Ideal Reef setup?

[shouse]

Without selling the house what would be the ideal setup for a
Reef tank, say around 100 gallons without going overboard?
Could you get away with just a canister filter and protein skimmer or is the whole wet/dry, sump, overflow and all the other goodies essential for maintaing a good system? I"m looking at more of the filtering and keeping the water clean part, not lighting. thanks

 

[bang guy]

In my opinion the Ideal reef of that size would be a 4' X 2' X 20" tall reef ready (drilled).
Waterflow of 1000 - 1500gph using spraybars
Live DSB of 4"
a 40 gallon breeder for a algae/pod refugium
20 gallon sump for heaters
A high quality skimmer
Live rock for aquascaping and to mount corals on.

 

[shouse]

How about a wet/dry and a canister and skipping the fuge?
I definitely would love to do a fuge but dont think i have the space for it.
What is the difference b/t a drilled in overflow and a hang on overflow? Drilled is out of the question for me now with the tank i have, what would be my other options?
thanx for your patience

 

[jlem]

The ideal reef setup would be as little filtration and as little maintenance as you could do. Hey that sounds like my tank
Live Rock
.5 inch sand bed
Bi weekly 10 gallon water changes
HOB Skimmer
And that is it

 

[shouse]

ah yes, i've seen your tank and comments earier today while digging around the threads. I like your style but not so sure i could pull it off. I already have a canister filter with a thick sand bed and 70lbs of LR and it's running pretty stable with 4 damsels but i keep hearing about people with all this stuff. I dont have anything finiky in there right now (corals, anemones, expensive fish) so i dont know how well it would handle with that. I'm really looking into this refugium thing, dont know how big of a tank i would need for it or how set it up. Where do u get the plants to put in it? do u use LR in it as well? Any inputs on this would be helpful. I've searched the threads already but i just dont seem to find the answers im looking for. thanks

 

[gregvabch]

dsb, liverock, macro's, a light. you can fit it right under your tank. if you look a little deeper on this site you'll find more info on them. it's one of the top 5 things that people are always talking about. type in "fuge" or "refugium" or even "diy fuge" or "diy refugium". just gotta do some reading...

 

[shouse]

thanks gregvabch. will do

 

[stapler]

I dont know if you already have a stand or are going to build one, but you could put the sump under the tank, and the refuge above the tank if you have some room up there.
Just an idea.

 

[jlem]

Originally posted by NORWAY
here is the best link for info on everything...including fuge and sump designs. info never ends
http://melevsree
You should not post links to other message boards, even if they get hardly any notice by hobbiest. SWF is a free site for hobbiest and should not be used as a launching platform for yours. Read the rules

 

[shouse]

I do have a stand already, 4 feet long.
I could hopefully mount all of that stuff in there.
What size of an aquarium tank for the fuge do u reccomend?
thanx

 

[stapler]

Bang guy stated you could set up a 40g refuge...which would be a good size for your tank.
When I eventually upgrade to a larger tank, I would like to build a stand where I can put a refuge above the tank. Its best to have the refuge above the tank so you can gravity feed the water from the refuge to the DT. Pumping water up from a refuge to the DT means all the pods and microfauna have to go through a pump(not good for them).:nope:
JMO:thinking:

 

[shouse]

interesting. I have no clue what i would use to make the refuge higher than the DT though. ALso i could not house it inside of my aquarium stand. Any suggestions on what i would use to make the refuge higher than the DT? THis means i would have to get a pump to pump the water from the DT to the fuge right? Also the 40g fuge, that's quite large for only having a 75g tank. Would the sump be included with the fuge than or would even that be an outside object along with the fuge? thanks for the help.