Need your equip expertise!

[kadella]

Hi All, love the boards - this is the best place for good info! Anyway I am in the process of purchasing everything I need for my 1st SW. It is a 55 gal, undrilled. It will be a FOWLR to start, if I get totally addicted, I will upgrade to a much larger pre-drilled tank with sump/refugium setup. Anyway, I'm in a rural area - and the local recomendation is to just buy the most expensive Eheim canister out there.. From what I've gathered, this is not a best choice for SW. I would like to use a sump for this tank, but don't understand exactly all the parts I need to buy... Plus I could contain my heater & aqua c rem. skimmer down there, right? Here's my confusion: So, I buy a marineland wet/dry sump setup... then I need to buy either a 10 or 25 gallon tank or container? Then buy an HOT overflow box, then buy a pump to go in it? Then get another pump for the return? Also need to buy all the hoses/tubes to run the water? Help? Could someone help me and recommend an approp. equipment list for this setup? Really not into doing any DIY plumbing for this setup... will definitely look into it, if I go bigger in coming years... Thanks in advance, sorry sounds so dense, new to the sump idea! :joy:

 

[jumpfrog]

If you go with a non drilled you will need a hang on overflow to get water to your sump.
If you haven't purchased your tank yet, you may want to consider the predrilled. Less hassle in the long run and you never have to worry about your overflow losing siphon and stopping.
If you shop around you can get complete sump systems with all the hoses and hardware you need. The one I bought for a 125 even came with the hang on overflow. All you have left to buy is a return pump. The size of the pump will be determined by the number and size of overflows and the amount of distance, especially heigth of the distance from pump to top of tank (return). It sounds more complicated than it is. Sump is definately the way to go compared to a canister.
Hope that helps!