Sea Cear System 2 tanks?????

[junglejonny]

Hello there everyone! Had a couple questions if anyone had a some time to spare. I am getting a 55g 48"L-18"W-20"H sea clear system 2 acrylic tank. Any input on tank is welcome. (Thank you future mother in law) Had a few questions regarding protein skimmer, sump/refugium, and lighting. The tank has a kinda restrictive lid and was wondering where to put a protein skimmer. They sell a venturi skimmer but I am not sure about air stone driven skimmers or there efficiency(sump options??). On the sump topic it will be mainly a refugium seeing how it has a built in wet/dry trickle filter built in the back of the tank. I thought about drilling two holes in the lid of the top in the corners and putting a pump in the tank to feed water down into the refugium and another to pump it back , but pump failure scares me! Lighting wise I am thinking about getting a sun pod 2X250 14000k mh roughly 9 watts per gallon system. (is this over board I'm not trying to replicate a global warming tank) Will this be efficient?? because I'm graduating to a sps tank and we all know they need there light. Also any suggestions on calcium reactors and placement would be greatly appreciated. I'm gonna miss the old 44 g pent softy tank its growing like a mad man HOLLY ZENIA BATMAN!!! Its coming out of my ears!! The transition will be scary but Ive moved my tank like 5 times in its 4 yr old live and have it down to almost a science but I am super stoked about the change and looking forward to a new chapter in my reef keeping life Thank you for you advice and talk to you soon!!


Keep loving, living, and learning and wonderful things will happen to you!!!!

[Seige]

Hi Jonny,

What size is your sump? Using your old 44g tank as a sump might be an option unless you're planning to use both the 55 and 44 as display tanks. If I had that option I'd definately link the 55 and 44 as display tanks along with the sump and then you would have close to a 120g system. Woot!!! I'm jealous...

I definately wouldn't use a pump to get water to the sump. Even if you could manage to get the water flow rates of the 2 pumps matched exactly, you would be risking a flood in your sump if your return pump failed. Additionally you'd be wasting power running the second pump which hurts the environment.

Get an overflow instead. Something like this...
CPR AQUATIC, INC - CS Overflows

In your sump add a return area large enough to fit the pump and maybe 3-5g of water. You want the operational water level in your sump to be low enough that in the event of a power failure the sump can hold the extra few gallons of water that will drain from the 2 pipes.

Put a return pump in your sump within a return area and add a float switch to shut the pump off if the water in the return area drops too low. You want a pump that does between 300-550 g/h at the 55g tank height. The water will pump up to the tank and as the water rises in the tank the overflow will skim off the water and send it down to your sump.

If you use both the 55 and 44 as display tanks, you can optionally split the water coming from the overflow so some go's to the 44. Then have an overflow on that to return that water to the sump.

Hook up the skimmer in the sump intake or refugium areas.

I don't have enough experience to tell you which skimmers, lighting, or calcium reactors to get. I'll leave that to the pro's.

[junglejonny]

Thank you for you advice!! The only problem is that the lid of the 55 is really restrictive its not a all the way open top. I might haft do some changing it looks like...ohh well anything for the tank. I'm giving the 44 pent to my mother in law so she can raise some convicts but thought of setting up a fowl'er underneath with some wrasses or something but probably will just keep it as a refugem with calerpa and such. I will try to post some pics so maybe people can get a idea of my troubles. Gonna pick up the tank in a couple of days and start cleaning it up and polish some of the small scratches on it from someone that didn't know that you should use a certain type of scrubber on acrylic but they are very shallow and it probably doesn't need it but I'm kinda crazy when it comes to things of that nature!!! Talk to ya ll soon!!!

Keep loving, living, and learning and wonderful things will happen to you!!!

[Seige]

Too bad you can't run the 44g too.

Sounds like you need to build a new top. No big deal. I'm in the process of making a new top for my 55g to house the lighting properly and seal the current gaps I have so the jumpers can't escape. Doesn't cost much. Figure maybe $40-$60 for wood and supplies.

Having both a display refugium and a sump refugium in addition to the main tank would be neat. I plan to eventually. That way I can keep seahorses in the display refugium, calerpa in the sump refugium and increase the overall stability by connecting all 3 tanks.

Good luck.

[junglejonny]

The problem with the "Hood" is that it isn't a hood it's actually part of the tank a built in top that is connected to the tank it self so mos def some drilling is gonna hafta happen some how. I figure that there is in fact a way to properly cut acrylic and any advice on that would also be appreciated If you type in goggle the sea clear system 2 aquariums you might get a idea of my problem. any one have any advice on the lights and skimmers?? thank you much and talk too you soon!!

[Seige]

You may want to ask about equipment on the equipment forum or read up on threads in that forum.