Several Newbie Questions

Kudos for ATI bulbs.
I personally went the retrofit way with a canopy because I like to do things in the tank and it's kind of hard in the dark. I went over this in my mind for months before I decided it was best for me. When you have a 8x54W standard fixture it will probably be too wide for a 75 gal but with a canopy the retrofit kits are narrower and certain manufacturers fit in there easily.
Another thing to think about is the posibility of someday moving up to a tank that's 24" wide. If that happens you won't have a dilema with lighting because you can use the same retrofit and if need be add another. Mine is a classic for instance. I had a 65g 18" tank and I moved up to a 120g 48x24x24 tank and had to sell my whole setup because the lighting was useless to me. Then I moved up to a 210g 72x24x29 tank that was 24" longer or 6' long. I then purchased a 8x24W(23") retrofit and butted them together and setup all the lights in the same order. My lights from front to rear are:
ATI blue+
Gueissmann midday sun 6000K
UVL 75/25 (14K)
ATI blue+
UVL Aquasun (10K) pink
ATI blue+
ATI Aquablue (12K)
ATI blue+
That's all folks!

 

You remind me of myself. The most important thing you can learn is. Buy Used! Use craigslist! I bought a 55 gallon with filters, lighting, pumps, and all for $100. Dont go crazy and spend money on new things. Trust me, I learned the hard way. You need to be patient. people are leaving the hobby and upgrading every day.

Also, Keep the plumbing as simple as possible, you will thank me. 1 return pump and 1 or 2 overflow lines. it is not necessary to have ball valves and lots of crazyness. also quadruple check your plumbing seals and bulkheads, I have flooded my house more times than i can count.

Dont buy: dosing pumps, calcium reactors, chillers (use fans instead). these things are ridiculously expensive and not necessary. I have a 150 gal that I still dose by hand. also auto-top-off is not necessary, you can build your own later.

Do buy: digital thermometer or(even better) digital heater controller

 

Funny but my 65g tank setup I bought on craigslist. I fell into some good times and moved up. Yeah dosing pumps, calcium reactors and chillers are incidental but I love my 10 gal ATO for the sump because I have a Marine Pro 300 skimmer that needs the sump to stay level to work properly.

 

Alright, I'm back with some more questions!

I'm starting to design my Sump/fuge, and always read about how to make room for the skimmer, and to get the footprint of the skimmer. Does this mean that HOB skimmers are bad? Wouldn't I potentially save space if I used a good HOB Skimmer? And on the Topic of skimmers, can anyone recommend a good one? I know someone said to go with an AquaC Remora, which is a HOB.

Also, do the ball valves adjust to flow of the water in the sump? What do I want my flow to be at?

When hooking up the return pump, how do you hook it up to like an ehiem pump, do you use PVC? And what size return pump should I be looking for?

Thanks again

 

On top of my previous question, how do I know how big of return pump I need?

I know I have to take into account with the piping and the 45 and 90 degree stuff, but I'm just getting lost when trying to determine what size pump I am going to be looking for. I am mainly wanting to know, just so I can put a price tag on which pump I would be getting

 

get a pump a little bigger then what your overflow can handle.

I don't remember the proper turnover rate I think it was either 10x or 20x per hour. so a 50 gallon tank would need a sump pump of atleast 500gph.

 

So should I get an overflow tank with a flowrate of 800GPH?

 

what size tank were you getting?

 

I picked up a 75g tank

 

that should be fine but having extra flow would be better if you could.

keep in mind you will also need powerheads for water movement.