65 Gallon Reef build

[jonw59]

Alright I'm in the process of building my first reef tank as well as upgrading from my 29 gallon fish only tank. The tank is 36"x18"x24" with a drilled outflow, I think I would like to have a variety of corals lps, polyps, soft corals and an anemone. I think as far as lights I am going to go with the reefbreeders photon32 after a bit of research they seem to be the best value LEDs out there. I'm going to try and use my 29 gallon as the sump/refugium unless I find it difficult to maneuver under the stand I will use a 20 gallon. I'm leaning toward setting up a refugium, this is mostly because one of my favorite fish is the Mandarin Goby and from everything I've read this seems like a must in order to sustain their diet. I was thinking something simple just 3 chambers protein skimmer then refugium then return pump. I was planning on using one power head on the opposite side of the outflow. Like I said I am fairly new to this and still in the info gathering stage, any advice or comments would be great. I will try and upload pictures at each stage of the process.

My questions:

Any positive or negative comments on the photon32?
Should I included any additional filtration in the refugium? Some can get pretty complex I was going for simple and easy
What size return pump and power head would be adequate for this set up?
The current heater I have is only a 75W is that strong enough to heat ~85 gallons of water?
Is there anything I'm missing or need to consider?

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jonw59 http:///t/396421/65-gallon-reef-build#post_3532139
Alright I'm in the process of building my first reef tank as well as upgrading from my 29 gallon fish only tank. The tank is 36"x18"x24" with a drilled outflow, I think I would like to have a variety of corals lps, polyps, soft corals and an anemone. I think as far as lights I am going to go with the reefbreeders photon32 after a bit of research they seem to be the best value LEDs out there. I'm going to try and use my 29 gallon as the sump/refugium unless I find it difficult to maneuver under the stand I will use a 20 gallon. I'm leaning toward setting up a refugium, this is mostly because one of my favorite fish is the Mandarin Goby and from everything I've read this seems like a must in order to sustain their diet. I was thinking something simple just 3 chambers protein skimmer then refugium then return pump. I was planning on using one power head on the opposite side of the outflow. Like I said I am fairly new to this and still in the info gathering stage, any advice or comments would be great. I will try and upload pictures at each stage of the process.

My questions:

Any positive or negative comments on the photon32?
Should I included any additional filtration in the refugium? Some can get pretty complex I was going for simple and easy
What size return pump and power head would be adequate for this set up?
The current heater I have is only a 75W is that strong enough to heat ~85 gallons of water?
Is there anything I'm missing or need to consider?

1. You already know my opinion about ReefBreeder products. I think that it's a good fixture to have on a budget as far as LED lighting goes.
2. Filtration through the refugium is provided by the critters and macroalgae residing there. I wouldn't worry about adding mechanical filtration to this section.
3. I like Mag Drive pumps and Quiet One pumps. You should be aiming for about 10x your tank volume going through your sump - so a Mag Drive 7 (700gph) will be adequate, or a Quiet One pump with similar GPH. You don't want torrents of water running through sumps that have refugiums,... or skimmers for that matter. Powerheads are up to you. Some corals like more water movement than others. You might should try out a Jebao WP25, since it is cheap and controllable. A WP40 might not be a bad choice if you can dim it down.
4. I would suggest going with a 100w titanium heater. My last two glass heaters broke and electricuted my tanks. Seems like I would have learned better the first time.
5. Consider your RO/DI water. Make sure that you are getting 0TDS coming out of it to prevent ammonia and chloramines from getting into your system. This was the downfall of my last aquarium. Make sure you get a TDS meter and monitor the TDS of all the water you are using for your tank. If you can, design a RO/DI filtration system that suits your needs to your specific area.

 

[mr llimpid]

If you want a mandy, you'll need a section of your sump to grow out macros with LR for pods to have safe haven to grow. A complete set of good quality test kits for everything. Have a refractor meter and PH meter will save you money in the long run. And of course a QT!

 

[jonw59]

Okay a quick question on the refugium Im planning on building. sorry about the crappy drawling and photos bare with me. Originally I was thinking of just using 2 pieces of acrylic to build the 3 chambers and the flow working like so. but after thinking about it im unsure the water would actually get mixed or if the top would just run off into the next chamber.


So then I thought of this idea. its the same concept but using a total of four acrylic pieces, two pieces at each chamber division forcing the water to be drawn from the bottom.


let me know if you think these will work the more criticism the better. If those pictures aren't adequate at showing what im talking about let me know and Ill come up with something else.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Usually people pick an under, over, under style of baffle system for sumps with protein skimmers. In general, you will want an over, under, over style of baffle for refugium sumps, and you will want to run about 10x the water volume through the sump or less so that the algae will have lots of contact time with nutrients.

The reason for the over, under, over style of baffle is because most people put sand in their refugiums, and if the water went under the first baffle, you couldn't put sand in the chamber.

The water should mix well in the refugium side of the sump either way you do it.


One thing is for sure... if you have a refugium, make sure you have plenty of access to the sump so that you can clean, harvest, and keep it nice and neat. Dirty refugiums don't necessarily translate into clean display tanks.


What type of tank are you setting up? Softie? mixed? SPS?

Generally, modern SPS tanks don't have refugiums.

 

[jonw59]

Im thinking LPS, softies, and an anemone. But I would like to get a Mandarin and be able to sustain him without constantly adding copepods to my tank. I took space into account over quantity in the stand and decided to use my 20 gallon instead my 29. Im a little confused to what as to what your saying with the baffles. So for the protein skimmer to refugium section I should make it like I have it drawn in the second picture, where the water goes under than over. For the refugium to return pump just have it go over like in picture one. Is that correct? Another question do I need to make some sort of bubble catch too?