to 150W MH unit and keep LPS and probably some SPS corals if I maximise exposure using simple coral positioning, ie closer to the surface and in more central areas where the light will be stronger. I know extra lighting would yield faster growth rates etc but I do feel that with 150W healthy and steady growth over time is possible. So do you think i'm barking mad and attempting LPS and ceratinly SPS with 150W MH is sheer folly or do you reckon i'll do ok with this?

 

 

SKIMMING:

 

Tunze Nano Skimmer . I'll be up to the max recommended level on this one but I won't be stocking fish to the max recommended levels. I could upgrade to the next skimmer in the range but then i'm right at the bottom of the scale!

 

The reason for opting for the Tunze is it's had good reviews, is internal and also very quiet.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to include it in all my diagrams which means one of the M620's would have to moved slightly, no big deal though I would imagine but thought i'd better mention it before someone else does.

 

HEATING:

 

Nice and simple. Two 150W heaters fitted inside the DIY unit. That way they're out of site, tank dudes can't get burnt and the flow through the unit will (I expect) help heat the tank efficiently.

 

 

I think that covers most bases, if I think of anything else i'll just add them to the thread. Thanks ever so much for reading all of this, hope it made sense and if you've any suggestions, opinions or recommendations please don't hesitate to post.

[strangelove]

Nice tank design, looks like you really thought this out. I suggest placing the heaters somwhere else and place liverock, or biomedium in there since it will be a light tight area for anerobic filtering to occur. Also you might want it easier to access your pump. I found it easier to do maintenance if everything isn't jammed together.

[sweevo]

Strangelove, introducing LR into the unit is quite a clever idea although getting the M620 out at the bottom of it all could be a pain!

 

Will mull over this option as I could have the two heaters installed on the tank floor and directly in the flow of the unit's M620 flow. That way they're still out of sight and in a high flow area. Hmmmmm.

 

Thanks for that idea.

 

 

Anyone else?