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Originally Posted by theSmurfette
Well, it's done and I'm not going to completely change out the water. I assume that he is aware of the contaminants found in our local water supply and feels that Prime treatment is adequate. They have an excellent reputation in the local saltwater community so I trust their advice. Over time and water changes, the contaminants should become so diluted that it shouldn't affect anything.
I'm going to have dual overflows to avoid issues with clogging. The setup is very similar to how a drilled overflow works, it just uses hydrostatic pressure to push it up and over the back of the tank to get to the sump. We're handy people so I don't doubt that we can modify the design if we run into problems with keeping the system primed. I have a whole home generator for power outages and will probably add a small UPS for the 90 seconds it does take to switch over.
Comparing the light I purchased with a Current LED, my lighting is very similar. The only difference is that the Current has more blues in a slightly different wavelength, I think. It has a night and day setting. I'll eventually upgrade but, for now, it'll do its job while we figure out our salt tank (and remaining in my son's budget).
What is the recommended pump flow rate for a sump return? 200GPH would turn my tank over 4x/hour.
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If you trust the LFS, then by all means go on their advice.
In a loss of power, your tank will only restart your overflow if the siphon remains unbroken. Once the siphon is broken, hydrostatic pressure can't push over the top of the pipe at the U-bend... without also pushing over the sides of your tank onto the floor.
I know newer models include an air-pump to draw out air from the siphon tube. That is the most common reason for failure, bubbles in the tank build up at the top of the inverted' U' that goes over the tank and cause it to lose siphon. If you are handy you'll be able to figure out a way to make a similar system yourself I'm sure!
The light you got has more white lights at a higher value, while the orbit marine one has a higher blue light spread, with the whites at a lower value. (More 6.5K white rather then all 10K white)
The reason for this is white light in a reef tank tends to promote algae growth more then blue. But lights are the area of reef-equipment I am the least familiar in, so I'll have to leave that for someone else to weigh in on more then I can. My lights came with my tank when I bought it, so I've never delved deep into researching them.
Pumps are a little unreliable to use the rated GPH because it always drops off once you elevate. However the flow-rate in your tank can also be bolstered by powerheads, so it can be split up between powerheads or returnpump.
Commonly tossed around numbers I've seen is you want to limit your sump flow rate to about 3-4x the tank volume, but the flow in the tank should be around 10 to 20 times the tank volume. I believe that was the most common number I found for a basic reef tank, and its where my own is at, but I know people with SPS sometimes run more flow then even that.
That being said, I was looking for LPS and soft corals. If you are doing fish only I don't know if it needs to be that high.
So if you had a sump, you'd want 200 GPH to the sump at the high end, but you'd also want another 800 to 1800 GPH of flow in your tank from powerheads.