220gal 4' Square Rimless tank setup

[Dace]

I will be setting up a tank for a friend that will be 48"x48"x20". The tank will have 4 Sapphire panes with a center overflow and will sit on a 48"x48"x30" stand. It will have 1 2" drain and 4 wavy sea returns either connect to two ehiems 1262's. Each pump will be in sump and will feed two wavy sea per pump, or 1 external pump (sequence dart) feed all for wavy sea's.in sump will have 3 200watt ebojager heaters and 2 x two little fishes reactors for carbon and rowa phos. he will have a litermeter 3 to feed the 2 part ESV and auto topoff..this tank will sit in the middle of his living room. We can use any suggestion available. We still have to find some light for this application, as well as chiller, and most important is a skimmer that can go in sump. maybe Bubble Master or King. please feel free to chime in with any info that can help this setup run as smoothly as possible.
Thanks. David

 

[jhale]

I'd say go with a bubbleking 250, that's my next skimmer

For light what do you want T5 or MH?
Is there a way to suspend the lights over the tank, will it be an open top?

nice tank, same set up as jasons selling tanks over at GA

 

[Dace]

I'd say go with a bubbleking 250, that's my next skimmer

For light what do you want T5 or MH?
Is there a way to suspend the lights over the tank, will it be an open top?

nice tank, same set up as jasons selling tanks over at GA

The light will be some type of nice MH with T5 suppliments that can be suspended and the tank will be open top. as for the skimmer, that just what i was thinking of telling him to buy :biggrin: good choice

 

[pnoyreefer]

For a frienD :shhh:

 

[jhale]

it's a tough tank to light as far as the number of lights you have to use.

I'd look at 2 pendants with the MH and T5's combined. I'd guess the minimum MH bulbs your looking at is 4 to get the proper spread, 250DE's should do the trick.

If you just want to use MH then get the bulbs Randy uses, ushios 14K 250DE, no actinics needed with them.

fwiw, over the SPS selling tank I think Jason has 4 400 watt MH, plus the sun is hitting the tank all day.
He gets pretty good growth in that tank

 

[NYreefNoob]

the phoniex bulbs you wont need antic suppliment either. he could get 2 of the dual 250w mh
something like this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12779&pcatid=12779

 

[Dace]

For a frienD :shhh:

hey you, stop being a pain in the a$$..... when you see me post a friend of mine is setting up a tank that is 80 x36 x30.....then you could assume which you do well thats it's for me....

 

[boozeman]

sounds exactly like the display tanks at Grenwich Aquaria.
rimless, with center overflow and wavy seas returns....they used sfiligoi pendants as the light source.

 

[Dace]

Yes.this will be a hard tank to light. and my friend (huedrob) is a pain in the butt, he always want the best things, but good things cost money. this will be the biggest of the challenges for this tank. the lights that he uses on those displays cost allot of money. but there awesome....

it's a tough tank to light as far as the number of lights you have to use.

I'd look at 2 pendants with the MH and T5's combined. I'd guess the minimum MH bulbs your looking at is 4 to get the proper spread, 250DE's should do the trick.

If you just want to use MH then get the bulbs Randy uses, ushios 14K 250DE, no actinics needed with them.

fwiw, over the SPS selling tank I think Jason has 4 400 watt MH, plus the sun is hitting the tank all day.
He gets pretty good growth in that tank

 

[autoponicz]

for a cost effective skimmer....SWC just got the xtreme msx skimmers out...the biggest one is the msx250 with a 10" body and sicce pump
http://www.marinesolutionsinc.com/catalog/p133/MSX250/product_info.html

 

[Wes]

since the tank is shallow you can probably get away w/ 1x400w pendant raised a bit higher.

the sfilgoi sp? 400w infiniti xr6 pendant w/ 4x24 t5s would probably light up that tank real nice. It would look really nice having just one pendant hanging above the center of that tank.

Infinity XR6 Pendants Feature:

Innovative Reflector-The NEW Infinity XR6 features an innovative reflector design that maximizes the spread of light by using all of your bulbs power. The ANGLED T5 design keeps the light where it should be directed in your tank and not in your face. The XR6 Incorporates a NEW turned reflector (90 degrees over XR4-DE model only) this allows the MH bulb to run opposite the T5?s. This design offers a greater light output than previous models.

Stability-The external structure is made of painted aluminium featuring an internal tough frame made of galvanized steel; this means the pendant is extremely stable and there is no metal dilatation.

