First time 46 gal saltwater build. Couple questions

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Gunk

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
76
Location
Lansing, IL
Hi everyone so i'm planning a 46 gal bowfront saltwater setup. I really wanted to do a reef tank but it sounds a little intimidating at this point after all the reading I've done. So now I'm thinking FOWLR instead. So far this is what I've purchased

Aqueon ProFlex™ Modular Sump Model 2 1100 GPH

Aqueon Submersible Pump 3000 630 GPH

Aqueon ProFlex Hang on Back Overflow 125 - 962 gph

Koralia 1050 Circulation Pump - (1,050 GPH - 5 Watts)

Coralife Super Skimmer With Wheel Water Pump Up To 65 Gallon Tank

Coralife Lunar Aqualight Compact Fluorescent Fixture, 2X96 Watt, 36 inch
(One 96 watt Actinic and one 96 watt 10K compact fluorescent lamp
Two Blue Moon Glow LEDs
Easily removable acrylic lens cover
Black Mounting Legs
One large cooling fan
Highly polished reflector
Three on/off switches (one for the actinic bulb, one for the daylight bulb, and one for the lunar lights) & three power cords)

How does this equipment sound for my tank?

Now a couple questions please

1) Should I just use clear soft vinyl hose to connect the overflow to sump and from the return pump to tank?

2)What should I use for a return outlet where the water goes back into the tank? I defintely don't want to do pvc. I've saw one kind online but there seems like there has to be more info about this but I can't find any. Do I need to make one? If so out of what? Should it be 2 outlets instead of one?
This so far has been the most baffling to me

I forgot to mention I have a freshwater 29g community tank and a 90g cichlid tank and the 46g I'm using for saltwater was also a freshwater before getting the 90 so I have some fairly good knowledge/experience on aquarium keeping and for a relative newcomer. Although this a whole new level without a doubt beyond my knowledge but i'm reading alot watching alot and learning alot!
 
Last edited:
looks like a solid setup:) i have the 72" coralife fixture and it came with 10k whites... id personally recommend the 12k's, i have pics of the 10 and 12k's side by side... the 12k def brings out alot more natural color in the tank..the 10k gives more of a washed out white look. just my suggestion though
 
For the return outlet I used this:

Aquarium Plumbing: Directional U-Tube

I've been looking for a dual putput but havent had any success. :-(

Your equipment looks good, although the return pump will be a bit weak, and not support the overflow to its maximum. If the overflow can handle 962gph you need a pump that will do that gph and account for the "head", the distance the water has to travel from the pump to the top of the tank. Return pumps lose some gph when they go a distance so you need to account for that.

Hope that was helpful a bit!

Good luck!!
 
For the return outlet I used this:

Aquarium Plumbing: Directional U-Tube

I've been looking for a dual putput but havent had any success. :-(

Your equipment looks good, although the return pump will be a bit weak, and not support the overflow to its maximum. If the overflow can handle 962gph you need a pump that will do that gph and account for the "head", the distance the water has to travel from the pump to the top of the tank. Return pumps lose some gph when they go a distance so you need to account for that.

Hope that was helpful a bit!

Good luck!!

Oh ok so thats how that works. Couldn't get my head wrapped around on how to figure that out about the head pump pressure and all that. I'll keep looking into the outputs but the one you linked to is probably the one I'm gonna go with. Thanks. One more question do you think the light I got will be ok for corals, anenomes and the like down the road? I see you have an invertrabrate tank
 
Back
Top Bottom