[theringnebula]

I'm fairly new to this board and wanted to post my proposed new tank setup. I am trying to create the ultimate reef (at least in my mind ). This is a spare no expense venture and will probably take me half a year before I even have salt water in the system.

Equipment I've Ordered:
200 Gal (84x24x24) Ocean Reef Ready Tank
Aqualine Buschke 3x250Watt HQI + 4x24Watt PC Blue AquaSpacelight
AquaFX 4 Stage RO/DI Barracuda 100GPD

Equipment I plan to purchase:
-AquaController II w/PH/Temp/ORP probes/AquaNoteSoftware. Eventually this will be hooked up to a laptop computer for data logging and paging me if there is there is a problem. Since we just got a broadband connection I also want to have a web cam up sometime too.

-Either a Marine Technical Pro-Cal Calcium Reactor or a Korallin C-1502, haven't decieded yet. My buddy has the Marine Technical model and loves it but has heard good things about the Korallin (like it supposidly uses very little CO2) whereas he as to refil his CO2 tank once a month

-Either a Marine Technical HSA Skimmer or a EuroReef. The skimmer height is not going to be a problem here as I have taken over a closet that is in the bathroom and the backside faces the room where the reef is. So I can handle the 4 foot tall HSA 1000.

-AmpMaster 3000 for the return with at least 2 seaswirls and probably the 2 normal overflow returns as well.

I also want to try an put a gravity return refugium (maybe 20 gal) in the top half of the closet so it can return directly back to the tank without a pump

I wish the door to the closet was bigger as I could probably then fit a nice size sump right into the closet for easy access. I might investigate cutting a hole in the back wall of the closet directly into the reef stand. (This closet used to have the door in the room where the reef will go as this room used to be a bedroom. When we added on to our house this room became more of a halway so the closet was sealed and the door placed on the other side in the bathroom so there is nothing to worry about cutting into)

So I welcome any comments about what you would do to make this the ultimate system. I want to spare no expense (well within reason) and do this right the first time.

Wes

[FishKid]

That would be a very sweet reef!!! All of the Equipment looks fine! I would recommend keeping an eye on the "caulerpa" post at the top of the reef forum, because if they ban the caulerpa genus, most like;y it will be hard and expensive to get Live Rock...

mark

[theringnebula]

I know... I'm trying not to think about it! Maybe I should stock up on live rock and fill all the available aquariums that I have with it now

[Mikeman]

you could always make your own live rock for 9 cents a lb

[JDT]

It will be some time before they totally cut off Live Rock, many areas in Fiji and surounding areas have not even been touch. So far the only place for rock that has been shut down is Florida, that is why the aquacultured Tampa Bay rock was started around the time Florida shut down. It sounds like it could be awhile before you even need the rock, unless you have a place to store a lot of rock for a 200 gallon tank, or make your own as the previous reply states, I think it will be a good bet that Live Rock will be around for a couple more years.

Jack

[SPasse]

Wes,

I would have purchased the Oceanic 200 if I had had the extra foot of floor space.

I had to settle for the 180.

I would recommend a 6” deep sand bed.

The Korallin C-1502 would be my pick, I plan of getting one of these after my house move is over.

Don’t worry about a gravity fed refugium. The destruction of fauna by return pumps is much overrated and really not an issue. I would use a refugium of 55 gallons or larger.

The returns on a 200 gallon Oceanic Reef Ready will probably not handle the flow rate of a AmpMaster 3000 http://www.reefland.com/cgi-bin/foru...?threadid=2196

Regards,

Scott Passe