takin the plunge into a marine tank

[Star_Rider]

bought a 110 gallon set up..it's a 48" long tall.

taking it to the LFS to have it drilled (side) for plumbing.

also looking at setting it up with a refugium...
conflicting info now but does a skimmer sound like a good thing with this? the refugium will be in the stand with lighting to support the refugium.

we are looking at cycling with about 100 lbs of live rock and a deep sandbed(still deciding what is considered deep)

anythoughts..the return will be with a suitable pump housed outside the refugium.
(working with the lfs to determine pump siize)
the refugium appears to have a collection..then flows to the refugium tank then from ther eout to the return pool part of the refugium. in essence this will take up most of the stand.

[Max]

Sounds like a good plan welcome to s.w. ! A dsb is about 5 inches deep if you're going to need to cycle your l.r. keep ammonia below .1 ppm to prevent die off. I'd just use normal arogonite sand and let it turn into ls.

[Star_Rider]

thanks still trying to research and found good advice here while I lurked.

so 5" and 100 # lr ..I have plenty of FW tanks so I am familiar with the aspect og cycling. will be going at this slowly

I really appreciate the advice..this is my wifes tank(I'll be doing all the maint of course)but she's footing the bill.

I take the tank in tonite to have the lfs have a look at it.

it's glass and man is it heavy.
I have already crawled under the house and added supports to the framing on the floor.

[dorkfish]

Unless your inhabitants are VERY delicate, then I can think of no legitimate reason to recomend against a skimmer, other than price if your on a budget.

[Star_Rider]

price won't be a limiting factor..I want to set this up right.

[Star_Rider]

picked the tank up from the LFS this morning. drilled with a 1 1/2" drain with a 3/4" return. I ordered a custom fit refugium/skimmer combo this morning..2 weeks out. it will be equipt with a return pum somewhere in the niehgborhood of 5k-7k gph (considering a larger pump)looking for better than a 12X return flow(if not more)
it apears the refugium /skimmer wil occupy much of the bottom of the stand.

now I have to figure out lighting.