Equipment suggestions

[krkosiba]

I have a 180 reef ready tank coming. Thanks to Ninong I have a good direction where I am going with the lighting. However, I am so lost with other equipment. I don't know what sump to use. Do I buy a certain brand or DIY? I especially don't know what protein skimmer to buy. Deltec seems to make a good skimmer. I am fully up for suggestions. I want this to be a really nice tank. So please feel free to give me some direction.

[Ninong]

Mark has lots of DIY sump designs in various sizes, plus instructions on how to build them, on his homepage. He also makes sumps to order but he's in Houston and he only does this in his spare time. Shipping might be expensive.

I purchased my sump from Lifereef Filter Systems . I really like his new LifeRefugium II model, which was not available back when I ordered mine. I believe mine (LF1-150 for my 120-gal tank) was around $1,000 plus $89 shipping. That included the protein skimmer and two pumps. But that was seven years ago.

He offers those with his protein skimmer or without. I went with his protein skimmer. It worked just fine and I never had any problems with it but it's a very old design. There are newer skimmers on the market that produce finer bubbles that I would probably want to consider if I were looking for a skimmer today. Royal-Exclusiv is just now coming out with a new cone skimmer for only $999.99 (that may be a little pricey but most of their skimmers are much more than that). They're the Germans who make the Bubble King skimmers.

Before choosing a sump, you have to decide if you want an in-sump or out-of-sump skimmer. An in-sump return pump or an external return pump.

A 72"-long stand will give you lots of space for a nice sump, even one with a built-in refugium.