Which Size?

[Sir Alex]

this is a good one.. been using these for quite awhile...probably the 800 gph
Reef Aquarium Filtration: Eshopps Overflow Boxes
Not to bad on the wallet either....:D
with a pump like one of these
Aquarium Water Pumps: Supreme Classic Mag Drive Pump

The pump comes in 740 GPH and 880 GPH. Which one should I use? the 740 GPH one is quite a bit cheaper.

 

[marcah]

I hate to say it but I would go with the 880.. You will lose some flow due to piping..
You really dont want to go to much under 10 times the tank size per hour as a return flow...Just dont forget to put a ball valve from the return pump just in case you need to slow it down, but I dont think you will..

 

[Sir Alex]

I think I'm going to try and get one with a built in overflow and a sump. I'll probably get a rectangular tank as well, it's not worth the extra money for the bowfront.

 

[little_fish]

The bowfronts look pretty, but they can really distort what you are looking at which is annoying.

 

[marcah]

glad to see you are going with the rectangular tank.. :D

 

[Sir Alex]

I can buy this one for $400 dollars on Craig's List. It has an overflow and a sump.

 

[little_fish]

Wow, id say that is a great deal! Is it a 75?

 

[Sir Alex]

Yup. And it has a 65 gallon sump, I think, I'm a little confused.

 

[little_fish]

haha, i hate that message. i just add smilie faces

 

[Sir Alex]

Does the sand bed in there look too deep?

 

[little_fish]

I personally wounldnt use a sand bed that deep. I hardly have a sand bed at all, just enough to cover the bottom.

 

[Sir Alex]

I just asked, it's 4" to 6". :shock:

 

[Sir Alex]

Do you think 100 Ibs of sand would be enough?

 

[little_fish]

I am terrible figuring out the lbs for sand, i just poured in till it looked good.

 

[Sir Alex]

Don't suppose you know how much a cubic inch of sand weighs?

 

[SeaBee]

I bought one bag of sand and it covered the bottom of my 55. I first did the tank with 3 bags and got about 3" deep, mistake, it all had to come out. So now I only have about 1/2 of sand, and none behind the rocks. You really dont need sand, barebottom is fine and makes it clean, some people even just spread glue on the bottom and apply sand to just get the look. A deep sandbed is hard to keep clean....

 

[SeaBee]

Dry cubic foot of sand weighs 100 pounds. Sooooooo that would be 144 cubic inches of sand at 100 pounds OR 100 divided by 144 = .69 ? Sooooo a dry cubic inch of sand weighs .69 pounds? Did I do that right???

 

[Sir Alex]

According to my calculations I need 300 Ibs for a 1/2 inch sand bed??? Seabea, how big was that bag?

 

[ErinCahir]

I just did a pound a gallon in my tank... really I could've gone with less.

 

[Bifferwine]

I also have always done 1 lb of sand per gallon of tank size. It leaves me with about an inch or two of sand.