Upgrading Questions

[EVReef3]

I am thinking about upgrading my 55gal to a 90 gal. My 55 is a mixed reef and is my first tank since in this hobby. I want to go sps dominant with some lps and zoos with the upgrade.

55gal:
Live rock
Live sand
octopus hob skimmer
hob fuge
powerheads
light: 6x54w t5's "Nova extreme pro"
With these lights iv been able to keep large verity of corals and even good growth on sps.

I am looking for a 90 gal reef ready tank so i wanted to know about equipment.

is 30 gal a good size for the sump?
What kind of skimmer should i be looking for?
Do i need to upgrade the lights? Iv seen some pretty good setups with t5's but are MH's going to be better?
What about water movement what kind of powerheads? I dont want to have 5 powerheads in my tank but also dont want to spend hundreds on vortechs. any alternatives? I know sps need a lot of flow.
What power return pump should i get within a reasonable price?

I also wanted to know whats the best sand for reef's and a sps tank? for my 55gal I use "Natures ocean bio-active live sand" that you can get from petco. This sand seems to blow around a lot, a little glass cleaner movement near the sand make a cloud.

If you have any pics of 90 gal i would love to see them to get some ideas.
Thanks for reading, any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm really serious about upgrading and want to get started asap.

 

[Carlton'stank]

Lighting would depend on the depth of the tank. I know that MH can have higher PAR levels near the bottom in deeper tanks. Most people generally keep their sps near the top, so light can come down to preference. I think the spread on a MH would require you to get at least 2 250watts if you decided to go for MH, you could probably get a nice 6 bulb t5 systems and it would do the trick.

I also suggest going with the MP powerheads. It is well worth the money, especially if it is going to support thousands of dollars in livestock. Just my thoughts.

 

[Troylee]

on my tank i got a 50x turn over rate in the display.... 250w mh overdriven on m80 ballast...skimmer and return pump both atb....i would check out rev's thread where everyone was posting there tanks and specs with a fts. it would give you some great ideas on what you want to do.... oh ya substrate i use caribsea special grade seafloor it works out really nice, still blows around a little here and there but i don't have clouds like i used to with the fine stuff, i always ran...hth..