My plan so far.

Hello!!! It has been a lot of research since my idea of having a reef and i want to thank each member of this forum for all the informartion i have adquired just reading these pages, some ideas have evolved and some remain the same but there is a lot of what to take into account so I wanted to share with you what I've got so far:

The tank size will be a 240 tall, 72X24X31 If I can buy it with starfire glass I will if not I will build it myself all glass and add an idea for silent overflows I have since some time ago.

The tank will be mounted in a 72X30X36 stand, I want the extra room to the back so I can drill the wholes and place bulkheads on the wood to isolate as much of the noise from the inside of the stand as I can.

The lighting will be DIY two Metal hallides 250W with 4 48 inch t5 actinics, maybe a couple black lights (just for show for short periods not for extended use) and also DIY led nightlights (altho all is DIY I'm using retorfits), I plan to only have 2 metal hallide lights to mount them on rails and make both lights move side two side to, besides the shimmering effect give me a somehow cloud simulation as well as save electricity, I learned that from coral farms, it is said it wont affect color growth at all. all this goes inside a canopy with open top and 2 big fans to each side providing fresh air to help cool down things.

A 70 gal sump/refugium will hold reef sock, a eshopps 300 skimmer, a deep sand bed, and as much caulerpa as I can, counter lighting will be added to the refugium, the return will be handled by two Mag 9.5 pump conected each to a 3/4 inch SCWD with all outlets going through PVC piping up behind the tank and then in a downward diagonal angle just bellow the surface pointed to the front glass in the main tank to create different flows and lots of turbulence .A phos reactor with it's pump and maybe a calcium reactor will be conected to the system in the sump, the use of calcium reactor or dosing will have to be decided once i check my need for it and what equipment I have at hand to buy.

For the total setup I am Planing on 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of live rock, do a nice rockscape and the rest turn to rubble and placed in the sump, about 350 pounds of live sand straight from the ocean (but strained to take out bad stuff) or as much as I need to create deep sand beds in both my main tank and the sump/fuge.

Overal circulation in the main tank besides the return pumps will be handled by 3 or 4 powerheads to give me at least a 15x radius, The manufacturer is yet not clear due to inaccesibility of equipment in my country.

Regarding stocking there is much to be still thought about, I plan on a mixed reef but corals I can't discus, there is a lot to be seen and studied still in that area and corals only come after the tank has been stable for a long time as I learned form this site but mostly LPS.

My cleaning crew will be bought here but I plan on using reefscavengers tables to guide me, also a cleaner shrimp at least so I can have my underwater cleaning station, An anemone would be good, I know I'm taking a risk with it but I really want to have clowns living in it.

Regarding fish I have been thinking:
1 or 2 true percula clowns (Not optional)
2 Dartfish (optional)
1 Mandarin Dragonet (If I get to have pods to feed it)
1 flame angel
1 coral beauty angel (optional)
1 potter's angel (if I can find it and pay for it)
1 purple tang
1 blue powder tand
1 other tang to be named late (optional)
1 Emperor angel (optional)
5 Chromis would be good
1 six line wrasse
1 Red Head Solon Fairy wrasse

Is this too many fish? I think so but I'd rather have you telling me, What would you recommend I take out or add to the list?

Other things I have planned are a small 25gal quarantine tank, cultives for rotifiers, Phytoplankton and zooplankton (when needed), Hopefully my live sand will develop a healtly colony of copepods or my fuge.

There is still some months before i start putting it all together but I need to state my plan clearly so i can start buying equipment as I get access to it.

Please excuse me for my mistakes in english.

What do you think of all this so far? what am I missind that i shouldn't?
Thank you so much for your help!

 

A few sugguestions . . .

Any reason you want a tank so tall? A 180 has the same footprint and would be much cheaper up front costs as well as easier to light. a 30" stand is kinda short IMO, I have a 36" one and I really wish I would have gone higher. 3 halides would be much better than 2 on a 72" tank, 2 250 on either side and 1 400 in the middle is what I see often. you will get better coverage with 60" T5 actinics than 48" ones.

Why are you looking to run 2 return pumps again? 1 large external might be all that you need and more for returning water from the sump to the display. I dont know much about beach sand, but as cheap as sand is in relation to all the other livestock it could potentially harm or kill if theres anything wrong with it might not be worth it.

Your stock list doesn't sound all that bad, but I would hold off on the powder blue tang until your tank is at least 6 months old and everything is right where you want it . . . they can be very touchy (speaking from personal experience). I have a neon goby and a cleaner shrimp in with my tangs and the goby by far out performs the shrimp cleaning - wise. Some dwarf angels can get a taste for corals, but many do not. with having 3 in your tank you are 3 times as likely to have a problem tho.

