DSB are more trouble than they're worth in my opinion. Most of us set them up wrong and then end up with H2S problems as a result. The more liverock and water volume you can fit the better. However at some point you do hit diminishing marginal returns (my economics prof would be proud). I guess I'm falling behind in the lingo... what is ATS?

algae turf scrubber. I hear they are good for pods and good for removing nitrates.

Ah that's why I didn't recognize it. It would be kind of cool to see it done on a private tank. I've only read about them being used on some large public aquariums. I'm personally more fond of an over sized skimmer for getting rid of Nitrate and GFO + macro algae for Phosphate. Have you budgeted space in your fish room for a fragging station and a laundry room style sink?

This fish room will be outside so I cant really run a water line into it easily for a sink. What are you thinking for a fagging station?

One of these days when I eventually get to build a fish room I want an easy to clean counter top beside a large sink with a bright light and a few shelves for doing all of my fragging. Locally I've seen a couple of really cool setups. In addition to a laundry room sink a floor drain and even a toilet would be great additions to your fish room. But of course you'd have to find some way of plumbing them in.

+1 on not having any filter floss, we get lazy and dont change it enough, if you have to use a filter sock to cut down and microbubbles and it will trap and gunk then you can just throw them all in the wash

I think what I will end up doing is designing it without filter material and also having an easy way to add filter material just in case