Comments On New Sw System Design

[Revision17]

After having a 10 gallon nano for a few months, as soon as I move to my new house, I'm going to setup a new seagrass/lagoon system with macroalgae and soft and LPS coral. So I figure the first thing to do is get some input on water flow between tanks from more experienced aquarists

I'm planning on using this as my stand: http/www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores...03+90401+502362

I'll buy/build a nicer one when I'm making enough money in a few years to support a larger display tank.

AGA 40 Breeder: The primary display tank. I'm planning on lighting this with the 250 watt metal halide that's on my 10 gallon right now. I'm debating on if I should get some florescent to supplement it or an additional halide if I can find one cheap, but I'm thinking I'll see how things go with just the 250.

For live rock I'm thinking of just getting some dead LR or DIY LR and letting the 15 LBs of LR in my nano seed it. I know the LR in my nano is free of the really nasty pests, and I don't accidentally want to introduce something bad. I'm also going to have quite a bit of plant and "plant" (brown and red macro algae) matter, so that should be a reasonable ammonia/nitrate sink (not planning on stocking with fish for a few months anyway). I'm thinking of having maybe 20-30 LBs of LR or equivalent total.. this is going to depend on how I decided to arrange it.

Substrate will be 3.5" of fine aragonite and 1/4 the established sand bed in my nano (once the nano is taken down, I'll add the rest of my nano's sand). I know 3.5" is on the lower end for seagrass. I'm planning on getting stargrass, which has a minimum recommended substrate depth of 4"... but I also don't want to take up too much room with substrate that could be used for other things since the tank isn't overly tall.

AGA 10: I was thinking of buying custom cut glass baffles and siliconeing them to the 20 long, however just buying a 10 gallon tank and some PVC is less than half the price, and adds additional volume to my system. I could put a protein skimmer here, but I'm thinking of going skimmerless since most things in the system would prefer more dissolved organics. Probably going to put the heater in here too.

AGA 20 Long: A chaeto filled refugium with 1" or so of sand. 2x24 watt T-5 6500K lighting for cheato growth. I've read some places that the return pump can chop up copepods, but other places say it's not a problem... if it is a problem then I guess I'd want to put the fuge above the display tank. Anyone have any opinions on this?

Marineland C-360 Canister: Left over from my FW setup.. was thinking about just using it to run carbon occasionally (to stem coral aggression), maybe throw some LR in it in addition to the bioballs and ceramics it contains.

25 watt UV Sterilizer: Left over from my FW setup. Plumbed so in the off chance UV can hurt copepods, it'd be unlikely they'd go through here. I read somewhere that UV does "good" things to the ORP of the water (which I don't really understand at the moment.. should probably do more reading). I figured I already own it, so I may as well use it.. but then I could save electricity if it's off (costs about $32/year to run 24/7).

Hopefully with enough planning and research, I can get this thing up and running without much of a hiccup.

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks pretty good. My only concern is the solution you have for flowing between the 10g and 20g... Utube siphons WILL eventually break siphon and pour water all over your floor. The only way to prevent this is to a stickler about regularly re-starting the siphon to remove trapped air bubbles. I'd reccomend doing it bi-weekly. And after 4 months you'll get sick of re-starting the siphon, get lazy and/or forget about it, and eventually you'll have a wet floor, a molten return pump, and who knows what going on in the display tank... Please trust me, it's better to run with the 20long only or use bulkhead connectors between the two.

As for the refugium and pods, is there a reason you want pods?

UV serves as a deterrent to the spread of parasitic and/or bacterial infections. It's not a cure-all for infections but can help prevent a sick fish from being contagious and killing your whole tank. They have little, if any, effect on ORP. Ozone and skimming function to decrease ORP (high ORP is one sign of "dirty" water), UV only kills living things that are in the water column.

 

[ox5477]

I would agree with ski in that the siphon between the 10 and the 20 will eventually fail and you'll be shooting yourself in the end. If you want a divded sump, then you can easily purchase some acrylic sheets and silicon them in to create seperation in the sump with much less hastle and chance of problems.

Looks very good beyond this

 

[Revision17]

Looks pretty good. My only concern is the solution you have for flowing between the 10g and 20g... Utube siphons WILL eventually break siphon and pour water all over your floor. The only way to prevent this is to a stickler about regularly re-starting the siphon to remove trapped air bubbles. I'd reccomend doing it bi-weekly. And after 4 months you'll get sick of re-starting the siphon, get lazy and/or forget about it, and eventually you'll have a wet floor, a molten return pump, and who knows what going on in the display tank... Please trust me, it's better to run with the 20long only or use bulkhead connectors between the two.

As for the refugium and pods, is there a reason you want pods?

UV serves as a deterrent to the spread of parasitic and/or bacterial infections. It's not a cure-all for infections but can help prevent a sick fish from being contagious and killing your whole tank. They have little, if any, effect on ORP. Ozone and skimming function to decrease ORP (high ORP is one sign of "dirty" water), UV only kills living things that are in the water column.

Alright, I guess I'll go with ordering the glass baffles then. I want pods so I don't have to occasionally feed the coral, it'd be done on a continuous basis for me. Plus maybe I could get a dragonet of some sort.

So, now the 10 gallon's been ditched.

A few more questions:
Should I put a check valve on the return for some extra insurance against back flow (in addition to anti-siphon holes)?
I'm planning on using a 2 part solution for calcium and alkalinity (using 2 kent aquadoses http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...fm?pcatid=3677). Is it good enough to put the drips on opposite sides of the sump?

 

[SkiFletch]

May I suggest cheating on the baffles... No need to go crazy and custom order them. Just go to your local HD or Lowes, most have glass cutting sections and they'll cut window glass for you. You can use 12" wide sheets which are just a bit wider and silicone them in place at a slight angle. That's how i did the baffles in my 20g sump. Glass cost me a whopping $15...

Absoloutely use a check valve in addition to anti-siphon holes. Always always always use two levels of protection. And do yourself a favor and use what's known as a True Union Check Valve. They are check valves with union couplings on either side of them. Make servicing really easy and you will need to service it periodically. Some Lowes carry them, but no HD I've ever seen has one. If your local Lowes doesn't have them, check out championlighting.com, they carry them.

One word of caution with the aquadosers. You won't need all that much calcium or alkalinity for such a small tank so if you do use an auto doser like that, even on it's lowest dose rate and a "standard" two part concentration, you may easily overdose the tank. The solution will be to use dilute solutions of the two part instead of the normal strength. Make sense?