Long time aquarist, new reefer with question :)

[lightningfront]

Hello,

I am a long time african cichlid keeper, but have been talked into attempting my first reef tank by a co-worker and friend.

I'm going to make this the show piece in my livingroom. Long story short my wife hated my 125 gallon african tank in the living room because it was too big so I have to get a smaller tank and I don't want to keep cichlids in a smaller tank.

I am going to purchase a 46 gallon bowfront tank 36"x16"x20" and a dual 96w power compact light. I have already purchased a stand for the tank so that I can come up with a sump design first. I have never constructed a sump for a marine tank so I thought I'd run it by a few experts. The stand is just barely large enough to fit a 29 gallon aquarium under it (which I hapen to have an empty one laying around ) and I hope thats a large enough sump.

I took my friends input and came up with this simple sketch. Let me know what you think about it and what improvments I can make.

[fender4string]

I'm a newbie also and am getting my first tank setup as we speak. Based on advice from here and many sources you should buy a protein skimmer. That's one of the musts. The skimmer could go where your live rock section is currently located. Put some of the LR in the refugium with your macro algae. The second tip is that you could add another ball valve on the pipe branch leading to the LR section. That's a just in case measure, if you ever need to shut off flow completely to do work in the sump.

[boxerzz]

I would suggest you going for T5 lights

[plateboy3293]

You need a good protein skimmer rated for at least a 70 gallon tank to be sufficient. T-5 lighting is also a must if you plan to keep lps or sps in the future. Also buy the best possible equipment you can for the tank or you will be buying things twice later. This will save you alot.

[sassafrass]

+3 on the t-5 lighting also go with individual reflectors for each bulb

[Sk8r]

put the live rock in the fuge with the cheato and use that space for a skimmer---the problem being that a 29 g will hardly contain your return pump, skimmer pump, heater, and skimmer...and i'd get one for 2x total water volume. An Aqua C EV 120 runs my 54g tank.

the better solution would be to go to garage sales, get an entertainment armoire or buffet to stand beside your tank, and put your support equipment in there, OR drill two inch-wide holes to the basement, or to an adjacent spare closet, if you have one, and have plenty of room.

The skimmer is a must-have for success with a reef, and it needs its own pump. You can mount them exterior to the tank, but they (at least the Aqua c's) notoriously leak or spit water. I have mine sitting on lighting grid (eggcrate) above the sump so if it does that it's a non-issue.