need some tank advice

[Unseentric]

Hello everyone,
I just purchased a 72 gallon bowfront and Im getting ready to make a few purchases and was looking for a little imput.
I'm planning to have a Fish only with Live rock till I get a little more cash to upgrade my lighting system and from then on it will be a full reef-tank.

Filtration
Going to purchase a 20 gallon long glass aquarium/sump drilled for 3/4" Iwaki 40RLT (750 gallons/hour). Sea-swirl 3/4" for circulation. Also still have to get my tank drilled, should I have them drill a 3/4 hole? or 1"?
Do you think I am better off using 1" inch PVC from the tank to the sump and 1" PVC for the return as opposed to going all 3/4"
Also plan to add in a Euroreef skimmer CS6-1 in the sump in a few weeks. Is this too much for a 72 gallon tank, or would you upgrade some of these products even more?

Any suggestions, advice, recommendations welcome!
Pete

[Randy V]

First off, If I were buying a skimmer for that tank, the Euroreef CS6-1 is the first model I would look at. I think that's a good choice.

In terms of your plumbing and drilling questions, you need to remember that the hole that needs to be drilled for a bulkhead is significantly larger than the diameter of pipe that fits that bulkhead. Make sure you know the diameter hole required for a given bulkhead before you drill. Better yet, have the bulkheads in hand. The hole required is usually printed on the packaging.

Overflow (or drain) pipe diameter is usually larger than return pipe diameter. This is because gravity fed water flows more slowly than pump forced water. So I would not size the pipes the same. You need to consider what overall flow you want to achieve based on the critters you eventually (I know fish only to begin with but you don't want to re-drill), and size your pipes accordingly, taking into consideration that you can use other methods to provide additional flow.

That will give you the pump capacities you need and, after calculating for head and friction loss, that will tell you how large the pipes need to be. That will in turn tell you how large the bulkheads need to be, which will tell you how large to have the holes drilled (not that they are the same as stated above). If you aren't sure about any of this ask questions as you don't want to drill incorrectly. My opinions.

[joefish]

First thing first.If you want a reef tank you should do that before fish.Its harder to keep perimters of a coral tank with a heavy Bio load.
second I have a 72 bow also ,and I use a custom sealife t1 pump wich pumps about 540g at 3 feet.that is alot more then you realize.I have a amiracle overflow instead of drilled and it works pretty hard.It uses a 1 inch hose and they say it can handle 800g an hour but at 540g from my pump its pretty loud.I have 2MJ900s on a wave maker for extra water movement.
the Iwaki is a great pump but its pretty noisy so if you didn't buy it yet I would give it a 2nd thought.
Rember this is only my opinions on this.:D
If you would like more specs on my tank just ask I would be happy to help.;)

[Unseentric]

Joe, you heard Iwaki was noisy??!! Dam that's why I was going to buy it (someone told me it was "extra-quiet"....
Yeah Im interested to know your tank specs. Also can you recommend a quiet pump? I have a studio apartment so I will be sleeping 15 feet away from my tank, so noise is a BIG consideration.

Randy thanks for the imput, helped me out a lot!

Pete

[Unseentric]

By the way Joefish I'm do central air on long island. We get most of our metal from cutting-edge......wondering if you heard of them :)
I work for Grand Air....Its a really small company, probably never heard of them.

[joefish]

Hi Unseentric,
I'm in the union local 28.I work for heritage.and no I never heard of the cutting edge.Sorry!
I tried useing an Iwaki wmd30rlt and it had a nice hummmmmm to it.:eek2: all though it keeps the temp down 3 % less.they told me that one was quiet too.compared to what is what I want to know.
I'm useing a Custom Sealife Velocity T1 pump and its dead quiet!!!It does run a little warmer though.not enough to make up for the noise though.Like I said before I have 2-Maxi Jet 900s on a Natural wave maker for extra circulation.
My lighting is 2-175 10k metal halids ,2-55w actinic power compacts and 2-55w 10k power compacts.To create a dawn,day,high noon,day and dusk.because of the MHs I put 2 -4inch fans in the hood for cooling.
the skimmer is a aqua-c 180 with a rio3100 pump on it.
4 inch sand bed.100 pounds of live rock which I think is two much but to late now.if you want to know anyhting else even as you go along just ask.I bought a lot of crap for the tank on some bad recomendations from the retailers.the 72 bow fronts are nice to look at but a little harder to fit the right equitment in.