I'm currently in the planning stages of setting up a 7' x 3' x 3' tank. Initially the tank was meant to be commissioned now, but the covid 19 situation has delayed my renovations by a few months so I have more time to ponder over the details. How I intend to set the tank up is to knock a wall down between two rooms and to have the tank where the wall used to be. The tank will be facing one of the rooms, which will be my man cave with a recliner facing the tank. Behind the tank will be my fish room where I will have a remote sump, sink and countertop workspace, rodi water collection barrel and a rack of 9 tanks for qt and breeding projects. A feature wall will be built around the tank to hide the fish room from sight, which will include a hidden door so that the fish room entrance blends into the home decor. I have some questions regarding how I should be setting up this system:
1. There will not be space at the sides of the tank for wavemakers so the return pump will have to take care of all the flow needs of the tank. I currently have an Abyzz A200 that I kept from my reef tank days but is this sufficient? Should I get a second A200 for redundancy and to share the load? The pump is controllable so I could run both at 70% to get more flow than 1 pump can provide without overdoing it with 2 pumps at full flow
2. Influenced from my reef tank days, I initially wanted to do an external overflow box with a beananimal drain system into the sump. However, would this create stagnant water and dead spots in the bottom half of the tank? I wanted a clean look in the tank and maybe even a 3d background, but should I instead opt for internal overflow boxes with under flows to get better flow in the bottom half of the tank?
3. I want to automate water changes. Is it better to incorporate an overflow into the return compartment of my sump and do a continuous drip from my rodi barrel, or use something like a Neptune Dos to automate a water change daily? I will have drainage built into the floor of the fish room.
4. What's a good percentage of water to be changing daily without being excessive?
5. I intend for the tank to be viewed while sitting on my recliner and in my experience a standard 3' stand is too high and I'll end up looking up into the tank instead of straight ahead. A lower stand is also better for maintenance given the 3' height of the tank (I am short at 5' 10" only). What's a recommended height for my stand for optimum viewing while seated and maintenance? I'm thinking 18" but some friends suggested 24"
6. How high wattage of led lighting is needed to penetrate 3' of water? Intention is for a South American biotope tank so it'll either be no plants or just low maintenance plants like Amazon swords. I'm thinking of 3x Kessil A160WE - good enough, not enough or too much?
7. The sink will be 2' and the rest of the counter top will be for working space. Should I do a 2-3ft countertop and leave the sump out in the open, or would it be better to extend the countertop out to 7-8' and keep the sump under the countertop? Leaving the sump out makes it easier to maintain but putting it under gives me much more space to work with. I will also be mounting my electricals like Neptune Apex and pump controllers on the wall above the sump, so having the sump under the extended countertop also adds safety in case anything drops off the wall, it won't fall into the sump.
Thank you in advance for your advice. I'm finally moving into a large enough house to set up my own man cave and fish room so I want to make sure I do it right!
1. There will not be space at the sides of the tank for wavemakers so the return pump will have to take care of all the flow needs of the tank. I currently have an Abyzz A200 that I kept from my reef tank days but is this sufficient? Should I get a second A200 for redundancy and to share the load? The pump is controllable so I could run both at 70% to get more flow than 1 pump can provide without overdoing it with 2 pumps at full flow
2. Influenced from my reef tank days, I initially wanted to do an external overflow box with a beananimal drain system into the sump. However, would this create stagnant water and dead spots in the bottom half of the tank? I wanted a clean look in the tank and maybe even a 3d background, but should I instead opt for internal overflow boxes with under flows to get better flow in the bottom half of the tank?
3. I want to automate water changes. Is it better to incorporate an overflow into the return compartment of my sump and do a continuous drip from my rodi barrel, or use something like a Neptune Dos to automate a water change daily? I will have drainage built into the floor of the fish room.
4. What's a good percentage of water to be changing daily without being excessive?
5. I intend for the tank to be viewed while sitting on my recliner and in my experience a standard 3' stand is too high and I'll end up looking up into the tank instead of straight ahead. A lower stand is also better for maintenance given the 3' height of the tank (I am short at 5' 10" only). What's a recommended height for my stand for optimum viewing while seated and maintenance? I'm thinking 18" but some friends suggested 24"
6. How high wattage of led lighting is needed to penetrate 3' of water? Intention is for a South American biotope tank so it'll either be no plants or just low maintenance plants like Amazon swords. I'm thinking of 3x Kessil A160WE - good enough, not enough or too much?
7. The sink will be 2' and the rest of the counter top will be for working space. Should I do a 2-3ft countertop and leave the sump out in the open, or would it be better to extend the countertop out to 7-8' and keep the sump under the countertop? Leaving the sump out makes it easier to maintain but putting it under gives me much more space to work with. I will also be mounting my electricals like Neptune Apex and pump controllers on the wall above the sump, so having the sump under the extended countertop also adds safety in case anything drops off the wall, it won't fall into the sump.
Thank you in advance for your advice. I'm finally moving into a large enough house to set up my own man cave and fish room so I want to make sure I do it right!
