Starting a 75gal reef tank suggestions/comments pls

[Dberg79]

Im going to start a 75 Gal Reef tank this week and am planing things out. I am starting from scrach and only have the tank atm 48"x18"x21" LxWxH. I am going to build the stand myself with a room for the sump/refugium under the main tank. For the sump/refugium I was going to build a 30"x18"x18" with 4 chambers (ill try my ascii skills).
Light
|~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~|~~~|
|~~~|~~Live~~~|~~~~~|~~~|
|~O~|~~rock~~~|~Alge~|~I~~|
|~U~|~~sand~~~~~~~~|~N~~|
|~T~|~~~~~~~~|~~~~~|~~~|
|____|___________|___________|

For the Main Tank Light I am looking at a T5 HO 48" 8 x 54 Watt with 4 10k and 4 Actinic bulbs.
For the Sump I need sugestions on a good "cheap" light.
I read that I should be looking for a 5x+ per hour turn over of water so like 400gph+
Since my sump/fuge will be under the tank the pump will have to lift the water 40" or so to the tank. Im not sure how much that will reduce the flow so im not sure what pump I should get.
Next would be what jets for the tank I should get to keep movement in there.
Also what testing kits and supplies should I get. I know I need Salinity Refractometer/ph tester ect. Any brands to look for/avoid.
I plain to get 175lbs of live rock and 100lbs of live sand for the tank and fuge.
The tank will be setup in my basement so it will be a cool room temp year round.
What type size of heater should I get in case it gets to cold in the winter.
After the cycleing is done I plan on getting 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, 2 peperment shrimp, 50 Astrea snails, 50 scarlet hermit crabs, and 1 sand sifting star.
Hmm I think thats all I have for now and I should prob get back to doing office work. I have a camera so I will try to keep a good log of how things are progressing. If you can think of anything I have missed or overlooked let me know. Any ideas/suggestions/comments welcomed.

[Timbor]

Are you putting your skimmer in that sump? Im not sure what the difference is between the "Alge" and the "LR/LS" sections... The design I will probably be using is:
- water enters in skimmer section
- water flows through refugium section
- water enters return section and is pumped back
...3 compartments total

For your sump, if you only plan on having plants like macro, you can get a good cheap light for about $20 at home depot... melev has some good info about it on his website (tons of other great info there too!)

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

Some people actually use a slower flow through the sump, as I will be trying... making up the added circulation via powerheads in the main tank, or a closed loop system as well.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=550482&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

I have heard good things about the T5's too... they should treat you well.

Thats all I can say for now, as I am still in the planning stage too!

Tim

[Timbor]

Oh yeah, welcome to RC!

[Dberg79]

For the sump I was thinking the seperation would be good for when I get the occasional "bad" fish that I need to seperate from the rest and later on I could upgrade the light and use it as a frag area. As for the skimmer I have one that ill borrow from a friend at the start but in the end hope to keep it natural and not need it. Thanks for the reply and good luck with your project.

[coker98]

that sounds like qiute a bit of rock for a 75. the rock is supposed to be placed in at least 1.5 times the size of the tank so at most 115 should be in there.

[TimD]

that sounds like qiute a bit of rock for a 75. the rock is supposed to be placed in at least 1.5 times the size of the tank so at most 115 should be in there.

That's confusing.... at least 1.5 times, but then you say at most 115 pounds (which is what you just said was the least he should have). In reality, it really depends entirely on the density and porosity of the rock. 175 pounds of really dense rock might not look like a whole lot in a 75G tank. 175 pounds of rock with a low density might be twice as much as he could possibly fit into a 75. I've got about 120 pounds in my 75, and it's about right. But some of it is dense base rock and some is lighter show rock.

[Dberg79]

When i was figureing my rock i heard about 2lbs per gallon was normal so I figured 75 x 2 = 150 lbs for the tank and then 25 x 1 = 25lbs for the fuge and then 75lbs sand for tank and 25 for fuge. But if im heavy ill toss a cpl pounds to my friend after its cycled for his tank since he could use some more. I just rather be high then low for some stuff like lighting/rock/sand since the upg cost on lights and haveing to cycle rock and sand pls there shipping costs.