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Is this a good tank setup?

Ethan073

Pygmy Octopus
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Nov 25, 2011
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Link tubing from main tank to sump. Create a siphon with tubing. Tubing will be of a certain diameter to match return rate of the canister filer which will pump water out of the sump and back into the main tank.

Protein skimmer is an ASM G2 rated for 200g
Canister filter is a Marineland Magnum350 rated for 100g
75g main tank, 35g sump. After live rock I expect roughly 70g total water in circulation, maybe less.

Am I missing anything?
 
I don't think you need the canister filter and sump with filter sock carbon and bioballs. i would lose the canister, but extra filtration is not going to hurt, so its up to you. Looks good.
 
If you want to use the canister as the return pump, I would not put filtration media in it. IMO, the additional maintenance outweighs any additional filtration. I have noted that using canisters as return pumps seems to be popular in Europe but wonder about the flow rate of the smaller pumps. If you are planning on using 75+ pounds of live rock, I would also eliminate the bioballs.

I run my exit water directly into my filter sock. The sock contains a mesh bag of carbon. I clean (swap) the sock and carbon weekly.

If you can have the tank drilled, you will find this to be much better than using a siphon.
 
Thanks for the replies!

It is a non reef ready glass tank, so drilling it is not an option to my understanding, unfortunately, as it would shatter the glass. It's between a hang on the back overflow, pump, or siphon tube - and since they all accomplish the same thing I think the $5 tube sounds pretty good!

I would be happy to ditch the bio balls. Would this be a matter of bio media overkill or a matter of the bioball media being competition to the live rock's cultures? Just wondering if youre recommending against them to save $ or because it could have negative effects on th live rock.

So other than adding my heater to the sump tank, I'm not missing anything else that I need, right?

Also, any opinions towards a fail safe plan in case power goes out and my siphon tube overflows the sump? I'm custom building my tank stand so I think I may be lining the inside with plastic to catch any sump overflow water. This seems to be the simplest solution I've come up with.

Thanks for the input, you guys are awesome!
 
I would be happy to ditch the bio balls. Would this be a matter of bio media overkill or a matter of the bioball media being competition to the live rock's cultures? Just wondering if youre recommending against them to save $ or because it could have negative effects on th live rock.

just to save money. I use the bioballs in two of my tanks that also have lots of LR and i have noticed nothing negative about them. some people say they are a nitrate factory but you show me one that is and i'll show you a person that was not doing proper tank maintenance.

If you can have the tank drilled, you will find this to be much better than using a siphon.

That's her opinion, I have used siphons for years now and i have NEVER had an issue with them.


as you can see there are many way to set up a tank and everyone does it just a little differently. which reminds me where's Joe? He always has good setup ideas and opinions.
 
which reminds me where's Joe? He always has good setup ideas and opinions.
ditto

Your sump should be kept full only to the point that it will contain power out water overflow, so "full pool" is nowhere near the top and your siphon will not go to the bottom of your tank. The simplest way to mark this is to fill you tank with the sipon not functioning, then set up your siphon and measure the depth then mark this measurement from the top down (I use a stick-on label :biggrin2:). I thought I had posted a series of pictures to explain this but I don't see them, however, Monty's Scavenger Tank shows my basic set-up description and you can see my "full pool" mark in the last photo.

As CaptFish says, there are dozens of successful ways to set up a tank and with 9+ (CaptFish has MTS as well) I work at simplicity and ease of maintenance. My dislike for siphons is based on experience and a couple of summers with heavy power outages and I would never go back to using them.
 
A slight digression from original question, but I'm considering getting a hood with moonlight LEDs built in along with daylight and actinic bulbs vs a single bulb daylight hood. My only concern is would the moonlight or actinic bulb be too bright for a bimac at night or is this suitable for night time viewing?
 
Trust me, you want the best filtration you can have with the least matinence. If you can find anyways to reduce matinence without reducing filtration(althought you do seem to have quite a lot) it would be very helpfull to take less time which you can be viewing your ceph.
 
I can't speak with an observation of bimac behavior because Diego is a little strange but I kept a hummelincki (that I would consider to be similar in general personality) who would become very nerveous when his red nightlight switched to white due to power outages resetting the color. It happened to be a summer with lots of thunderstorms and happened so frequently that we removed the night light. All the hummelinckis I have kept have been strictly diurnal and sleep all night so the brighter white (and blue is believed to be almost as bright as white to octopuses) had a negative impact that was recordable. Little Bit (joubini, I think) and Diego (bimaculoides) seem to wake and forage at all hours and both have a lighted portion and a totally dark part to their tanks. The lighted half of Little Bit's tank has red LEDs and she will forage between the dark and lighted sides. I had not intended Diego's tank to be set up this way but noticed when I would leave a near-by light on he would often come to that corner late at night so I leave it on now but it does not really light the tank much at the tank end nearest the light is opaque.

These are limited experiences and we don't have a lot of in situ night time observations to go by but I would be prepared to watch each individual animal for negative reactions if you are going to light the tank with anything but a red light at night. If you see irratic pacing, turn off the night lights or arrange for a marjor portion of the tank to stay dark.
 
ieatfalalfel;184826 said:
Trust me, you want the best filtration you can have with the least matinence. If you can find anyways to reduce matinence without reducing filtration(althought you do seem to have quite a lot) it would be very helpfull to take less time which you can be viewing your ceph.

I couldn't agree more.
 
Ethan073;184711 said:
3884d479.jpg


Link tubing from main tank to sump. Create a siphon with tubing. Tubing will be of a certain diameter to match return rate of the canister filer which will pump water out of the sump and back into the main tank.

Protein skimmer is an ASM G2 rated for 200g
Canister filter is a Marineland Magnum350 rated for 100g
75g main tank, 35g sump. After live rock I expect roughly 70g total water in circulation, maybe less.

Am I missing anything?

I recommend getting rid of the bioballs and the canister filter because it will create a nitrate problem in the future and nitrate and cephalopods do not mix very well. I would even get rid of the sock, unless you change it out every other day). In my current setup, I have a 50 gallon sump with 8" of deep sand bed with cheatos macro algae and a over rated protein skimmer (reef octopus dual 6 recirculating). I skipped the sock so that the detritus coming from the display tank could be taken out by the skimmer (I did that by adding a powerhead to the sump to keep the detritus in suspension and then in turn filtered by the skimmer). I currently have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0-5 nitrate. My only form of mechanical filtration comes from the skimmer. My recommendation would be to save the money from the bioballs and the canister and invest it into a over-rated skimmer for the size of your tank. The skimmer will add oxygen to the tank and keep your octo or cuttle happy.
 

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