Wide Spread-Each XR6 Pendant will output a uniform light spread of 36? x 30?. Many clients have found a single XR6 suitable for lighting areas as wide as 48? x 48? comfortably.

No Fans-Two air intakes on the bottom and a pierced grill on the top let the air circulate through the lighting structure. In this way there is no need to install fans and consequently the pendant is very silent while working.

Compact-Natural ventilation and overall Pendant Stability allow the electronic ballasts for T5?s to be mounted inside the fixture rather than in External boxes.

 

[Bob 1000]

Daceman, I have 4 1in drains just to keep up with my dart..
Make sure you have enough drains for that pump... And enough drains to keep the sound low... Good Luck...

 

[jhale]

one 400W bulb over a 4'x4' tank might be good for watching fish and growing mushrooms, but I honestly think your going to need way more light than that.

You can raise one pendant high enough to spread the light over the tank, but at that height I'm afraid you will be loosing a huge amount of PAR.

Any idea of what the livestock plans are? it will be vastly different if it's set up for fish and softies vs. acro's and lps.

 

[huedrob]

one 400W bulb over a 4'x4' tank might be good for watching fish and growing mushrooms, but I honestly think your going to need way more light than that.

You can raise one pendant high enough to spread the light over the tank, but at that height I'm afraid you will be loosing a huge amount of PAR.

Any idea of what the livestock plans are? it will be vastly different if it's set up for fish and softies vs. acro's and lps.

I will probably be keeping everything. from a good amount of fish, to sps lps, Clams, and so on. so i see your point Jhale.

 

[masterswimmer]

Now this is a thread I'll be following closely. Sounds like it's going to be an amazing setup. I hope you plan to take lots of pix along the way.

Any info I can offer, please feel free to pick my brain. Most of the time it's mush, but when it works, things tend to work well

Good luck with what sounds like an amazing setup.

Russ

 

[Adamc1303]

David did you think of maybe going with H&S for the skimmer? I just got one 3 motnhs ago and I love it. I tried like 4 other skimmers before it, bubble master being one of them. I want to get a rimless tank very soon. Keep me posted on what you do for lighting. My main concern with not having a canopy is that I don't want the light blasting all over my apt.

 

[Dace]

Russ thank you for offering to help out. this tank will be ordered on tuesday and will take about 10 weeks to receive it so this thread will be around for a bit so feel free to chime in any chance you get.

Now this is a thread I'll be following closely. Sounds like it's going to be an amazing setup. I hope you plan to take lots of pix along the way.

Any info I can offer, please feel free to pick my brain. Most of the time it's mush, but when it works, things tend to work well

Good luck with what sounds like an amazing setup.

Russ

 

[Dace]

After Jhale recommended the Bubble King 250, I called him so he could read up on it. I know what it's capable of, but he is spending the bucks and he called me back a said " get that $hit" So i guess Bubble King it is.. Thanks Jon.

David did you think of maybe going with H&S for the skimmer? I just got one 3 motnhs ago and I love it. I tried like 4 other skimmers before it, bubble master being one of them. I want to get a rimless tank very soon. Keep me posted on what you do for lighting. My main concern with not having a canopy is that I don't want the light blasting all over my apt.

 

[jhale]

regarding the bubble king, I had a long conversation with Nick about them.
I was thinking of getting a BK400 for my system, he told me, no way, it will strip your
system in a day. He told me unlike many skimmers the ratings that are put on them by the company are actually conservative. The numbers given are minimums, not best case scenarios. So if the 250 says it will skim up to a 500 gallon tank, then that's what it will skim. the deluxe 250 is a serious piece of equipment. I'm looking at it to do what I wanted the bubble master 250 to do for me. The BM250 was a good skimmer, but it was just too touchy. I see a whole lot of them for sale, but it's pretty rare to see a BK for sale. I think that says something. I see so many people buying skimmers, and experimenting with new ones that come out, including me. I want my next skimmer to be the last one I will buy for a long time. I want it to outperform my expectations, I feed my tank quite a bit. I want my fish and my coral to be happy, not just one or the other. After speaking with Nick I'm convinced the bubble king will do this for me. Using only 45 watts is a huge bonus as well. There may be becket skimmers that could kick it's butt, but at more than 3 times the electrical use that's not for me.
getting of the BK soap box.

 

[juiceguy]

i have a BK180 on my 150g and it works flawlessly, set it and forget it. the skimmers pulls out some of the darkest skim mate i ever seen. the construction of this piece of equipment is very solid and cleaning is done in less than 5 minutes.....best aspects are construction, low wattage pump, extremely efficient, quiet and ease of use.