26 gallon tank advice

[FocusReefing]

Good morning MR. So its taking longer than I thought to set up my 72 gallon tank as I gather the info & resources I need. Ive decided to custom build & plumb my filtration system down into the basment. I was inspired by all the great setups Ive been seeing here. So in the mean time my brothers 26gallon bowfront has just become available as he has moved his cichlids to another tank.

So now my plan is to set up this tank with a pair of mated clowns and add some coral, maybe a cleaning crew in the future. The question I have about this is... what size return pump to use? As I stated before the tank is 26g. And the wet dry filter I am planning to use is 30g, it will be about 3' feet below the tank.

Also is the 30g wet/dry enough filtration? Im going to ditch the bio-balls for live rock both in the sump & the tank it self. I plan to document both builds with photos so stay tuned. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[hijinks]

I would get something with around 250-350 gph pump size there.

 

[aznt1217]

It all depends for what you are going to keep.

I agree with Hijinks because your turning the tank over about 8x an hour, which isn't bad at all.

I am assuming that the wet dry is just for extra filtration and carbon right? It should be okay, but I see it as virtually useless. Are you going to be running a skimmer on this or solely relying on the wet/dry and live rock?

 

[nanoreefer22]

I say go with a mag 7, after head loss you'll probably end up with about 500GPH maybe a little more. Dont get a pump that only pushed 300gph, cause by the time it gets up to the tank, it'll be next to nothing.

 

[NYReefer]

For my system 35g 20g sump=55g minus live rock and sand water displacement so i figured i have roughly 40-45 gallons in my system...i use a mag 5 for return at 3' should be getting 380gph out of that plus a koralia nano (240 gph supposedly) and a mj600 (160 gph) for circulation.. so roughly 780 gph total which is about 17-19x turnover..
i have a lot of sps and zoos and some acans but like aznt said it depends on what you want to keep.. if you want sps dominant a mag 5 will do plus 2 koralia nanos for circulation or you could even go to a mag 7 and have over 20x turnover

 

[NYReefer]

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~powerheads_pumps_danner_mag_drive_supreme.html

scroll down a little bit there is a flow chart for the mag pumps..

 

[FocusReefing]

It all depends for what you are going to keep.

I agree with Hijinks because your turning the tank over about 8x an hour, which isn't bad at all.

I am assuming that the wet dry is just for extra filtration and carbon right? It should be okay, but I see it as virtually useless. Are you going to be running a skimmer on this or solely relying on the wet/dry and live rock?

Yeah the wet/dry is extra filtration. The skimmer is built into the sump. I figure it should be enough as I only plan on keeping 2 to 4 fish in the tank along with some anemones. Thanks for the help.

 

[aznt1217]

What skimmer are you running? Curious to know what is "built in" to the sump. If you got the anemone make sure you have some good lighting. 2 to 4 fish is definitely fine your bioload shouldn't be that bad.

 

[FocusReefing]

What skimmer are you running? Curious to know what is "built in" to the sump. If you got the anemone make sure you have some good lighting. 2 to 4 fish is definitely fine your bioload shouldn't be that bad.

Well the wet/dry is a Pro Clear pro 150. The skimmer is.. well pretty much like I said. Its built in. It comes as part of the filter. If it has a model # or name, I dont know it.

 

[aznt1217]

I see...