New Marine Tank

[Ismail7107]

Hi everyone, I’ve recently joined Marine Aquarium SA and thought I’d share the large reef system I’m currently building. It’s still under construction, so I’m particularly interested in getting ideas and opinions from experienced reefers before I finalise some of the filtration and sump details.
The main display is 3.0m long × 1.5m wide × 0.8m high, giving roughly 3,600 litres gross display volume. The plan is for a large mixed reef, with a strong focus on redundancy, stability and making the system easy to maintain.
I’m running a dual-sump system in a separate filtration area.
Sump 1 is approximately 2.2m × 470mm × 760mm and receives the drains from the display. This is primarily the heavy-duty filtration side of the system, with mechanical filtration, skimming and equipment. The plan includes 3 filter rollers, 2 protein skimmers (one large and one smaller), heaters, reactors and biological media, as well as a smaller pod/refugium area.
Water is then transferred to Sump 2, which is a much larger 3.0m × 800mm × 800mm tank. This is intended to provide a large amount of additional water volume and biological stability and will incorporate the main refugium/Chaeto section, biological filtration/media, equipment/control sections and the final return section. I’m also looking at allowing space for things like a frag/grow-out section and additional polishing filtration as the system develops.
I had also been looking at the idea of incorporating a dark/cryptic filtration zone, although I’m still undecided on whether the benefit justifies dedicating space to it, so I’d be especially interested to hear from anyone who has actually run one successfully.
Current/planned equipment includes:
2–3 return pumps
6 wavemakers
8 × 55W UV sterilizers
10 × 400W heaters
3 filter rollers
2 skimmers
Phosphate and biopellet reactors
ATO
Neptune control/monitoring and auto dosing
Provision for a chiller
6 × Ecotech Radions
4 × AI Blades
I’m also putting in a completely dedicated aquarium electrical system with roughly 60 individual protected circuits, so most important equipment will have its own RCBO. The idea is that one failed heater, UV, pump, etc. can trip without taking the rest of the life-support system down.
I’d really appreciate opinions from the guys who have built or run large reef systems, particularly on:
How you would arrange the two sumps and filtration order
Whether you would run one large refugium or two separate refugiums
Refugium sizing and ideal flow
Whether a cryptic/dark zone is genuinely worthwhile
Best placement/order for UV, skimmers and reactors
Redundancy and return-pump configuration
Anything you would build into the system now that you wish you had done from day one
I’ll post some drawings and build photos as things progress. Keen to hear everyone’s thoughts — especially if you spot something you’d change before everything gets permanently plumbed in.

 

[Jan Hendrik]

Wow!
What a setup you are planning!

Why so many UV sterilizers? You can Probably get by with four 55W sterilizers.
An ozone generator plumbed to your skimmer air inlet will be of great help oxidizing organic waste in the water. Just place carbon on the skimmer cover vents and a filter sock with carbon in it at the skimmer outlet to take care of any ozone that escapes the skimmer.

You only really need one refugium area, however you do get many types of macro algae that are beautiful in their own right. So having more than one refugium can be visually pleasing if you want to show of some macro algae. A good size refugium is a great place for copepods, amphipods and isopods to live and multiply and will be an everlasting live food supply to your aquarium inhabitants.
Another idea in the place of a secondary refugium is a time out section for naughty fish that are too aggressive, started eating your corals etc. This saves you from setting up a tank just to house those unruly fish.
Sump sections in order that makes sense to me:
1) Filter rollers
2) Skimmer 1 (larger skimmer with ozone connected)
3) Area for naughty fish and critters with skimmer number 2
4) Frag area
5) Refugium
6) Reactors
7) Return pump chamber
You could even use the secondary sump as one large frag setup thereby negating the need for the frag area in sump1 (number4)
Remember, you will need good quality lighting for your frag section so the frags can flourish and a good quality plant grow light for the refugium.

 

[Ismail7107]

Wow!
What a setup you are planning!

Why so many UV sterilizers? You can Probably get by with four 55W sterilizers.
An ozone generator plumbed to your skimmer air inlet will be of great help oxidizing organic waste in the water. Just place carbon on the skimmer cover vents and a filter sock with carbon in it at the skimmer outlet to take care of any ozone that escapes the skimmer.

You only really need one refugium area, however you do get many types of macro algae that are beautiful in their own right. So having more than one refugium can be visually pleasing if you want to show of some macro algae. A good size refugium is a great place for copepods, amphipods and isopods to live and multiply and will be an everlasting live food supply to your aquarium inhabitants.
Another idea in the place of a secondary refugium is a time out section for naughty fish that are too aggressive, started eating your corals etc. This saves you from setting up a tank just to house those unruly fish.
Sump sections in order that makes sense to me:
1) Filter rollers
2) Skimmer 1 (larger skimmer with ozone connected)
3) Area for naughty fish and critters with skimmer number 2
4) Frag area
5) Refugium
6) Reactors
7) Return pump chamber
You could even use the secondary sump as one large frag setup thereby negating the need for the frag area in sump1 (number4)
Remember, you will need good quality lighting for your frag section so the frags can flourish and a good quality plant grow light for the refugium.

Thanks so much for the detailed response — this is exactly the sort of input I was hoping to get from the group. A few of your suggestions have definitely given me something to think about, especially the naughty-fish/time-out section and simplifying the refugium setup.
On the UVs, the reason I originally allowed for 8 × 55W units is mainly the overall size of the system. The display alone is about 3,600L gross, and once both large sumps are included the total gross water capacity is actually north of 6,000L before allowing for rock, sand, operating levels and displacement. So I was designing the UV capacity around the complete system rather than only the display.
My thinking also wasn't necessarily to run all eight flat-out 24/7. I wanted multiple independent UV lines so that I have redundancy, can maintain one bank without losing all UV, and can adjust how many units are operating depending on what the system needs. Correct flow through the UVs is obviously just as important as the number of units, so the intention is to run them at the appropriate flow for the exposure I'm trying to achieve rather than simply pushing huge volumes through them. That said, your suggestion of four operating normally with provision to bring additional units online if required actually makes a lot of sense, and I may well configure it that way.
The ozone suggestion is also interesting. I hadn't ruled ozone out, but if I incorporate it I want it properly controlled and safely integrated rather than simply adding it for the sake of having it. Using the larger skimmer as the ozone contact point is something I'll look into further.
I originally considered more than one refugium mainly for additional pod production, nutrient export and redundancy, but I agree that one properly sized refugium may be more useful than two smaller ones. Your suggestion of using the extra space as a time-out/isolation area for an aggressive fish or coral-eater is excellent. With a 3m × 1.5m display, catching and then finding somewhere to house a problem fish later would be a nightmare, so having that facility built into the system from day one could be very useful.
I also like your proposed sequence of rollers → main skimmer/ozone → isolation area + second skimmer → frag area → refugium → reactors → returns. The second sump is a substantial tank in its own right, so using part of it as a proper frag/grow-out area is definitely something I'm going to consider rather than automatically dedicating all of that space to conventional filtration.
Really appreciate the input. I'm still at the stage where changing the design is relatively easy, so I'd rather have these discussions now than discover six months after filling it that I should have arranged things differently!