Starting to plan a 350-400 gallon reef

[dvups1]

I am planning a new 350-400 gallon softie tank and was wondering if I should go with the Tsnuze streams or a gravity surge. Just looking for opinions and experience or even ideas on large water movement.

[gwrulzmylife]

we experimented with the Tsnuze last week at Inland Aquatics. This thing moves ALOT of water! we put (model 6800 I think) in a 40 gallon breeder and it was a storm in there!

Now, I decided to opt NO to Tsnuze right now, but 6 months and I'm getting one. Basically depends if you want something "showing" in your tank or not.

[1234]

I'm putting in a closed loop in my soon to be 330gal ply in wall tank - get rid of the ugly PH's in the tank. :D

[VegasMike]

I am putting two of the 6100's in my 450 that I am getting ready to set up. Based of the size of the tank, they don't look too obtrusive at all, but the tank is 96"x36"x32".

[dvups1]

Thanks for the replies. My tank dimensions are 96x30x24. I believe it is about 350 gallons. Would it be best to have them on opposite side of the tank facing each other?

[VegasMike]

Depends somewhat on your aquascaping, but I am planning on mine being in the back corners poited towards the front middle.

At least that is where they will start off. I will probably adjust them and maybe even add two more at the center point on each side.

Mike

[SPC]

It will be Streams for me too in my new 400 gallon tank. I currently have a 6110 in my 180 and don't believe that I could find any other method to move water this well. They also sell a cover for these that looks like rock.
Steve

[dvups1]

OK, I am trying to decide between the streams and this DIY surge device http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=250410&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
I have the capacity to do the DIY plan but will it move enough water?

[RedEyeReef]

I have to vote for the Streams. I have the 6110 & 6080 Streams, and a Tunze 7400. All Tunze equipment is quality. I have all 3 pumps facing the left side of my 360 (96�x36�x24�) where my SPS are located, and the back wash from the pulse waves is perfect for my right side of tank which is LPS & clams. The cool thing about the Streams besides how much water they move is how broad the water flow is. It is controllable by variable speed controller and you can pulse for wave action them. So with practically any type of aquascape you can dial the Streams in to do what you want. And if you don’t like looking at a pump in your tank, the Décor Rocks hide them great.

[dvups1]

Depends somewhat on your aquascaping, but I am planning on mine being in the back corners poited towards the front middle.

I plan on it being very open with the rock in 3 island type piles. They will be low and right down the center to allow for plenty of room for my bigger fish to swim.

[pch90265]

Hey Bulldog,

I'm in the planning stage of a 96 x 48 x 32 (approx 525 G internal, with 2 1/2" head-room for the surges...) right now and have been asking myself the same question. I was looking at the "Wave2k," the Tunze Streams, or old-fashioned PHs...

I've pretty much decided on a Carlson style surge-device in the 40-45 Gal range. It will require a significant ammount of room in the tank to accomodate the rise in water-level for the "full" side of the cycle, but it should be very realistic (and isn't that a nice goal on a tank this size?!?)

I'm also considering using two surge tanks -- one around 25G and the other around 40G -- so I can get a somewhat chaotic surge cycle. The only issue there is that having both surge at the same time could be messy!!!

I literally *just* posted my preliminary schematics of the tank and stand. If you hit the "red house" you can follow the "New Tank" link to the stand pages and see what I am thinking... I have a shot of the surge bucket above the tank.

--Sean--

[RedEyeReef]

What do you guys do about the air bubbles from the Carlson Surge device?

[dvups1]

Tnaknks! I'll do that pch90265.

[pch90265]

Ahh, bubbles...

I'm still working through my thoughts on that part of the Carlson set-up. Carlson himself has written various tid-bits over the past few years on "gimmicks" he has used to reduce the bubbles.

However, as one reefs.org post mentioned (and I paraphrase,) if you've ever been diving and seen the air/surface interface between a wave and a reef, you know that bubbles are a part of life in the wild.

Again, thinking of "natural" water movement, I don't know that I'll do too much to address bubbles, per se...

--Sean--