My 322 gallon setup plan! Help welcome.

[Shmax]

I'm moving to a new house in 6 months, and I've got the workings of a really nice setup that I'm planning on putting in as soon as we move. I currently have a 125 reef in the living room, with all the fixins', 750 watts of hqi halide lighting, actinics, the works. Today I happened upon the deal of a lifetime! A guy came in to work and was telling me he's moving back to Japan, and needs someone to come tear down his aquarium and get rid of it, so I start asking him questions. Turns out he's had this 125 set up for 5 years, stand/canopy/mh lighting/sump, all the equipment, 300 lbs of live rock, a dozen or so miscellaneous fish, and some corals. He's literally giving the tank and livestock away for free... all he wants is someone to come get it. So tomorrow that's exactly what I'm doing. Anyway, my plan is this. In the new house, I'm going to run my current 125 in the living room as the display reef. I'm going to use the second 125 as the main sump, and a 72 bowfront I have sitting in the garage as a refugium. What I would like to do is have the reef upstairs, focus on corals, sps, lps, and then do seahorses in the 72 with macro algae and plenty of chaeto for pod growth. Then in the "sump", I'd like to use that 300 lbs of live rock as my main filtration, and section off the last 2' for the return pump, using the other 4' as a fish only/non reef critter tank. I figure that way, I can have my cake and eat it too... so to speak. Unless I'm missing something, I think I can effectively house seahorses, corals, and predatory species in one system. Please feel free to point out anything I may have overlooked, which I'm sure there's something, but in this idea's infancy, I don't see any reason why I can't pull it off. Thanks guys!
Chris

[Playa-1]

:thumbsup:
Nice score dude. You don't run across deals like that everyday.
I think it's doable with some special consideration given to plumbing obviously.

[Nano Chris]

Deal of a lifetime i think ur plan is awesome. Good luck with that.

[Shmax]

Yeah I couldn't believe the deal! I gave the guy $100 just because it's all I had cash on me today. I couldn't take all that for free. What an amazing setup he had going. All coralline covered, beautiful. I can't wait to set this all up in the new place. For now though... my living space is being invaded by an extra 125 gallon fish tank I really don't have room for.... haha, the girlfriend is less than thrilled!

[frank2926]

Good Luck.
you should seedavid Saxbies aquarium. The owner of Deltec.
He has a huge aquarium, but his theory was/is to have way more total system water than display. What I am getting at is you are putting critters in most of the available space gallonage whatever. If you used all of that extra water with nothing but rock and or macro you would end up with an almost fool proof reef. You would be able to really pack in the display tank with animals from coral to anthias and not worry much about overfeeding because of all the system volume. I will see if I can find the link for Davids tank. again good luck with whatever you decide! :)

[frank2926]

Here is a Utube vid of his tank. You have to get about 30 % in to the video to see it for some reason the first 30% is bad, I do not know how they made a bad video of this tank. It is Amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJafBtRDTok

Here is a pick and description of the system. I was a little off in my first post. His tank is 1700 gallons with a 1500 gal sump. So in other words almost as much sump as display is how he is able to pack this thing with fish.
http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/photos/readerphotos/davidsaxby.htm

[Shmax]

Thanks for the suggestion, and I had thought about that also. I stocked the reef pretty heavy on corals, but very light on fish, right now I have 7 fish in the 125, and other than the purple tang, none are bigger than a sunburst anthias. I was thinking of packing the 72 with macros, and I'm looking into the benefits of using large sponges as another bio export tool in the fuge. I'm thinking of doing a trigger, harlequin tusk, and maybe a red coris wrasse in the "sump". Just a few of the fish I really wanted to have but can't because of the reef critters they'd destroy. The idea is still young, but I think I can utilize the added volume, lightly stock each section, and get the bonus of the extra water volume as long as my stock is low.