equipment help.

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 23, 2011

Hello, I am looking at starting up a 90 gallon shallow tank. dimensions: 48 Long x 24 Wide x 18 high. It has dual overflow boxes, i believe its drilled at a 1.5 bulkhead. Looking for a sump, I know bigger the better. But what im wondering is will my 30 Long be enough of a sump? 36 x 12 x 17, divided into 3 sections skimmer/return/fuge. Also, what size return pump will I need? In the display tank, I plan to have possibly 2 mp40es, or at the minimum an mp40 and an mp10. The corals I will house will be clams, anenome, lps, and softies.

florida reef · Jun 23, 2011

That seems like a unique sized tank. I use a 20 gallon tank for a sump, so a 30 gallon would be fine I think.

gar732 · Jun 23, 2011

I have a 20L under my 75gal display and 13gal frag tank so I'd say the 30 will be fine. I have a laguna 1500 as a return for both and run all my reactors off of it too. It's an askoll pump and supposed to be the same as the atb flowstar 1500, they look identical.

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 23, 2011

Alright, I was told by someone that it wouldnt work out, so i was just tryin to get other opinions.

Troylee · Jun 23, 2011

All depends if it can handle the back wash from a power failure it might not.... How high are the baffles in it??? And what's the dimensions of the sump??? I could do the math for ya quicker than explaining it...

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 23, 2011

THe skimmer section is only 6 inches at the max, due to have a sro xp1000sss. the fuge section is 12 inches high, the ruturn is 12 inches a the tallest part. 36 x 12 x 17 is the dimensions.

AZDesertRat · Jun 23, 2011

I use a 30 long under my 60" 100G reef and its been fine for 7.5 years now. Same 3 sections. My choice for a return pump would be an Ocean Runner 3500, Eheim 1262 or maybe a Water Blaster 3000 or 5000. All are very energy efficient, run cool, quiet and do not have restart problems.

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 23, 2011

the person said The 30L couldnt handle 1000 GPH since it was only 12 inches wide.

AZDesertRat · Jun 24, 2011

Mine is used with an OR3500 running at around 800 GPH with head and doing fine. The baffles would have no probblem with 1000 GPH. I've seen 20G sumps with 1000 GPH through them which to me was a little too much velocity for my tastes.
As long as you have multiple baffles to act as bubble traps you should not have any problems at all. I built mine with an over-under-over baffle configuration between the main and return sections and have no bubble problems at all from the skimmer which is in the main section.

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 24, 2011

My layout goes SKimmeer, 3 baffles/ return/ only 1 baffle, then fuge.

AZDesertRat · Jun 24, 2011

Do you have any photos?
Here are a couple of mine. It has the refugium on the left with a tall baffle that overflows into the main section that houses the protein skimmer. Then there are three baffles to the return pump. The overflow is 1" and teed off with 1/2" to feed the refugium

Saltwatercoral2 · Jun 24, 2011

your sump is the exact same as mine. baffles and all, the only difference is, MY skimmer is where your return pump is, and the return pump is where my skimmer is.