Need feedback for my new reef Setup

[Carlos Arouche]

Folks I´m from Brazil and very sorry for my terrible english.

I`m building my first (BIG) reef and if you could help me on some points, would be really important for me.

Setup:290 Gal tank and 170 Sump (total 460 gal)
Size: 8,79 x 2,3 x 2,3 (feet) or 105 x x 27,5 x 27,5 (inches)

As energy here is almost two times more expensive then USA I have to be really worried with energy bills.

that´s the initial setup:

Circulation:
1- Four tunze Turbelles 6045 for circulation
2- One Refloo 2000 GPH for return

Ilumination:
1- Three 250W HQI
2- Four t5 80W geismann

Skimmer:
1- One 9440 Tunze Master Doc Skimmer
2- One 9020 Tunze Skimmer

Live Stock
1- Samoa Pink Sand on the display
2- 352 pounds of live rock (originaly from Brazil)
3- Crushed Coral in the SUMP for the refugium

Tempreature
1- Aquanetics 3/4 HP

Thank you very much for any comment and suggestion.

Best regards.

[Elliott]

are you able to use natural lighting, solar tubes or sky light?


To Reef Central

[DiazE]

Saludos from Jersey City, New Jersey!

Photos please.

[Carlos Arouche]

Unfortunately the reef is in the lower part of a three floor house. As here in Brazil (don´ t ask me why) all the floors are done with concrete 3 foot thin there is no way to use solar tubes (that should be great)

So here are some pictures of the place (still finishing)

Initial start



Two months Ago



Now




And the SUMP area





Sorry for the mess and bad pictures.

[DiazE]

That room is going to look good! I consider a concrete house real construction, compared to the use of sheet rock on aluminun beams as here in the U.S., so your fortunate; the floor will hold the weight.

[Carlos Arouche]

The room have 172 square feet and Is good for my purposes... the idea is to have the SUMP in the middle So I can easily access what I need...

[Elliott]

have you considered a light rail? there are several rc'ers here who have had good success using much less electricity by using one or two moving lights suspended on a rail

[Carlos Arouche]

Hy Elliott.... very good advices... and searching here I saw those rail systems... but Brazil is almos another world where equipments like this take years to be available and with enought knoledge to deploy and support.

I searched for companyes that could send it to me, but Brazil is usually out of their distribution list. (imagine the hell should be support here)

Thanks a lot for the support

[Elliott]

Carlos, just find the product you want, if they won't ship to you send me a private message (pm tab above) and I'll receive the item and ship it to you, no big deal

[Carlos Arouche]

Thank you very much for your kind support !!

[Elliott]

sorry double post

[Elliott]

Originally posted by Carlos Arouche
Thank you very much for your kind support !!

no worries

[Carlos Arouche]

One of my concerns is if two skimmers working together are OK, and if those Tunze Skimmers are well suited for my reef tank...

Best regards.

[Elliott]

Originally posted by Carlos Arouche
One of my concerns is if two skimmers working together are OK, and if those Tunze Skimmers are well suited for my reef tank...

Best regards.

sorry, don't know why this is happening, double post again

[Elliott]

Originally posted by Carlos Arouche
One of my concerns is if two skimmers working together are OK, and if those Tunze Skimmers are well suited for my reef tank...

Best regards.

you can run one skimmer wet and the other dry, therefore getting two different types of organics in the skimmate, look up Calfo's threads on this subject here on rc

[Carlos Arouche]

Elliott thanks for the advise on the skimmer...

Just a picture of my actual reef:

(150 Gal system)



Got the price of my new glass and unfotrunatelly Saphire is not an option here... (just to have an idea... only the front Glass would cost about US$2.000,00 and take four weeks to arrive)

the system will be mounted in my house so transportation issues will be avoided.

Best regards.

[Elliott]

lools very nice Carlos, can you give us a list of your equipment and maybe a picture or two?

[Carlos Arouche]

Some new pictures of the place...

Sump area





Frontal View updated




My actual tank is not big enought to be here... My pictures are bad also... and corals are not really happy with 3 x 150W HQI... but here are some pictures...










Best regards

[Carlos Arouche]

And some "from this to that" (6 month period) corals pictures


FROM

TO





FROM




TO


FROM

TO


FROM

TO


Best regards

[Elliott]

very nice, looks like a great setup in the works

[xXReefXx]

looking good!!

[Carlos Arouche]

That´s the sump area design...

hope to receive any advice on that...

best regards.

[Elliott]

could you explain each step starting with water in, why the six houses, three anual renews, and reason for not skimming first at the water in area? thanks

[Carlos Arouche]

OK...
1- the light blue is the decanter, where the water flows from the botton to the upper and usually the "dust" stay ther don´t going to the rest of the SUMP.
2- the dark blue area is where the Denitrator and calcium system (jaubert) stays, where I have three separate areas with 4in substrate that will create a low oxigen zone with low PH and removes Nitrate and also ads calcium to the system... As this area tends to stop working with the time we create three separate divisinos and renew one each year.
3- the yellow area is also the largest one and that´s why is where I place Skimmer, carbon, Calcium reactor and etc...
4- Bubble break
5- refugium with algae and substrate.

Hope you can understand my terrible english.

Best regards.

[Elliott]

makes sense, I like it, have you had experience running this sump configuration? does it work well?