Changes to my 210

Hi:

I've touched on this in a couple prior threads, but am a firm believer of final idiot checks in this hobby. ;D

Summer is coming and my office 210 just runs too hot. It limits the corals I can support and tends to cause higher than desired NO3 levels. I've decided to add a chiller. As long as I'm at it I'm looking at other upgrades. I'm looking for comments and recommendations.

I've purchased a 1/3rd hp Prime Tower as the chiller. At $555 delivered it seems to be a lot of bang for the buck and has a fairly small footprint.

Currently I have a medium sized, 25ish gallon, W/D with bioballs with circulation being handled by a Dolphin Ampmaster 2700. A separate MD55 clone is driving the skimmer.

I am planning on replacing the W/D with a 40 gallon custom sump. The Ampmaster is starting to get noisy so I was going to use a almost new MD100rlt sitting in my basement. Since the MD100 is a much higher pressure unit I was planning on using it to drive everything under the tank including my DIY Becket skimmer. I'm not planning on doing a DSB in the sump as I have 300 lbs of sand in the show tank. I will grow macro in it.

Since I'm adding the chiller, I was thinking about more light. The hood has under 5" of room. I don't think MH will easily fit. I was simply going upgrade my bulbs to T5s and use the same ballast. I should be able to support 4 bulbs with out much effort. If that doesn't provide enough light, I'll add more once my wallet recovers. :

All in, this should cost about $1,000. :-/

thx

 

I dig it

 

Gosh, you guys are boring...

OK, then that is the plan.