Planing my new tank.

[urban_S]

I have been out of the game for bit. My basement is finally finished so its time to start the new tank. Its going to be a 125 aga tank inwall with drilled corner overflows. I am looking on keeping a mixed reef, but mainly softies. 75 gallon sump with a gravity return 20 gallon fung. EV 180 skimmer with a mag 7 with a alge turf scrubber on the overflow. Are 250 watt halides overkill for this tank? What kinda flow should I be running through the sump? And for flow in the tank closed loop or power heads on a wave maker?

 

[user 26995]

Well, welcome back.
I think the 250 MH's will be perfect. I also think powerheads with wavemaker would be better than closed loop. I think thats what I am going to try to do with my next tank.

 

[urban_S]

What size power heads would be sized right?

 

[user 26995]

Well there are a lot of choices for powerheads with wave maker capabilities. I will be looking for something soon too. Maybe someone here can give more info on the different models and their opinions.

 

[CarlaW]

Just an FYI, I have 2 DIY T5 lites that would do the trick especially if softies are gonna be your cup of tea. They are unopened and basically brand new, I bought them for a project that never got done...................lol.

Flow is gonna be up to you, I am pretty sure Koralia makes a powerhead that you could do with a wave maker, it has been a while since since I have even looked into stuff for flow.

You wouldn't need much goin thru your sump, a Mag 9 or 12 would probably do the trick.

I can get you pics of the lites if you want.

 

[urban_S]

How do you guys like the OBD lights? Anyone have some softie cuttings and some chaeto I could snag some of? I Got my 125 in finally. Cost to coast overflow in glass...starting to build it at least. I want to be able to keep lps and sps corals someday. So water flow is still on the drawing board. I love the look of line locs, but I don't like the fact you can't do a wave make and have to run an external pump. Any thoughts?

 

[CarlaW]

No softies or chaeto here, and I would really try and rethink putting softies with any type of hard coral, you are going to end up with a war on your hands. The OBD lites are good, I have no complaints. To get real good info tho, call them at OBD, and talk to either Mike or Eric, they can give you the real lowdown on them, I haven't really had them long enuf to see results, I haven't killed anything because of the lites tho. If you are gonna keep sps, you are going to need flow, and lots of it, and I personally don't think an internal pump is going to do the trick for you, look around on here and see what other folks with that size of tank are doin for flow, that would help you out. HTH.

 

[HUNTER01975]

I am going to be running 2 1050's and one 550 koalia's in my 70 gallon. And that does not include my over flow system running at 600gph.. I am thinking getting a 3rd 1050 and using the 550 for mixing.

Some folks say to not count over flow and return systems as flow and some do.. I chose not to so cause my returns are at the water line and am using for water agitation more than flow. If you plan on running high flow tho they say to not run fine sand cause it blows all over and piles up.

to find out your flow just add up all your pumps flow rating and divid you tank gallons.

1050+1050+550=2650÷70=37.858

hope that helps

 

[urban_S]

As for the softies in with the hard corals... I just wanna set up the tank so if I do wanna go with hard corals I won't be buying new lights and draining the tank for different plumbing. If I do a closed loop then I could swap out the pump for one with more flow latter if I decided to go that route.

 

[DevonM]

I would really try and rethink putting softies with any type of hard coral, you are going to end up with a war on your hands.

+1 :nono:

Oh the Great War of 2008... Took me a while to get the softies out! I would do the Yellow Fiji Leather again.