Looks awesome! I like how its aquascaped to feel like it has a lot of space. That's something I'm worried about with getting a smaller tank- it being too squishy. But these pics and knowing its 24in gives a good idea of what the possibilities are. How many fish would you want in a tank like this?

The open rockwork helps with flow so detritus doesn't settle. It also has the effect of making it look bigger like you say. It does limit space for corals though.

This tank has 3 Yellowstripe Cardinals, 1 Chalk Bass, 1 Redhead Goby, 1 female Emerald crab, and a Cleaner Shrimp. It has room for a few more tiny fish or a couple small fish. I'm thinking probably a Pearly Jawfish and maybe a Yellowtail Damsel because they are eye-catching. I'll add a Blood Shrimp as soon as I find one, and either a Pom Pom or Porcelain Crab. There's room for a few more good-sized corals too - I want to add a couple photosynthetic gorgonians.

Well, I've gone and done it now...

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/01...322b1af531.jpg

As you can see this is not exactly the "small" tank I was talking about. Santa was very nice to me so I decided to nab a pre-drilled 90g with stand, skimmer (bubble Magnus curve 5), and return pump (fluval). Bought a 30g long to use as a sump, grabbed some man made rock for $2/lb. Have salt, test kits, refractometer, heaters, power head.... I think I'm ready to get going on the plumbing!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/01...5faaea7b72.jpg

This is my plan for a sump. First section is for the drain (Herbie), not planning on running filter socks full time but may throw a sponge or something at the bottom to collect detritus. Skimmer, etc section next followed by a fuge. Bubble trap baffles into the return pump section.

Main question-
How big should the return pump section be? Planning on one sqft for skimmer, one sqft for fuge, and the other sqft between the drain and return.

Wow look at you go! :D

If you aren't going to buy an auto top off, you will need a bigger return chamber or you will have to top it up everyday. The bigger the return chamber the longer it can go. If you get an auto top off (it's on of those things that once you do it, you never go back lol) then you can make the return chamber smaller. I use an auto top off and I like to incorporate a top off chamber into sump which holds the RO water for the auto top off to use.

I don't like to use a fuge, so I use that saved space for the above mentioned RO tank.

When you plumb your tank, dry-plumb everything first to make sure it all fits. Better to get it right before messing with the PVC glue. Then use a marker to draw a line between pieces so you can line everything up the same way when you are ready to add the PVC glue and bond it permanently. That way you don't have to guess if its going to all fit or be in the right place. Always buy extra joints and PVC pieces than you think you need cause it really sucks to have to stop in the middle of plumbing your tank cause you're missing that one "elbow". All the plumbing places like RONA around here allow you to return extra pieces with a receipt.

Return line plumbing/ tank flow question
 

Posted in the DIY section....

Not sure how to go about plumping my return line-

Single outlet return with single powerhead supplying all the flow to the tank?

Single outlet return with two powerheads supplying flow? put on wavemaker type devie?

Dual outlet return with single powerhead? Put some kind of gadget on the return to randomize the flow?

Other option? I want to get this thing plumbed and up and running but Im stuck on this! Wanting mostly LPS and a few nems. Too many choices...:drinking:

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...f5acc9832c.jpg
It's getting real

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...062bcdbb5b.jpg

Thanks hubby!

For a tank this size, I'd just keep it simple so you have more room under the tank. I'd do one return line with one outlet. Use powerheads in the tank for the waves. Your return should not have enough flow through it to contribute much to the flow. Too much flow through the sump will sweep microbubbles from the skimmer into your display which will make the water look hazy and may even irritate the corals. 5x the system volume is a good number for the return pump.

Thanks for the info!!