Posted by Mark024 on February 18, 2003 at 14:19:14:
Hi I am currently working on my first reef tank, which is a 75 gallon that I have chosen to fit with a AquaC Remora Pro hang on skimmer, which I have heard is a quality project. My tank is not drilled, and as of yet I have no plans to do so. I am planning on utilizing a "Berlin method" filtration, with a lot (100 lbs. each) of live rock and live sand. My question is if I even need to set up a filtration system with a sump if I don't have a filter or skimmer to put down there. I realize that a sump is helpful for things like calcium additives, so will I need to buy an overflow, sump box and pump to pump it back up to the tank just for that? Anyhow if I do need a sump, is there a better skimmer anyone would reccomend. Also- I have a 110 watt compact fluorescent fixture I was hoping to use on the reef tank. I know that I need to supplement this, so I looked into metal halides. I am lookin at a couple options, first I could get a setup with 2 175 watt, or I could go with 1 250 watt. If I take the former, I will have a total of 6.18 watts per gallon which to me seems too high for most corals. If I take the second, I will only be able to illuminate about half the tank. Is it feasible to put one 250 watt MH over half the tank and put the hard corals on that side and the soft corals on the other? Finally, my PC is something like 9600 K (I think). What would you suggest for the metal halides? I was thinking 6500 or 10000. Sorry about the length of this, and thanks in advance for any feedback you can direct my way.
Mark
