A few outstanding questions...

[MDHatter22]

...by the way, I mean't "outstanding" in the terms of "left over", by no means are these great questions... they are pure NEWBIE! LOL!

So I'm going reef. I live on the beach and my living room is screaming for nice big reef tank. 150h gal.

I question the stand it came with though... am I right to have this instinct? We're talking close to 2,000lbs. when it's all said an done. And it's a simple wood cabinet... I'm going to reinforce just to be on the safe-side. It was built for this tank but... ???

Anyway, bought the tank and stand last week.
Got an Oceanic Model 3 sump. Real nice.
Just picked up 2 Mag 950s. New in box. $105 for both on E-bay. good deal.
I was going to run one os the return and the other on the skimmer. Will that work or should they be different sizes?
I guess since I'm here, I should ask what size (and brand) skimmer to get. My buddy has had 2 125s going without issue for 12 years now and he runs a Red Sea on his. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

m

 

[BDAWG]

I run a Red Sea on mine too. It works great for me but most people here go with the Aqua C Remora.

Here's a link...

http://www.proteinskimmer.com/products/Remora.htm

...I'm hoping to get one soon.

 

[MDHatter22]

Thanks, but I'm doing in-sump, not hang-on.

I was checking out the Nautilus too.

Thanks again.

m

 

[RLG2182]

A Mag 9.5 will be WAY overkill on the Aqua C Remora. Have you considered an Aqua C EV series 180? Even a 120? Not sure what pump those take... but you can always put a ball valve on the exhaust end to downsize the flow. Check with Darin at Captivereefs

 

[MDHatter22]

My sump hold about 39 gallons so I wanted to get some nice flow in there. I ws going to look into a decent size skimmer.

This is the one area that I can't seem to come to a sound conclusion where I'm actually ready to make a buy.

m

 

[BDAWG]

Thanks, but I'm doing in-sump, not hang-on.

I was checking out the Nautilus too.

Thanks again.

m

Sorry, I didn't see that.

 

[MDHatter22]

No worries.

 

[captivereefs]

Check out the ASM skimmers. They work as well as the Euroreefs for way less. They are even a better deal then the AquaC skimmers. They are made out of cheaper material though.

 

[MDHatter22]

What do you think? The ASM 3?

And what about my pump ?s:

Just picked up 2 Mag 950s. New in box. $105 for both on E-bay. good deal.
I was going to run one on the return and the other on the skimmer. Will that work or should they be different sizes?

Thanks again CR. Great site by the way. I was checking out lighting on it.

 

[nickthapainter]

I picked up an EV-180 from Darin @ Captivereefs -- runs of a Mag7 -- I had a spare Mag9.5 but it was too big for the skimmer (Mag7 required -- $59.00).

You will want to order a pump based on which skimmer you have, not the other way around. Go for an Aqua-c or ASM with an appropriately sized pump, use one Mag for the return, and keep the other as a spare or run in a closed loop for added circulation.

 

[MDHatter22]

Yeah. I was thinking of the onther one as a spare. Can't ever be too careful. I'm usually a vey handy guy. I fix and build a lot of stuff, AND I had a lot of FW tanks, but I'll be damed if a lot of this SW stuff has me dumbfounded. HA!

Can I ask one last dumb question? How exactly does a closed loop work? And is it purely for circulation?

Thanks again.

Mike

 

[RMPD109]

A closed loop is purely for turnover. In a FO or FOWLR setup you want 10x hr or more turnover. A reef needs 20x or more. You could setup a closed loop that consists of a supply line from tank , a return line to tank and a pump. I would recommend adding a SCWD. This will use the one supply line and split the return into to returns allowing for a more random current.

 

[MDHatter22]

Many thanks.

m