Dorm room frag tank build

[Jisko]

So I'm looking into setting up a frag tank to grow out some corals while I'm off at college next year. I currently have a display tank at home that my father looks after while I'm away but I miss having something nice to look at while I'm away. The main reason I'm looking into setting up this frag tank in my dorm is not just to have something to look at but also so I can keep an eye on my more expensive corals along with new corals I'll be purchasing in the coming months. As I get more and more into the hobby I've found myself going after more of the expensive corals and I worry something might happen while I'm gone and I'll loose some of them. My solution is to build this frag tank in my dorm and spend the next 2 months planning the build.

So far I'm looking at getting either a 24x24 30g or a 20x20 21g frag tank with built in overflow. I'm still up in the air on wether to get a prebuilt sump or try and rig some kind of custom sump. I love the idea of having dosing options and the cool design of prebuilt sumps but some of the prices get carried away and I'm not 100% sure if dosing will even be needed. I'm looking at running a Tunze 3155 for the ATO to keep the water levels under control during my week long breaks or if I travel on the weekends. As for lighting I'm 100% but I'm thinking of going with something like a cheap box LED as I'll be mainly focusing on LPS corals. I'm not sure about a skimmer or if one is really needed as I will be doing weekly water changes with RODI water and reef crystals. If a skimmer is suggested what would be a decent skimmer for a tank of this size?

I know its a lot of reading but I want to have this planned out instead of trying to throw together some random crap at the last minute haha

thanks ahead for input and thoughts

 

[don_chuwish]

First thing would be - will the housing department allow it? I highly doubt they'd want a glass box full of salt water in their rooms.

 

[Jisko]

First thing would be - will the housing department allow it? I highly doubt they'd want a glass box full of salt water in their rooms.

they allow up to 30g tanks in dorm rooms.

My first year here I had 3 tanks and a big reptile setup as I was housing some stuff for the college so I'm hopping because they let that slide I'll get a little room to work with. I'm gonna be meeting with residential life this week to go over water storage. The college has a big science and biology department along with an agricultural major so I'm just praying that they'll let me swing a 25g frag tank along with 30-40 gallons of water in a drum haha

If all else fails I can work along side the marine biology department and help them out in return for them helping me with my problem.

 

[Jisko]

a little update on the progress of this:

- Tank: I've decided to go with the 25g innovative marine lagoon as it has built in filtration in the back so a sump wont be needed and it's also very shallow so by adding an acyclic frag wrack 2 inchs above the bottom will give the corals a decent amount of distance from the light.
http://www.marinedepot.com/Innovati...anks-Innovative_Marine-0I05253-FIAQNC-vi.html

- Skimmer: For a skimmer I decided to go with a aquamaxx hob because I use the aquamaxx in sump model for my display tank and have had amazing results.
http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMaxx...s_Nano_Skimmer-AquaMaxx-UJ1151-FIPSNS-vi.html

- Lighting: I'm still up in the air about what I'll be doing for lighting at this time but i'm still leaning towards a cheap box light as i'll only be growing lps corals