popeye's 50 reef

popeye · 04-23-2007, 07:24 PM

Well this weekend I got the tank plumbed and its been going for 24hrs now with tap water to check for leaks and other problems. So far so good, my office is not flooded and everything seems fine... I chose on mag-drive pump to rum in-sump to a 3/4 return line that splits and has lock line dumps at either end of the tank and a FREE single 1" overflow box from my lfs.(Gotta love being friends with your local fish guys) I will put up some pics as I get them(and figure out how to... I break rocks for a living, this computer stuff is a bit over my head).
Right now my dillema is weather I should do a plenum, or just a 4" sand bed. For my rock I will be using a mix of Fiji and Tonga large branch (plus some marshall if I can squeeze the wallet that hard) for a total of around 70 to 80 pounds.
What do you guys think Plenum or not?

50 gal oceanic,10 gal sump, mag 5 pump, stealth 200 and 75 ebo jag, skimmer to come..

**CarmieJo** · 04-23-2007, 09:06 PM

Hi Popeye,

I can't remember if I said

or not. I have not spent a lot of time researching Plenums but IMO they may not be really all that great. Here are a couple of articles.
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Feature Article: An Experimental Comparison of Sandbed and Plenum-Based Systems. Part 1: Controlled lab dosing experiments
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Feature Article: An Experimental Comparison of Sandbed and Plenum-Based Systems: Part 2: Live Animal Experiments
Reading through them might help you decide.

NaClFinatic · 04-23-2007, 10:17 PM

FWIW, I read about it alot and eventually decided to go the DSB route, but I'm not up an running yet so don't base it on my advice.

petunia · 04-24-2007, 04:06 PM

welcome!! nice to have you aboard.

i prefer the dsb myself.

George · 04-27-2007, 12:38 PM

Anthony Calfo and Robert Fenner's book

Amazon.com: Reef Invertebrates: An Essential Guide to Selection, Care and... has a great chapter on DSB setups and addresses plenums. Their take is that there's no evidence that it's better than DSB, but has maintenance and relatively complicated setup issues that make a simple DSB a better choice.

I run a DSB 15g refugium with my SSB (1" or less) display tank, though I think my 60 cube (should it ever get off the ground) will be a DSB display and DSB refugium.

popeye · 04-29-2007, 12:20 AM

Yeah, I have kinda gotten away from the whole plenum thing after more reading my self.. I think I am going to go about 4-5 inches of sand with about 1.75 lbs per gal of LR.. Just having trouble finding flat pieces big enough for my base.. Mabey I will use some lace rock in the sand bed to support the reef..

**CarmieJo** · 04-29-2007, 02:57 PM

Check out Marco Rocks for base rock. Their rock is very light and porous and they will cherry pick pieces for you. Also take a look at Amphibious' tank journal to see how he makes pvc stands for his rock.

popeye · 05-03-2007, 01:25 AM

I just put in about 25 lbs of Fiji and 12 lbs of Marshall rock today with one bag of reef grade special "live" sand(caribsea). My aquascaping is so-so but it looks good for now. I'll post some pics when I get a chance. The guy at my LFS gave me some frags also 3 little shrooms, a tree frag, and a stony coral I'll have to get the name of from him again. I had to put the frags in my 30 for now but they all seem to be doing OK so far. Also I found out how easy it is to superglue yourself to stuff underwater...