feedback on tank build

[zoom111]

Hi, I'm soon putting together a tank using 10mm glass. I plan to go sumpless and the display area is going to be a cube. The tank itself will be 24"L x 27"W x 18"T. So about ~45 gallons.

I already have my glass and will be using RTV 108 silicone made for tank building. The 27" length will have about 4" "cut off" of it to make the display almost cube. This 4" gap will have 3 sections, similar to a biocube design.

The first long section (~13") will be for my HOB protein skimmer (octo 100f)
The second section (~8") I'm thinking of making an eggcrate type of box to put macro algea or carbon.
And third section (~5") will be a return pump, I plan on putting a mag 12 or something strong enough to eliminate powerheads. The pump will have a "Y" going to loc-line.

Lighting will be LED's 24 Cree's.

I would like some feedback or criticism on my design. Anything you would change/add/remove. Thank you !!

[redbelly]

And third section (~5") will be a return pump, I plan on putting a mag 12 or something strong enough to eliminate powerheads. The pump will have a "Y" going to loc-line.

Your return pump should be much smaller. A large return pump means the waste water going to your sump is heavily diluted. With a smaller return pump your skimmer will actually work better.

A mag 12 IF it was actually pumping at a full 1200gph would still only be producing about a 20 times turn over rate which is a decent turn over rate for some lps and softies but its still pretty low imo. I am not sure what you are looking to keep, so this may be alright.

If you want to have zero pumps in the tank I would suggest drilling the tank and installing a closed loop or running some MP10's.
I would suggest a smaller return pump and a decent pump in the tank for flow.

If you dont want to spend the money on a MP10, you can take an Tunze 6025 and a 5 min mod with a dremel and it will output about 1200gph.

My 24" azoox tank has the return pump with loc-line and a difuser pumping a very low flow rate and 2 mp10's and thats about perfect for flow in my tank.

[zoom111]

Ok yea makes sense, the stronger pump will be pulling water past the skimmer too quickly rendering it less effective, if im getting that correctly ?

So would you suggest a mag 5 ? I was thinking of going mp10 but don't know if it'll be good for 10mm glass.