Setting up a 75 gallon reef...Help? Advice? equip pics added
 

I recently bought a 75 gallon 'reef ready' tank with a 30 gallon sump.
It is a bottom drilled 75 gallon (46"long, 18"wide, 20"deep), and a plain 30 gallon tank as a sump.
I still need to get the protein skimmer and return pump.
It did come with some pipes for plumbing, though I can't make heads or tails of the stuff. I've never had a sump on any of my tanks before (Reef or Fresh)...

On the Sump:
I'm hoping to get a 'baffle' system into the sump and have a refugium system in there. Which would be the best way of doing this (the thickness of glass for the baffles etc.)?

Where's a good place to have it cut...or does anyone on here do this kind of thing for others around my location?
(Hey, I'm a chick. I suck at DIY and I freely admit it.)

Also which return pump would be the best, gph etc.
Plenty of people are willing to suggest whatever they are selling at the time. But I'd rather hear what people are using and would recommend rather than what they want to get rid of. :neutral:

Which skimmer could do the job...yet not rip me of every penny I have?.
I know seaclones are crud, I've got one...was using on a smaller tank but decided it was more trouble than it was worth.


On the tank:

Lighting...I figured I'd probably need 2x250 watt MH if I want a vast majority of corals in there.
What would be a decent canopy style system?
I don't think I'd be allowed to have a pendant over this tank in the entrance way...quite certain I am not allowed to do so. Yet every time I look up MH lighting they are pendants...when I see them in the store...pendants...being sold online...pendants...Am I SOL? I've seen some private tanks with canopy style...DIY possibly...or are they just very expensive to buy?

I'm sorry if this is too many questions in one post...if I need to split it up I will.
Thank you for your time,
It's appreciated.
-PC

OK, on the sump....you can use just plain old window pane (4mm, I believe) for the baffles. I use 2 sets of 2 baffles in my 33g sump. You can find lots of pics on the net on where to put them. If you can't find anything, I can draw a picture. You can get the glass cut at any glass shop to the width of your sump (minus a few mil) and about 60% of the height (roughly)
I use a MAG 12 as a return to my 75g, which drains with a single 1.25" overflow. It feeds back to the tank via a 1" hose into a sea swirl.

For a skimmer I use a Euroreef ES5-2, rated for 90g. Really great skimmer and virtually silent. One was for sale here recently for $300, comes with pump.

For lighting, 2 x 250 will be fine for anything you'd want to keep. Do you have a canopy now? Essentially reflectors and socket assemblies are screwed into the inside of a wooden canopy, so you'll need the canopy first. It's pretty cheap to add retrofit reflectors into a canopy, relatively speaking.

Brad, your feeding a 1.25in. overflow with a Mag12. :eek: I use two the same for mine. When I run a single it seems like a lot of flow for it, although it does handle it.

PC, I would also consider an in sump Coralife super skimmer for the system. Great needle wheel skimmer at a decent price. Of course if money is freely available, :smile: , Euroreef is the top quality model. I currently see a couple of used ones in the buy/sell, both being good for your system, with the larger CS 6 being better.

reply
 

Just thought I'd add an alternate suggestion or two.

While canopies are good you might also consider hanging your lights over the tank with an aquaspace light or similar style. You might find that by the time you are finished with balasts, reflectors, canopy, fans, and supplimentary actinic lights, it may come to the same price anyway. It just depends on what you like to look at. Search the web for deals and design ideas.

I also wanted to point out that there are euroreef skimmer knock offs that work just as well but for less money. ASM makes a really good skimmer.

Good luck!

Sorry Doug, forgot that I do valve it back a bit.

Argh
 

You guys need to move closer...then I could have some hands on help with this. LOL (Hey, I'm a visual learner anyway)

Alright, I can't hang any lights from the ceiling...so this leaves me with the canopy option or some other frame to hold the lights up.

Canopy would look a lot cleaner...among other things. Though fitting these lights in there worries me.

I've heard of these ASM skimmers from 'bluetang'...anyone know where to find them?(stores?)

Reef_Raf, thanks for the info on the glass. I had an idea of how I'd do this, perhaps tomorrow if I get a chance I'll show a picture of what I had in mind.

Would a mag 9 be better?

I'm sure retrofitting things would be cheap and easy to some...but DIY work makes me nervous...unless there's a man around who knows what he's doing to help me...I probably won't attempt it. Unfortunately the man only knows computer stuff LOL

The stand doors are narrow...which makes it difficult to get to things inside. Would it be that hard or advisable to put some other supports in the stand and enlarge the doors for easier access?

I know..this was very poorly planned....impulsive and miscommunication filled purchase.

Moving onto a lighter note...

It should look nice once it's setup at least.
I need sleep, I work in the morning (really early) and it's midnight.
Cheers

Ocean Aquatics (near you just off River Road) sells ASM skimmers.

Anthony

What size and how many overflows does it have? A MAG 12 would still be my choice, even if you have to throttle it back a bit.

ASM skimmers can be found at OA.

Stop with the silly "man around" stuff. You'll do just fine. :biggrin:

Can you take any pics of the equipment? We might be able to give you some better ideas if we can see it.

eeps
 

Photos...sorry if this is a slow load...I tried to make the pictures small...oh and my digital camera sucks...I don't know why these photos went yellowish.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25.../allpieces.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Petcrazy/cap.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y252/Petcrazy/pipe.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...azy/noidea.jpg

I have no clue what that was for...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...dconnector.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25.../smallpipe.jpg

OA..still haven't been there..hmmm...can't go this weekend, maybe next weekend.

Sump idea...of course I still need to figure out dimensions..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...azy/sumpsm.jpg

Section A would be where the water would come in..and my skimmer would be...B would be the refugium...and C where the return pump would be...Would this suffice? I just didn't want too many baffles and take away from the 'fuge room....

Since my small coralife hood is obviously shorter than the sump..it should be able to just fit over the refugium and not have issues with the protein skimmers height. I'd just have to find a way to brace the one side of it so it could be above the sump...

Apparently I don't know how to do images here...I'll look that up and fix this. I'm just in a rush at the very moment...I'll be back!