220 fish only

[jon1985]

I finally got ahold of a 6' 220.  My plans are to set it up over the christmas holidays.  I dont have a fish list yet but its going to be a fairly aggressive tank.


I am having one problem right now.  I hate the look of several power heads in a tank.  There is no way I am spending $500 each on vortechs, so I have a problem. 

Is there a reasonably priced power head out there that will work well in a 6' tank?

That said, I have some mag pumps, not sure how strong they are but they are way bigger then my mag 7.  Is there anyway I could build these into the tank somehow to use as flow?  I dont want to run the extra flow through the overflows as that may make them noisey.

Thoughts? suggestions?

Thanks

[matycake]

I would go with a tunze  wave box I think they go for around 380 new just make sure you have a really strong stand, not the cheapest but it is less the 500$ and I think you would need 2 vortechs in a 6' tank
Can't wait to see it set up

[NjOyRiD]

I had 2 koralia Magnum 8 in my 220g
did the job!

[jon1985]

I did some thinking last night.  I was thinking I could do a sort of fake closed loop with the mag pumps I have.   I didnt look inside the overflows so Im not sure if they will fit inside.  However I was thinking, I dont think mag pumps need to be submerged.  Which means I can run a pipe into the overflow box to supply the pumps with water and then run another pipe from the mag along to back of the tank then bring the nozzel inside the tank.  The 2 drawbacks I see to this are, 1-extra space required behind the tank for pump and plumbing, 2-Im not sure if this would create a syphone.  A syphone may not matter as the return is back into the tank, not the sump.


If I do this I would use the flex line on the return line so I can direct flow.

I will look at a tunze wave box.

[JD]

I had three different configurations when I had a 220g. First was a wavebox and 4 K4's. The wavebox took up too much room so ended up with just the 4 K4's. I later switched out the K4's for MP40's. All these setups worked fine for a SPS dominated tank. If I were to do it again, I would use 2 MP60's. That being said, this 220 is fish only, you don't need crazy flow(and cost), just enough to keep food and detrius from settling out.

MAG pumps add heat like crazy and are noisy when used non submerged. I personally have no love for them.
If you decide to draw water from the overflows for a sudo closed loop, keep in mind the extra volume the overflows will need to handle might make them loud and cause air bubble entrainment being pumped back to the display.
If you want flow, no powerhead presence, reasonable cost, minimal heat transfer, etc, I would recommend drilling for a true closed loop and use a Reeflo Super Dart Gold. That pump is quiet, pumps around 4600 gph, consumes only 150 watts(I actually measured one I had) and has a decent reputation for the pump seal.(gold series only)

You can get one used for around $300.
http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?action=classifieds;sa=view;id=931

[jon1985]

hmmm noisey isnt good.  Im not overly concerned about heat is the tank will be in my basement so its fairly cool down there, definetly need a heater.

Maybe Ill stick with power heads for the time being.

[NjOyRiD]

Jon, I'm using 3x 250w heaters for my 220g (370g total water)
its all I need for out winters + my basement

if you check this http://www.reeftronics.net/phil-b/rk-history

you can see they start rarely (you see the graph go to 12 amps)

[jon1985]

So I went and picked the tank and equipment up last night.  I don't think I will be using the pump he was using.  I'm not sure what brand it is or how much flow it has but it has a 395W draw.  I will have to look through the pumps I have sitting around to see if I can find one to use.

I am hoping to have the stand finished and ready for the tank by next weekend.  Then I should have the plumbing done, rock scaped and filled by the end of the week. 

I am using about 110lbs of cured live rock and whatever else I  need of dry rock I have stored, roughly 400lbs.  I am not aiming for a certain amount of weight, more aiming for visually appealing.  I have a rough plan in my head but we will see how it works out once I get going.  I usually use a pvc frame then zip tie the rocks to it, this allows me to make just about any shape I want and the rock still be stable.


I think for the time being I am just going to use power heads.  I have spoken to a few people who have used tunze pumps or vortech pumps for sale so I may go that route.  By the time I bough enough koralias I would be over the price they are charging for the pumps they have.  Then I only need 2 in the tank instead of 4 plus.


For filtration I will be using a bio tower type setup.  The previous owner was using it and he had no algea in the tank and had a way under rated skimmer.  I plan to stock the tank fairly heavily so will be adding a skimmer down the road.  I will have cheato in the sump as well as some extra rock.

I think for the initial fill and cycle I will use conditioned tap water.  Once the tank is full the first time I will do water changes from my reef and eventually swap out the tap water.  I will be topping up with RODI.  The nitrates and phosphates in the water coming out of my reef are so low (unmeasurable) that it will be more then addequate for a fowlr.

[jon1985]

thoughts on bio tower?  I got a 30" bio tower with the tank.  Below is the rough layout of the tower.

|__filterfloss__|
|                      |
|_large media_|
|                      |
|_small media_|
|                      |
|                      |
|                      |________|
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                      |                |
|                                       |
|____________________|

I am trying to decide if its worth using or not.  I would put either rock or cheato into the bottom. 

As for other filtration I plan to use rock in the tank and an oversized skimmer.

Thoughts?

Suggestions?

[JD]

I used to flow water over filter floss then over carbon. The floss needed changing every few days. Unless you are doing very regular maintenance, your filter bed will become a nitrate factory.

[Rybren]

If you are still thinking of a closed loop without drilling the tank, Melev has plans for one here..

http://www.melevsreef.com/how_to_build.html

He uses a SCWD on a MAG pump, but I suspect that you could do without the SCWD if you don't want alternating flow.  You could also adapt the design to work with other pumps.

[jon1985]

I still havent really decided what Im doing for flow.  I will just set it up with power heads for now but may end up adding a non drilled closed loop type system.