90 gal restart ideas and assistance

[IndyReef]

It's been a long time and several moves since i have had my 90 gal up and running. approx 6 years and most of what was in my head is gone.

the 90 is not "reef ready"
I have 190 pounds of LR that is now base rock
I bought my new house and had special electrical run to the basement for the tank.
I plan on setting up a reef. I am debating MH or t5.

I have lost a few pieces of equipment due to move issues (**** movers).
I basically have the rock, tank, stand.

I plan on putting the tank behind a wall so lighting can be ugly from behind.

so my questions

1. sump or not to sump? I never had a sump on it before and I question the need
2. dsb of 6" still right? or within reason?
3. 4-6 watts per gal still about right?
4. plan on buying sand from HD or lowes and seeding with either 1 bag of "live sand" or seeing if i can get some from the LFS (not the friendliest group). I also will by a LR or two to seed my current stuff
5. my turbo floater skimmer seems to have had one of the acrylic tubes break and i dont know if that is repairable or if i should just by a new skimmer. if i need a new one, suggestions are welcome.
6. t5 seems to be new since i was last with my tank and it seems cheeper as long as i am not doing clams am i safe with this? i am thinking of 48"X 8 bulb setup?

basically i am planning on buy new heaters and PHs anyway, but I wanted to know the current theory on the right way to set it up and if i have to force my self into plumbing anything or if a hang on skimmer, a dsb, and LR will still get the job done

 

[ccCapt]

1- sump is always a good thing to hide equipment plus adds extra water volume
2- 6" is good if you are going the DSB route
3- good for what? That's an outdated way to measure lighting. What type of corals are you planning on?
4- Play sand will work, but rinse it, then rinse it again, then rinse it a few more times to remove as much of the fine silica as you can.
5- Look at Octopus skimmers. Great price and performance.
6- 8x54w will be good for just about anything. A 90 is deep, so the high light demanding SPS should be closer to the top.

For powerheads, I love the Koralias. I have 2 K-4's, 2 K-3's and 1 K-1 in my 125. I will soon be swapping the 2 K-3's for 2 more K-4's.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with what Larry had to say.

Personally I would not have a SW system without a sump and a Refugium. IF you are doing this in your basement and the tank is going to be "behind the wall" then you should have some room for additional sumps/fuge. I like to have a combination of lighting on my system I like the intensity of the MH and the color of the T5s. As Larry said the 90 is a pretty deep tank and I think you would benefit from having MH and T5s on the tank.

I agree with checking out the Octopus skimmers, the one you have may or may not be able to be fixed and if you are starting over why chance it with a questionable peice of equipment?

I just went through adding sand to my frag tank a DSB, and I used the play sand from HD. RINSE AND RINSE AND RINSE AND RINSE and then do it all again. The play sand is pretty fine and believe me it will make a mess in the tank.

I have Koralias in my frag system and as backups in case something happens to my Tunze Nano Streams, for my money I prefer the Tunze over the Koralia. Eventually I will get a pair of Vortechs but right now I love my Tunze, and the customer support is awesome. I had a shaft pop out on one of my nano streams last week. I contacted Tunze and they are replacing the pump and it is over a year old.

Take your time and plan out everything you do before you start setting things up. Make sure you can access every area of your system with ease.

 

[IndyReef]

my only fear with the sump is the j/u tubes i am going to have to use due to the tank not being "reef ready"

how do i make sure the pump i get and the outflow will match? i know simple question, but how can they be exactly even?

 

[ccCapt]

No worries using a HOB overflow with the U tubes. Thery are extremely reliable. I used one for over 15 yrs with no issues at all.
You must match your pump and overflow capacity. If you get an overflow that can handle 1200 gph, get a pump that pushes no more than 1200 gph. The overflow will only drain as fast as the pump pushes the water back up to the tank. If you got a pump rated for 1000 gph, the overflow would only drain 1000gph even tho it could handle more. If you get a pump pushing 1400 gph, the overflow won't be able to keep up and the pump will empty your sump and the tank overflows.