New Tank Design

[dagnir]

I am planning a new tank right now because of possibilities that have come up due to a move.

120 Gal AGA

Thats the tank I am hopefully going to be working with. I had some questions on equipment though. I am thinking about going for a LifeReef insump skimmer for it. The sump would probibly be a 40 gallon tank. And I would probibly have another 20 - 40 gallon for a refugium. My main question is on my lighting. Iam going to be keeping primarily SPS with a scattering of LPS and a few softies.
And my clams. I was planning on 2 - 250watt MH and wondering if a combination of 1 - 6500 Iwasaki and 1 - 20K Corallife would do without any supplimental PC or VHO. Or if I should go with maybe 2 - 6500 bulbs with supplimental Actinic. Any suggestions on lighting combos would be great. I am definately not set on certain bulbs so if anyone has good ideas please share them. Also I was wondering if anyone has had experiance with the ARO electronic ballasts that hellolights.com sells.

I was also wondering about using a kalk drip as opposed to a reactor. Using a kalk drip for top off seems time tested and pretty straight forward and is the route that I am leaning towards.

Basically nothing is purchased so I havent made any costly mistakes yet Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ive thought about Closed Loop systems, surge devices and all sorts of other things and would like to hear about peoples thoughts because I know it is a pretty common tank size. I want to do it right because this is the main tank in my budding coral prop. setup. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[mrok12]

here is my closed loop

[mrok12]

simple and works great the pump is a mag18

[dagnir]

That gives me an idea. Thanks. This is a current hopefully possible list of items.

2 - 250watt ARO Electronic MH Ballasts
2 - Iwasaki 250w 6500 Bulbs
2 - SquarePin 96w Actinic03
4 - 4.5" 105 CFM Fans
1 - EuroReef CS12-1 In Sump 350+ Gal
1 - Dolphin AmpMaster 3000
4 - Mag Drive 5 500GPH
8 - MaxiJet 1200 295GPH
1 - UltraLife Float Switch
2 - Red Sea Wavemaker
1 - Korallin C-3002 CalcReactor
2 - Won 350W Pro-HeatII
1 - Captive Purity Refractometer
2 - 40# CaribSea SeaFlor
3 - 30# CaribSea Aragamax Oolitic
2 - 30# CaribSea Aragamax Bahama

As I am planning on adding a few growout vats to the design the total system volume will go to around 300 gallons or I may put the grow out vats on another system for safety. I would like to know what you think as far as my current list goes and any suggestions. If I split the systems I will go for a smaller skimmer and probibly a smaller CalcReactor. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[tendar]

Are you planning on using the amp master as closed loop?
8 MJ 1200 is a lot of power heads for a 120, 4 would be better
What are the 5- mag5's for?
What are you using for a return pump from you sump?
I would consider going down to 200 watt heaters unless your place is pretty cold 350's are pretty big for a 120.

[dagnir]

The ampmaster is my return pump. As for the powerheads this is what I was Planning.

One Wavemaker Running 4 Mag 5's in the top 3rd of the tank
One Wavemaker Running 4 MaxiJets, maybe Ill just stick with 4 maxijets 8 is a bit much.

But I'm trying to keep High flow rates with the wavemakers because with the alternating currents the pumps turn off and your flow drops and sense Im planning on having mostly SPS flow is important.

I may also do some spray bars sense Im planning on a elevated rock structure. So maybe ill use a couple of the MaxiJets for that.

Here is a rough diagram of the mag's.

[tendar]

One problem you will have is that AGA overflows can only handle about 600 gph each so the ampmaster is way to much. The ampmaster would make for a good closed loop but you would have to throttle it way back for the overflows on the AGA tank. A gen-x 4 or iwaki 40 rlxt would be a better choice for the AGA tank.
Where you planing to have the mags above the water like mrok12 or are they going to totally sumurged? Mags are pretty big and will be pretty unsightly with 4 of them in a 120 and they really dont come anything to attach them to the tank like suction cups or hangers. Also if your considering mag 3's then just go with the MJ 1200's since they are half the size and produce almost the same flow and stand up well to wave makers turning them on and off all the time. I dont know how well mag's handle the abuse of wave makers turning them on and off all the time.
Not tring to hack your ideas apart just pointing out things you may want to consider.
One other thing you will want to consider is that with that much flow you will have problems with sand blowing all over place expecially finer sand. You want to consider have a deep sand bed in a larger sump or regugium with just some crushed coral in the display tank for the high water turbulance.

[dattack]

That's a lot of powerheads and stuff blocking view in your tank.

I would put either some geminis (1000gph) or either a couple of tunze.

They have the new smaller tunze model out now that runs at 11 watts and at 1600gph. And the geminis only run about 35 watts.

[dagnir]

Thanks everyone this is why I posted this. I have changed my plans again. I am not going to have my grow out tanks hooked up to this tank because they are about 6 months down the line or more. So i took the advice against the mags in tank and will most likely go with 2 Tunze Turbelle Stream 6080 because of their massive flow but slow velocity. They have a flow rate of 2250gph but very little pressure behind the flow. They will be on a wavemaker. Then I will do 4 mj's on a wavemaker and 2 more running pvc spraybars under the framing for my rock. I had heard that the overflow volume was a little low throught the AGA overflows but wasnt sure how low until now. So I am probibly going to go with a Iwaki WMD40RLXT which is 1200gph. May upgrade again because im not sure what the head will be returning to the tank. Changed reactor size and skimmer size to down grade to probable volume.

Now my Lighting was another issue for me. Ive heard that the Iwasaki 6500 bulbs are good for growth which is what I want but are the 2 - 250w going to drown out the 2-96w Actinic PC's. Im not sure I have the room for more Actinics. So should I go with 3 MH 1 400w 20K and 2 250w 6500 Instead. Thanks for all the help.

[tendar]

The Tunze are sweet and I am sure you will like those.
I think that either a pair of vho or 96 actinic pc would be fine with 2 iswaki's.
I ran a single 65K for a while with a single 55 actinic pc on a 37 and it looked pretty good so with even more blue I think they would look real nice.