help me build my 90g sps semi cube

[oosurfin]

ive been thinking about building a new tank and ive tossed around some ideas in my head and here what what im thinking so far. there are lots of people in this forum with great tanks and id love feed back on my ideas. i would prefer a glass tank but i think i might have to go with acrylic.

i want to go bare bottom with this tank.

option 1: have a 1/4" black acrylic panel added by the mfg on the bottom of the tank with a 1" space between the front, left and right sides and flush with the back.

option 2: get starboard and cut it myself (pain in the butt)

i would also like to do some kind of peg system on the bottom to elevate my rock structure so it isnt resting on the bottom of the tank. i think this would do a great deal of good for water flow and detritus removal.

i think id like the pegs to be 1" tall and 1/2" wide cylinders


tank

36"x24x24 with a built in external over flow box scc tank the one at the very bottom of the page. it doesnt have to be done by SCC but everyone seems very impressed with their tanks.


flow

id like the tank drilled for a closed loop. im thinking i can accomplish all my flow with a single closed loop

pump

sequence barracuda (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~MM1143.html) or hammerhead (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~MM1158.html)

OM8way: OM8 (http://www.oceansmotions.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=33&osCsid=b510bff36d696eddcc950c3abe80957a)

i want two 2" bulk heads 4" from the bottom panel in the middle 12" apart for CL intake

and the way i want to do the returns is
2 x 1" bulk heads in the front bottom corners 3" from front and side panels

4 x 1" bulk heads in the back panel. not really sure how i want position these quite yet.

either 2 x 1" bulk heads up front or 4 x 3/4" bulk heads in each corner of the euro bracing on top of the tank. not really sure on this one quite yet

return

and then there is the return from the sump. which will be an ehiem 1262 on a wavy sea (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~wavysea~action~view~idProduct~WY1111~idCategory~FIWMIW~category~WavySea_Wavema ker___Black_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Wavemakers_Internal~vendor~.html)

skimming

they say over skim a bare bottom tank so thats what i want to do with a deltec ap702 (http://deltecusa.us/proteinskimmers/ap702.php). i want to gravity feed this directly from the overflow and i think with my return pump of choice i will be hitting the recommended water flow for this skimmer.

lighting

here is where im running into trouble. i dont really want to have a canopy on my tank because of heat issues so i think i want to hang a single LAIII 10" from the waters surface but im unsure of what ballast/bulb combo i want to do. id also like to add 2 x 39w t5's to supplement actinic and make the lighting look a little more even.

sump/fuge

really not sure how im going to do this one yet but i plan to make the stand at least 48" long

ca/alk supp

i plan on doing a reactor im thinking a schuran reactor

im not sure what else to do so send me some equipment ideas and configurations ill still need some kind of chilling options to go along with this as well as controllers and possibly UV so start shooting out some ideas

thanks in advance

justin

[oosurfin]

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[rishma]

I have a similarly shaped tank, 30x24x22. I am currently redesigning the system with ideas similar to what you have stated above. Though not such an insanely large skimmer :eek2:

a couple of comments:

I have tried using pretty large pumps for my closed loop - 4 holes in the euro brace. The heat dumped into the water by a 2.0 amp pump was a problem. My next attempt will use ~100 watt pump with penductors for flow. I think I'll add two tunze 6055.

LAIII with a 175w 15K Iwasaki with hello lights ballast for me.

I avoid chillers by trying to minimize watts and using computer fans.

good luck.

[scaryperson27]

Yeah, that skimmer is a bit ridiculous. If you overskim, you might skim some of the desired nutrients in the tank.

[oosurfin]

the idea with the skimmer is it will get used on a larger tank at some point. what skimmers could everyone recommend? id like something external i think.

[oosurfin]

rishma,

what large pump were you using? different pumps dump different ammounts of heat and from what i understand the sequence pumps run very cool because of a built in fan on the back of the pump. as far as a chiller goes, it will be mandatory seeing as i live in vegas and right now avg temp is 110 F with upper 90's at night i will do what i can with some fans and an open top but i dont want to be using 10g a day of top off water.

what pump are you looking into for powering your CL? dont you need a very strong pressure rated pump to make penductors actually work?

[GSMguy]

youl be fine with that great skimmer.

[rishma]

it is a great skimmer, really really great. You will be fine, just a little poorer. I am thinking DAS Ex-1 or Ex-2 for mine, which is not in the same league but will be more than adequate I think.

oosurfin,

I used a GRI 520 pump. These are high quality, pressure rated, fan cooled pumps. I think you are correct that the sequence pump will generate less heat because it is lower RPM, but you do not have a large volume of water. With an inevitable chiller, I think the sequence will work great for water flow. I am just hoping for a lower wattage option.

If you mod penductors or make some DIY penductors, you can get them to work with lower pressure pumps. They are not as effective (5:1) but you can get more/widely dispersed flow.

I am strongly considering a Laguna Maxflo 2400. Very efficient pumps, though not widely used on closed loops. I am trying to stay with a pump that uses 1" output rather than 1.5".

[oosurfin]

i agree the deltecs are waaaay expensive. im going to try and pick one up used and save myself some money. even the Euro reef skimmers are almost as expensive as deltecs. with expensive on the mind check this out bubble king mini's (http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bubbleking) these look pretty awesome and dont have the even higher price tag. do you have any links for the das skimmers? i read a little something about them and people seem to like them from what i can tell. as far as out puts go you can always use a reducer right before your next hook up down to 1". is this the right pump http://www.lagunaponds.com/lagunaeng/maxflopumps/maxflo2400.php?link=141 i just looked it up and it seems fairly nice but there it doesnt allow for very much head pressure. why not look into a sequence dart? they are only 160w draw not much more than your laguna pump but maybe a little nicer. with my last tank i made lots of little changes that didnt help me much and just cost me money. i really want to make my next tank the right way the first time so its just not a thought in the back of my mind.

[rishma]

There are no good links for DAS skimmers, but there is a DAS skimmer club thread here. They are deltec designed from a few years back. They use aquabee pumps, which are very good IME. They are sold by pet-o-rama and protien-skimmer.com (orca).

bubble kings are super nice, but my next skimmer will be a recirc. I cannot justify a recirc bubble king for my tank.

Darts do not handle head pressure well either. they are not designed for head, they are designed for flow. My tank is not plumbed to accomodate a 2" suction like the dart. reducing down to a 1" would really hurt the efficiency of the Dart. CLosed loops are low head pressure applications by definition, so a non-pressure rated pump is the way to go in my opinion.

I think 2900 GPH for 130w is pretty good. I didnt see the head pressure curves. where are they??

[oosurfin]

i just saw a head pressure chart in the pdf with the pump on page 7 of it it says head pressure caps out at 12ft and a max depth of 6'6"(not real sure what that means) no curves unfortunately. i agree that 2900gph is good for 130 watts. i just wonder what it drops to at 6" of head, it may have a similar curve as the dart

[oosurfin]

i didnt realize the dart capped out at 12ft of head. interesting

[oosurfin]

maybe someone with experience with the barracuda pump can chime in. what im reading about the pump is "min. static head pressure is 10' " what exactly does that mean? will the pump not run if there is less head pressure? meaning this is a 3k gph pump at 10ft of head.