Set Up Advice Please!

Hopefully I'm laying floor at our mental health organisation's new space this week and then setting up the marine tank! It has a sump with I believe a refugium section, pic put up by the guy I got it from for reference. This is new for me as my home tank has live rock and mechanical filtration. This is a 60 litre or 16 gallon display with a 40 litre or 10.5 gallon sump - I'm going with a few anemones and a pair of clowns as they seem to be the most appropriate fish for a smaller tank and are said to be hardy (although there won't be any rough treatment, our cohort are very respectful and most love animals). I have a good source for very mature live rock and I get natural seawater delivered. Any advice, suggestions, links to good resources for setting up a more traditional marine system, etc.? What am I bet looking for as far as powerheads, pump, etc? Many thanks!

 

Heads up for you 'nems generally require bright lights and well established tanks to do well long term, so I recommend holding off on them for several months before adding them as you increase your chances of success.

 

Heads up for you 'nems generally require bright lights and well established tanks to do well long term, so I recommend holding off on them for several months before adding them as you increase your chances of success.

Thank you! Yes, planning to let the tank mature a good long time after cycling - the live rock is coming from one tank pretty much straight into another which will help. Is it best to wait until nems can be added before getting the clown fish?

 

Clownfish don't need nems. Most of them are captive bred these days and some even have to be trained to use them because they have no clue what to do with one. Personally I am not a big fan of 'nems (just find them to be a pain overall) so you would be totally fine going without them if you want. If you want the look of a 'nem but that is easier to care for, you can look into getting a couple of Euphyllia Corals (ie Hammer and Frogspawn). You also don't have to worry about them roving all over the tank or have to worry about a stinging critter. Sometimes they can be host to a clown as well (although I wouldn't count on it). Here are some examples of them:

Frogspawn (keep in mind this is just a little frag):

Branching Hammer:

These corals are actually less difficult to keep than a 'nem IMHO.

 

Thank very much for that, definitely a good shout on the corals rather than nems! I've manged to get a good haul of mature live rock today which is covered in seawater, hoping to start setting up tomorrow. I must admit I'm a bit confused, I've got a second hand and likely DIY HOB overflow and sump set up and then the mechanical bit are all spares from a friend. Trying to work out if I need two pumps or one, what pipes go where, etc. We'll see how it goes!

 

My setup is drilled so I am not sure how much it will be helpful, but here is how a basic sump setup goes:

 

Ah cheers! Yeah, this is weird, hang on overflow rather than drilled system. It's a second hand custom or DIY build and I've got a bag of second hand pump, etc - just a case of working out what goes where and getting it running lol.

Can anyone offer some advice with this set up?

I got the 60 litre tank and 40 litre sump with hang on the back overflow from a guy on Facebay, it's a lovely little DIY build. A friend who works at the local fish shop and I tried setting it up and we're having problems.

The obvious issue is the return pump that I got from another friend is way too powerful at 1800 lph, I'll be using an adjustable 700 lph sicca Syncra .5 on it and keeping that for another project.
The thing that's confusing us a bit is the overflow drainage. As you can see in the pic it's a homemade hang on the back one as the tank isn't drilled.
When I put water in the rear chamber it goes down the hose into the sump with no issue but water doesn't seem to travel up and over the baffles.

Does it look like it should self siphon or do you think it needs a mechanical part to move the water over and into the drainage chamber? I also need to be very careful to prevent siphon failure and therefore flooding as this tank is at work so while I'm in most days and live around the corner so easy to nip in on days off for feeding and maintenance a flood would not be caught quickly and would be disastrous.

I'd be grateful for any advice and guidance any of you could offer! Thank you!

 

Giving this a bump up for you hope our sump users can help you today

 

Thank you, the smaller pump came today so I'm going to give it another go. I suspect I need to remove air from the overflow siphon, we'll see! Grateful for any advice!