160 gallon

[hooverfire4]

I am about to set up a 160 gallon cube and need some suggestions on the set up. I'm planning on having a reef tank with a few fish. Whats going to be my best bet? All of my filter equipment has to go underneath in the cabinet. It has and overflow with one inlet and outlet. Id like to speand as little money as possible. I have a pump already. Im not sure on the rate, but it used to run part of my 500 gallon reef several years ago. Any suggestions would be great. thanks

 

[jessezm]

What kind of advice are you looking for? Equipment? Do you have the stand built already? What kind of reef are you planning? We need more information in order to help you I think... What are the bulkhead sizes for the drain and return. Look at your pump and tell us what it is. Is it a glass or acrylic tank? my guess is that if you had a 500g reef tank in the past, you probably know what you're doing, which is why I was confused about what you are aking for exactly. Help us help you (insert smiley)!

 

[hooverfire4]

jessezm wrote: What kind of advice are you looking for? Equipment? Do you have the stand built already? What kind of reef are you planning? We need more information in order to help you I think... What are the bulkhead sizes for the drain and return. Look at your pump and tell us what it is. Is it a glass or acrylic tank? my guess is that if you had a 500g reef tank in the past, you probably know what you're doing, which is why I was confused about what you are aking for exactly. Help us help you (insert smiley)!

I need suggestions on sumps, skimmer, filter media.

The stand is already built. The tank is built into a bar/ room divider. Bulkheads are 1 1/2" drain, and 1" return, Iwaki MD 100RLT pump. Glass tank. Looking to put live rock, some soft corals, some anemones, clowns etc.

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

My sump consists is a rubbermaid container- it holds about 20-25 gallons.

I prefer to keep my reef natural. The only filtration you need is live rock and a really good skimmer. Filter media can trap nitrates and make reefkeeping much harder.

 

[hooverfire4]

Is there a rule of thumb on the ratio in size of the tank to the sump?

 

[tsciarini]

not really a rule of thumb ratio... but basically the largest that can fit.

What are the inside dimentions of your stand?

We'll need to know that before we can know what equipment can fit under the tank.

 

[james s_]

what are the dimensions of the cube? i have a 240 cube but its a bit too large for my room so im looking to buy one a bit smaller.just looking for ideas of dimensions.

 

[family reefer]

Holy smokes! Doesn't that pump put out somewhere around 2000 GPH? You are going to roll that tank afew times per hour huh?

 

[fishybusiness]

hooverfire4 wrote: Is there a rule of thumb on the ratio in size of the tank to the sump?

The only "rule of thumb" that I ever when configuring a custom sump is to keep in mind back siphoning from power outages. You need to take the surface area of your tank and figure out how many gallons will backsiphon from your lowest return. Normally you will bump your returns down a little so always go for a little bit of a larger sump. Ive seen several custom sumps run too small and then someones power go out and thier floor get wet.
As far as protien skimmers I love the aqua-medic line and Im ordering the shorty for my new systems. Its only 29" tall and it'll do up to 500 gallons.

 

[rhomer]

The solution to pollution is dilution. More water is better. I'm almost finished adding a 100 gallon sump to my 90 gallon tank.