37g Tall Advise

Alright guys... here's my dreaming/planning area for the 37g tall bowfront I'm wanting to transfer to later this year. I was originally thinking June... but thinking about it... it's going to have to be later than that. I'd like to have water in the tank by then, but I'll need to cycle my new rock and such before transferring over completely. So... tell me what to change!

I'll have my current light fixture. The Evolution LED 120w.

I'll have the 37g tall bowfront, with an overflow. Question, I'm planning on using Donnie's overflow. Since it's not behind "teeth" or anything similar should I put a screen top on that or something? The top is just an open pipe.

That will go down into an 18 tall (same footprint as a 10g). I'll have to do some math to find out how much water will be sent down into my sump when power goes out, is there a calculator for that somewhere? My plan is to have the water coming in from the drain on the left where it will go through a media rack with filter floss, chemi-pure elite and purigen. The skimmer in that left section as well... on the other side. In the middle I'll have rock rubble on the bottom, chaeto on top of the rubble, and a floating or magnetic frag rack that will stay above the chaeto. Not sure what this will be lit by yet. Likely a par38 LED. On the right hand side will be the return... with another small section to the side of that that will be empty for when the power goes out and everything drains into the tank.

The return will be running at ~450gph at ~5'. I'll put a scwd wavemaker on the return and split each out to each side at the top of the tank. The overflow will be in the center, between the alternating returns.

Water flow. MP10ES... no idea where to put this yet. I'll likely setup the rock work and then move it 15 times before I finally decide. I don't want the top of the water to move with a wave motion, but I do want things to sway. If that's not best... I'll just setup the sway for videos and stuff. This time I'm planning on building a stand and canopy. Going to try to make this very nice. Likely painted black, but honestly... whatever goes with my living room the best. Has anyone seen any custom built stands that have room behind the tank but hide the access from the side? I need room for plumbing and such back there and I want access to it, but I want to hide it as well.

matt_longview wrote:

I'll have to do some math to find out how much water will be sent down into my sump when power goes out, is there a calculator for that somewhere?

I just set everything up, turned off the power, filled the sump and kicked the power back on and marked the water line with a sharpie.

You're smarter than me. lol.

Okay... I'm doing a little more dreaming. I'm wanting to add a few more features to my tank setup... and I'm specifically thinking of things I can add to the tank stand.

First of all... I'm wanting the tank stand to be wider than the tank itself. I want to have room for a sump, as large as I can fit, an auto top off, and a frag tank plumbed into the system. In the ideal world, I'll also have room either in the cabinet to the side, or down below for a very small fridge/freezer (they make small ones that are basically a powered cooler). Then I can keep everything fish related right there instead of in the kitchen.

So I believe I'm going to go with the tank in between a cabinet on each side... with the tank sticking out further than the cabinets so you can still view from each side. I'm thinking either a granite or marble top (frag table top!), I've got the wood and stain picked out... it's a gorgeous combo.

So... what else would you have in the dream setup? I'm thinking I'll add a valve with a hose adapter end for easy water changes. Where should I put this? I'm thinking I'll put it on the overflow down to the sump. Then I'll pour my new water into the sump, close the valve to the sump, and open the valve to the hose. I'll re-open the valve to the sump when it gets close to my line again, and close it to the hose when it.