Alright, so here's the proposed tank plan, if anyone would like to critique...
20 gallon display, 15 gallon sump.
I was thinking that I'd like to go with a
coast-to-coast across the back of the tank because the vast majority of the water flow through this tank will be surged, and I don't think I'm gonna bother with trying to make it all quiet beyond making the siphon for the CSD quieter... Herbie's don't work overly well with surge. There will be a 1" bulkhead returning the water from the tank to the sump, which should be enough to handle the 600 gph I want to run through this tank. But without further ado, lets talk about flow and surge!
I will be running 2 pumps on timers.
Pump 1 will run during the day, turning over the tank at a
total rate of roughly 600 gph or around 30X. Most of this will run through a tuned surge tank that will drop a volume of about
1.5 liters every 2.5 seconds, the balance will run through the tank directly.
Pump 2 will run at night, about
300 gph... 15X turnover. More of this will make it through the tank without being surged, though there will be a smaller surge of
1 liter every 4 or 5 seconds. Both surge and direct flow will be piped into the tank through a plenum system built into the rockwork... likely 4" acrylic tube will be used for this.
I will be running a skimmer (I've been looking at the
Tunze 9005 or 9205), at least during the startup phase (first 4 months). I also have a
pair of 100W heaters...
that will reside in the sump with the pumps and skimmer. I may also consider an ATO, though probably not unless the need is shown ie: the fluctuations in the sump are severe enough to warrant it. This tank will be uncovered, so evaporation may become a problem but I'll welcome the extra humidity in the mean time.
As far as
lighting goes, I'm currently torn. MH seems like the way to go, but I'll still need T5s to go with it, so I'm not 'light-shocking' the tank when the MHs come on. It may be better to just get T5HO to start off with... any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated. One problem with MHs is I find many to be too blue for my liking, but I still want to be able to get some fluorescence out of my corals and zoos... and I love the shimmer they produce. So what is everyone's experience with lighting? I could really use some insight.
TENTATIVE STOCKING LIST!
Plants:
Halimeda spp., calcareous algae
Chlorodemsis spp. (Maidens Hair algae)
Peyssonnelia spp. (Red Plate algae)
Halophila spp. (Oar, Paddle, or Star grass)
Halodule spp. (Shoal grass)
Sessile Inverts:
Christmas Tree Worm Rock, with Porites spp. coral... I love feather dusters
Photosynthetic sponges Halichondria or Haliclona spp.
Zoanthids, I'll be running carbon.
Montipora / Acropora spp.
Caulastrea or some other LPS coral that will keeps it's tentacles to itself. Maybe
Blastomussa?
Muriceopsis flavida, Purple plume gorgonian, or some other photosynthetic gorgonian.
Benthic Inverts:
Gnathophyllum americanum (Bumblebee Shrimp) - probably a group of 5
Lybia tesselata (Pom Pom Crab) - single. I may decide against this one, I haven't decided yet.
Snails - I haven't decided if I will buy snails for this tank, I'm hoping something comes in on my live rock. If not (or if nothing survives) I'll go with a couple
Nerite spp.
Fishes:
Doryrhamphus excisus (Bluestriped Pipefish) - a pair. These will likely be the only fish in the tank.
Discordipinna griessingeri (Flaming Prawn Goby) or
Stonogobiops yasha (Yasha Goby) - single if I decide that I need another fish, and the 'pod population can handle it.
Thoughts are appreciated, thanks for reading
