Slowly starting a salty tank

[Darbex]

Talked to Donnie, he mentioned 1" drain and 3/4" return. Should I do 2x 1" drains and bump the return to 1"? Im getting ready to go to him in the next 2hours or so. This will only mean I'll need something closer to a 1200gph pump then right?

I wouldnt get a huge pump you dont need to move water from your sump/fuge. As an example I am only running an Iwaki 40 on my 330G with an 8' head height. You want slow so it gives the water the most time to filter. For water movement you will need power heads in the tank like a vortech or tunze.

[eklikewhoa]

I wouldnt get a huge pump you dont need to move water from your sump/fuge. As an example I am only running an Iwaki 40 on my 330G with an 8' head height. You want slow so it gives the water the most time to filter. For water movement you will need power heads in the tank like a vortech or tunze.

+1

[Andrew_B]

Alright, time to actually start building!

Got my stand and tank in this morning. Here is a pic of the stand. I'm going to paint it black. It's real nice on the outside, the inside could use some TLC though.


Then just got back from City Pets where I got the tank drilled, so here is that,


I'm going to paint the back of the tank black as well. Heading over to Home depot to pick up some plumbing, a new hinge for the stand door and some paint. I'm going to pick up some ball valves for the drains.

[eklikewhoa]

Grab some of the Killz premium for the inside of the stand.

[dead wait]

Looks really good so far. So, no overflow boxes then???? I guess they are not needed.

[Andrew_B]

Nah, I have the drains high enough to where it will drain maybe 10gal of water into my refugium, and its a 29gal fuge, so I should be good without one

[dead wait]

Do you have any pics of your sump?

[Andrew_B]

Not yet, still have to make it

[dead wait]

Aahh. Gotcha. I'm gathering all the ideas and designs as possible. I'm taking a 4 day weekend to start working on my stand. Do you no how tall yours is by chance?

[Andrew_B]

It looks to be 36" tall, and tank sits at the 34.5" mark

[dead wait]

I was thinking of making mine alittle bit taller. Around 42". I'm still in the scratching my head faze though.

[Andrew_B]

And man, I picked up one of my 2x JBJ Viper K2 fixtures, and I had no idea ballasts were so big. This thing is the size of a cinder block and Im going to have two of them! Not sure where Im going to put them. Do they need to be in a temp controlled area too, with some kind of fan on them? Or will they not really overheat if tucked behind the stand laying on the floor

[Darbex]

On the floor should be fine. You can always buy new ballasts later that are smaller.

[dead wait]

Nice lights for sure.

[eklikewhoa]

That's how the coralife ballast are too... shoved behind the stand .