Creating the Ultimate College Dorm 40 Breeder

[Mark Waltermire]

Right now I am in the planning stages of an SPS tank for my college dorm. I already have the 40 breeder, which I'm planning on being the display tank since we're only allowed a "10 gallon tank." I figure 40 gallons looks close enough to 10 gallons that I can get by with it. I already have a Reef Octopus H.O.B. 90 that I will use as the skimmer. I'm not a fan of the skimmer because of how loud it is, but since I already have it that it what it will be. I will most likely remove the Apex Gold off of my 72 gallon tank to use that for monitoring the tank, although I'm not sure how I will be able to connect it with the WiFi due to the encryption on the tank. For water flow I will be using 2 MP40WQD powerheads, hopefully in tandem using the WXM module.

Lighting is my biggest contemplation right now. I have a 6 bulb 24" ATI dimmable light fixture that I could mount over the tank, but I'm really contemplating selling that and going in the direction of either G3 Radion's or going Metal Halide with T5 supplementing. I just don't know how many people are having crazy growth rates with T5 lighting, which is what I am looking for and hopefully I can get some suggestions.

Another thing that I'm contemplating right now is how I'm going to go about doing a sump. My 40BR currently is not drilled, and I don't personally feel comfortable in drilling the tank on my own. I do have a woodworking friend that if I brought the bit to could probably help me drill the tank. I just feel like that might be one extra step that I don't necessarily want to deal with all the plumbing, but I do have an AC return pump that I could use for the tank if I decide to go that route. The other thing is that I already have the Reef Octopus HOB 90, so I don't know what skimmer setup I would go with if I was doing a skimmer due to then needing an Internal Skimmer.

My 2nd to last issue that I'm most likely going to have is water. I don't have good water pressure on my floor, since I'm on the 4th floor of my building and I don't have a hose faucet on my sink, and the bubbler won't come off my sink. I don't know if it's possible to remove the metal flex line tubing and run my RODI system inline. I already have an 8 stage RODI system with booster pump so potentially water pressure won't be an issue, but I have not yet checked whether I will have the necessary 30psi needed to run the booster pump properly.

Last thing I'm trying to figure out is what I'm going to do about sand. One half of me says to go bare bottom and run the tank with lots of flow from those 2 MP40's, but the other half of me says that whenever someone comes over they won't appreciate that bare bottom look in the tank, and think that it's missing sand, so if I do go with sand I'll probably go with something coarse to avoid it being moved around too much, but I know the amount of flow I'm planning will cause the sand to move around anyways.

Hopefully some of you all can chime in on your experience.

Again the planned equipment as of right now will be:
- 40 Breeder (non-drilled)
- 2 Ecotech Vortec MP40's
- Apex Gold
- WXM module
- Neptune DOS
- 6 Bulb 24" ATI dimmable light fixture
- Reef Octopus 90 Classic HOB
- 8 Stage RODI system

Things I would like suggestions on:
- Lighting
- Sand
- RODI plumbing
- necessity of a Sump

 

[gcarroll]

Have you even verified that you can have a tank in the dorm. When I was an RA in the dorm, aquariums were prohibited.