75 Gallon tank

I've never used a sump on any of my tanks before but I've also never had a 75 saltwater. That being said if you were able to, I'd go that route. That way you can get a sump protein skimmer, put the heater down there, etc etc.

 

I believe Nelson's used a sump before, but I could be wrong. The idea is basically the same when using it on a freshwater tank.

 

I would go sump too! That makes you able to hide all of your equipment!

Yes, same idea as freshwater, you take a smaller tank, put it under your main tank.... set your filtration up and put your equipment down there like your protein skimmer, heaters etc.... you throw live rock down there and even coral/snails and you have a refugium which is like a little tank under the tank that filters the big tank.... keep things down there you dont want with your livestock/corals

 

You'd still want to put live rock in the display tank. You'd have to measure your stand to see what dimensions can fit in there, then I'd go take a look at some sumps, or you can build your own out of a 30 gallon long tank. Sumps run on pumps, not HOBs or canisters.

 

Often times people put filter floss or the blue filter pads in one area of the sump.

 

I definitely second using a sump too - canisters tend to be nitrate factories (through virtue of detritus trapping) and HOB's need to be cleaned very frequently as well in SW if you have much bio-load on the tank for the same reason.

Hiding equipment's very nice bonus too.

Our filtration is exclusively a skimmer in sump, deep sand bed, live rock and vigorous circulation. We'll occasionally run carbon pads but rarely run chemical or pre-filters because they are just one more thing to stay on top of and keep clean. If you skim aggressively enough and heavily use natural nitrate reduction techniques for denitrification (and do regular water changes to address trace elements and minimize allepathy/chemical warfare between corals)... the other stuff just isn't necessary.

That's my 2 cents

 

NoctuVide: Look up some "DIY Sumps" and "DIY Refugiums" on Google or Yahoo. There are MANY different designs and as you browse through you may find the one that you want to do. It will take a bit of construction if you do go DIY and they do sell already built kits but they do the same thing.

First things first, do a bit research and find a design you need or would like. Decide if you can do-it-yourself and if not find that design style for sale or something close.

Yes you need liverock in both tanks. Basically the sump works to add more volume to your tank. So if you have a 75 gallon tank and you choose to use a 29 gallon tank as a sump, it will give you a 104 gallon tank. Because you will only have liverock, and inverts in the sump/refugium that extra 29 gallons lets you overstock your 75 a bit more (given the fish have the space they need) because you have more water volume. So there are extra benefits along the way too besides hiding equipment, lower nitrates and all the other good stuff mentioned.

This works so well I have future plans to add a sump to my 125 gallon freshwater tank. It benefits a SW much more though than the FW

 

It would go sump to tank. The water will overflow from the tank and gravity will pull it to the sump. The pump will pull it out of the sump and push it into the tank. So it would go between the pump and the main tank.

 

I used a UV Sterilizer on my tank at one point, it was an in-tank unit though. If you do hook one up, don't do it until your tank cycles. At that point if you want to install one you can. It will be installed on the line that takes water back into the tank.

 

Correct, it will kill the BB (Beneficial Bacteria). When you're ready to get a UV Sterilizer just get one rated for the GPH your pump is rated for.

 

We're actually running our UV on the return pump to the main tank, but I've seen them hooked to drains/overflows (somewhat scary because they reduce flow, further raising risk that tank can overflow) and i've also seen T's that dump the "UVed" water straight back to sump. The trick with a UV filter is always run the pump rating or LESS. if you run water too fast, it wont sterilize.

UV sterilizers are not actually intended to kill bacteria and parasites - just sterilize them so they cant reproduce. It takes ALOT more UV during the very short exposure time to actually kill.

 

MH or T5's only. Don't even bother with compact fluorescent or power compacts unless you have a FISH ONLY tank without any live rock. If you plan on getting corals that have high lighting requirements I'd go with MH lighting, if you're going to do "basic" corals a good T5 setup will be perfectly fine. I use T5's on my tank with star polyps, mushrooms and my anemone and they both do great.