Hello everyone I am so happy to say I will be starting my tank build at the end of summer. This is an overview of me and what I plan to build and hopefully get some good advice. For the past 5 years I have not had a tank. I have had a lot going on with wedding. Kids. Moving from North Carolina back to NYC. In this time, I have been saving up slowly to build a dream tank. The display will be 72"30"24" in the living room. For my filtration I will be plumbing through the wall into my 90 gal which will be my refrugium tank. From there water will flow into another tank (40gal breeder) which will be my sump. From my sump it will go down to another 40 gal breeder which will be my frag/ quarantine system. That last tank will be able to be isolated for quarantine purposes. I will have a 55 gallon bin for RODI water/ATO. And another for mixing saltwater for water changes which I want to plumb in an easy water change if not automatic for easy water changes. I will be getting an apex system to control everything which will be my first. All of my other tanks in the past were all manual labor for cleaning. Buckets paper towels etc. looking to run a much more clean and hassle free system. Or as much as possible. In my five I was gonna run filter sock but am curious about the theiling roller mat. Second section of that 90 is for some marine pure. Porous material for batteria growth. Then into a more display looking fuge. Most of the 90 gallon will be fuge. A lot of macro algae and some more rockwork and I am gonna try out a few mangroves (more for the looks). In the sump (first 40gallon breeder) I am gonna have my skimmer. Calc reactor. Heaters. Carbon/GFO reactor. The frag tank (second 40 gallon breeder) there will be nothing. No sand rockwork. When nothing is in quarantine or don't have frags out I will still run that tank in series even if just to add water volume to the system. That is where I am as of now everyone and would love some input from you senior members here on which skimmer. Calc reactor. Anything else in fuge or sump. Also just input on overall system and anything that I maybe missed or may want to look into? Anyone use the theiling roller mat with good results. Worth replacing filter socks? Good wave boxes or pumps for circulation in the tank? Really any input will be greatly appreciated and thank you all up front for your time and knowledge!
Advice for my 220 gal build?...
- Thread starter Majorbx1
- Start date
Welcome back
Personally would put the skimmer in the first section where water comes from tank so it has a chance at dirtiest water. Would also leave room for it just in case, but would plan to run no sock or auto mat thing. Also would try to avoid carbon or go reactor. An algae turf scrubber can remove lotsa nitrates and phosphates in a fairly small space, and doesn't need the expense of being fed media. Some go skimmer-less after an ats is running in full effect. Me thinks a skimmer is good either way and would also go at least double size of what's recommend for skimmer, and imo reef octopus is the best bang for buck these days.
Personally would put the skimmer in the first section where water comes from tank so it has a chance at dirtiest water. Would also leave room for it just in case, but would plan to run no sock or auto mat thing. Also would try to avoid carbon or go reactor. An algae turf scrubber can remove lotsa nitrates and phosphates in a fairly small space, and doesn't need the expense of being fed media. Some go skimmer-less after an ats is running in full effect. Me thinks a skimmer is good either way and would also go at least double size of what's recommend for skimmer, and imo reef octopus is the best bang for buck these days.
- Location
- Brooklyn
What kind of corals do you want to keep? I am having good results with sps running a bacteria driven system. Lots of flow in the display filter socks a huge skimmer media block and spheres. I dose prodibio and do bi weekly water changes. I run GFO to remove po4. In the long run you have to come up with a way to remove po4 and algae only removes 1:16 parts po4 to no3. I run carbon from time to time to polish my water. There are plenty of ways to run a tank I think you should figure out what you want to keep and then look into different systems. With the water volume you're going to have a calcium reactor is probably the way you should go. Are you planing on sand or bare bottom. If you're going to use sand keep in mind you might want to go with a coarser grain to keep it from causing sand storms. The fine grain sand looks cool but it's hard to run a nice clean system with that sand because you have to keep the flow low.
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Really not trying to be a contrarian for funzies, just discussing some points brought up for consideration.
Coarser sand will not blow around as easy, and is also easier to vacum, but that's where it's advantages end. Sand sifting livestock won't be as happy, it doesn't have the same bio capacity, and can contribute to cyano and whatnot.
1:16 po4 to no3 is not set in stone. Things like size/amount, lighting, flow, and type of macro can make a huge difference in that ratio.
Water volume is a contributing factor in deciding whether or not a calcium reactor is the way to go, but imo more important is tank's demand, how complicated you want to get, and how much money you want to spend. Aswell as something you could add later if you need or want to.
At first spending time doing things like cleaning and changing socks and media doesn't seem too bad, but it gets old fast. There's plenty you'll have to do, even with the best laid out planning. Don't make it harder than it has to be.
Coupla more things...
-Go big and keep it simple. Except when it comes to your return pump. Think this is one of the biggest pitfalls ppl fall into which leads to many nuisance issues. Which then you have to figure a way around. Like a chiller to lower temps, and a fuge that's not as effective leading to algae and whatnot outbreaks. Return pump, with head pressure figured in, should return 4-6x the display tank's water volume per hour. More is not better.
-With so many ways to skin this cat, so many ppl trying to sell you stuff and their ideas for whatever reason, and so many variations in tank's, set ups, livestock, etc., it's hard to get good straight forward advice that will help for your application. Find someone, or a few someones that actually have an awesome successful tank that make it look easy, and do as they do.
?An idiot repeats his mistakes. A smart man learns from his mistakes. But a genius learns from the mistakes of others.? - unknown
Coarser sand will not blow around as easy, and is also easier to vacum, but that's where it's advantages end. Sand sifting livestock won't be as happy, it doesn't have the same bio capacity, and can contribute to cyano and whatnot.
1:16 po4 to no3 is not set in stone. Things like size/amount, lighting, flow, and type of macro can make a huge difference in that ratio.
Water volume is a contributing factor in deciding whether or not a calcium reactor is the way to go, but imo more important is tank's demand, how complicated you want to get, and how much money you want to spend. Aswell as something you could add later if you need or want to.
At first spending time doing things like cleaning and changing socks and media doesn't seem too bad, but it gets old fast. There's plenty you'll have to do, even with the best laid out planning. Don't make it harder than it has to be.
Coupla more things...
-Go big and keep it simple. Except when it comes to your return pump. Think this is one of the biggest pitfalls ppl fall into which leads to many nuisance issues. Which then you have to figure a way around. Like a chiller to lower temps, and a fuge that's not as effective leading to algae and whatnot outbreaks. Return pump, with head pressure figured in, should return 4-6x the display tank's water volume per hour. More is not better.
-With so many ways to skin this cat, so many ppl trying to sell you stuff and their ideas for whatever reason, and so many variations in tank's, set ups, livestock, etc., it's hard to get good straight forward advice that will help for your application. Find someone, or a few someones that actually have an awesome successful tank that make it look easy, and do as they do.
?An idiot repeats his mistakes. A smart man learns from his mistakes. But a genius learns from the mistakes of others.? - unknown
Last edited:
- Location
- Bergen county
Here are some pic of sump n water changing station the box under water container on right is where my ato is. Open faucet and fill lol.
- Location
- Bergen county
having problem uploading pics
- Location
- Bergen county
Pic
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