Help me build my dream tank!

[Seafan]

everybody wants a bigger tank, for me, it's a 180 gallon reef dream. I'll have many questions in the days and months to come, hope you could help me along the way to set up my dream tank.

Here is my first question:
For 180g mixed reef tank, with soft corals, LPS and SPS, how much flow do I need (for return pump)?

[scubadude]

Originally posted by Seafan
everybody wants a bigger tank, for me, it's a 180 gallon reef dream. I'll have many questions in the days and months to come, hope you could help me along the way to set up my dream tank.

Here is my first question:
For 180g mixed reef tank, with soft corals, LPS and SPS, how much flow do I need (for return pump)?

Many questions you should ask yourself before you decide on which pump you want for your return. For example, are you gonna have a closed loop? gonna have a fuge? I would get the largest sump I could and partition most of it off for a fuge and put bare minimum equipment in there if you could. Does all of your equipment need to be under the hood? My idea of a dream tank is to have an equipment room Is the tank gonna be custom made? Standard 180? There are many many more things to take into consideration Im just trying to give you a jump start, Im sure sum more peeps will jump in here.....Look at a bunch of setups (pictures, or in person) and take Ideas that you like and mix into your own design but of course borrowing tidbits of everyone elses. If you are gonna have a seperate closed loop then I would only get about a 1000 GPH pump for your return then juice up all of your current through your closed loop. If you are gonna go with just one pump then go with something like an Ampmaster 3k and manifold it off (but thats another thread....right Mark and Paul and OR?).