BIRTH A NEW SYSTEM?????....to be or not to be

[D.J.]

well.......after much debate and ups and downs and thoughts and ideas and dreams.........

the 125g will go up this fall/winter...........this will be a very BUDGETED build....as having 2 large systems goin isnt gona be easy or cheap......

the 90g will still be my overall DISPLAY tank.......the 125g will house corals and fish but mainly be used for grow out and overstock......

plans for the system will be.....
125g main tank....barebottom(maybe)
55g sump tank
20g fuge tank....DSB/LR/???
30g macro tank....chambered with chaeto/Red Gracilaria/grape kelp(possibilities)
20g(2 10g) birthin/growout tanks

for a total water volume of 250 gallons.........290g if i go with a QT idea i have...

for equipment

havent got thru all the plannin here yet since i still have to draw up my plans and figure out head pressures and tubing sizes and light requirements....but..thinkin in these lines..

lighting(RETRO KITS)
T5/mh lighting over main tank/fuge/macro......t5 being the lighting for the smaller tanks and 2-3 150x 10k mh with t5 actinics on the main(also thinkin maybe 2 10k and 1 6500k for growth..thoughts on this?)

pumps
deff researchin this...im thinkin a dolphin 5600/4700 since its dialable and will deff have enuff pressure...and its gota nice price and reputation

but i will research more on different pumps....

LS/LR
sand ill use what i have on hand for the fuge/macro tanks which is crushed agronite/coral.....since i have about 50lbs of this that needs to be cleaned again....

LR will be a start of nothing but base/cured rock for the most part and ill jump it off my 90g display and with the purchase of some figi/caribbean/vanuatu rocks which wil be purchased online and from locals.....

plans for LR will be about 300-350lbs as all tanks will house LR to some degree...majority being in the main/sump/fuge tanks

SKIMMER
still out on this one yet.....at first i was thinkin about givin VERTEX another try BUT not sure if its gona be worth the hassel and aggrivation of messing with another one of these for sucha large volume

MIGHT give the ELOS NS skimmers a try....but i also liked the redsea c-skim i was borrowing from nate/tamika with the exception of the pump/airator design

or maybe a HYDOR.....who knows....

this will be updated later once i decide on a skimmer.....

like i said this will be built on a MAJOR BUDGET....so things are subject to change....gona try to find and go with the BEST energy efficient equipment i can....

i still need to finish gathering up my tanks....so far i have the 125g,20g and 1 10g.
i do have a 40g that im thinkin about plumbing into the system with a UV on the return side and use that as a QT tank....BUT i want to research doin this more due to UV contact times and down sides to them on sw setups...

im not to worried about the uv killin off good bacteria and algeas since it would be at the very end of the system and would only be on when needed.....

i know there is alot of plannin and deciding and research i have got to do before this goes into effect....but 180g of it at least will be plumbed and runnin this winter whie the rest is gathered up and made ready.....

all this will be housed in my basement which is another factor in the build of this system....i have to see what the ambient temps are gona be down there as well without haveing to run supplement heatin as well....i can draw heat off the boiler unit to help some but we'll see what happens...