Props for thinking out everything in such detail before you start getting everything together!

~Will.

 

Sounds good to me but I would get a bigger QT tank.
If your QTing everything before you introduce it to your tank.
The 2 MH lighting seems like its not enough but with the rail system
its probably good. I have never seen those before.

+1 on the research!

 

that is a big big undertaking! i hope it goes well, you aksed if you'd be overstocked with that fish list and i'd say no, not for a few years of growin anyhow, i'd be worried about adding any angelfish to a reef but with a tank that size maybe it'll work, i'm a little jealous! thats an ambitous undertaking

 

Hi! thank you for all your responses! One can really trust this forum to get good info on things =). I would like to give my opinion/explanation on your thoughts about my plan, not as a way of confrontation but rather discussion, that it's actually the main reason I made this thread so we could tank about our different ideas and aproaches and maybe come with better ideas between all of us =).

Yes it's a tall tank but since I plan on a deep sand bed of at least 4 inches to 6 inches my real depht would vary between 24 and 26 inches itself wich would be IMO taking advantage of the penetration of metal hallides.

The rail system it's an odd thing but I really want to give it a try since coral farmers do with succes, It's also a little experiment on my part to help other reefers with their electrical bills ^^. The use of 48 inch t5 bulbs comes just from an incapacity to find bigger equipment, actually I'm taking apart an existing tek light fixture to then retrofit the canopy with the parts (it has 8 bulbs with 2 ballasts but one of the ballasts is broken so I thought using the remaining ballast and it's 4 bulbs for my actinics would be a good idea, If I see my corals are not thriving due to my lighting I will upgrade as needed.

The 2 vs 1 return pump thing has got my mind working for a lot of time and quite honestly I am still deciding between both, I lean towards 2 9.5s instead of one 18 is just because I haven't been able to get a 4 way SCWD If I could find designs for it to build myself I would hapily just use one pump.

I think i found it!!! Oceans Motions what do you think?

I have been thinking about the height of the stand and I think you are very right I`ll make it 36 inch tall, I'm kinda short (1,73 mtrs) so 36 height should work =), something taller may get too difficult to do maintenance in the main tank.

Thank you for the advice about the blue powder tang! those kind of details really make a difference =).

I still don't know about the quarantine tank usage, I would rather quarantine everything before putting it in so I guess I'll have to get a bigger QT tank, the thing is that I saw that If you add fish that are likelly to fight (like 2 or 3 angels) you should add them at the same time as juveniles so noone has first picks on territory thus reducing the change of heavy agression, it makes a lot of sense to me so I either take the chance of adding new fish straight to the main tank or having to have a big quarantine tank that could hold up to 3 small tangs for a month without causing problems, what do you think about that?

Let's keep talking I think this thread should be good to get some unified thoughts on things if we can all remain open ot others ideas =), after all we all want to improve and maybe make advancements right?

 

When your buying a new tank, the taller it is, the thicker the glass has to be which equals more $$, and fish dont swim up and down (unless were talking jellies). A lot of that height is wasted space IMO and would be better off added to the length or width. Thats just how I like my tanks, some prefer the super tall tanks and thats cool too.

I use a 20 long for a QT, I dont really see it being that big of a deal when at a LFS fish are in much smaller quarters and usually do fine for months a a time. The oceans motions 4-way is a really cool device. I dont have one, but I have seen one setup in person and there really cool.

About the stand . . . after seeing a 180 on a 50+ inch tall stand with a nice granite bar ledge around it on 3 sides I am convinced that this will be how my next big tank will be if its not an in-wall. It was soooo nice not having to bend over to see in it from up close, and the granite "beverage" ledge was a very nice addition. The guy who owns the tank is maybe 5' 8" on his tippy toes, so a stool was needed for some maintenance but the end result was more than worth while.

~Will.

 

What kind fo flow would you guys seek? I have been reading and thinking about the Ocean Motion's products and It seems It's a pretty good idea to either have a wave effect in the tank wich would pretty much kill dead spots and do a natural water motion to the aquarium (Also taking equipment from the inside of the tank) or using the 5x turnover rate of the return pump in the sump to create all flow in the aquarium (maybe could be taken all the way to 10x? also killing dead spots (maybe a couple powerheads could be needed inside the rock work?).

Also a good wave effect could be got by Vortech Powerheads and the return pump used to places of the aquarium where dead spots may form, they are expensive but If you count the benefits and cost of the equipment it takes out seems like a pretty good invesment.

I really like the idea of having less equipment inside the tank and using less electricity is always good, what do you guys think about this?

I know sometimes I go all over the place but I rather ask about all the posibilities than to dismiss an idea for shame of asking too much stuff in here ;D