Projects for 2010

I was talking to my brother about doing some projects for 2010. One that really stands out to me is building my own frag tank and plumbing it into my main system. This would be a build from the ground up.

I had a few questions though that I thought this board might be equipped to answer.

1. Should I build it from glass or acrylic? I hate the acrylic on my main tank however would it be easier for a frag tank (also this would not be on display so I'm not to concerned about the inevitable scratches)? What is cheaper glass or acrylic? What is easier to work with? If you were building one from the ground up what would you use?

2. Return Pump - I want to plumb it into my main 45 gallon tank. I'm looking at doing a 30 gallon shallow frag tank and having it in the room directly on the other side of the wall from my display. This room is the furnace/storage room where I have my RO unit and other fish related equipment. I'd run the overflow through the wall to the sump. I currently have a Mag 7 as a return. I was thinking of getting a larger return pump and tee-ing it off to act as a return to both systems. Will this work? Or should I get another mag 7 and just have two? I'm afraid of the noise levels if I do that.

3. Sump - The other option is redoing my sump completely and selling the current one. This would allow me to put the sump in the storage room and make it much larger. Right now it's only a 20 gallon sump and I really dislike the setup.

Of course there always is the option of not plumbing them together at all. However I like the thought of having one system to maintain rather then yet ANOTHER tank in my house (I think three is the limit for me).

Thanks!

Oh and here is my projects list for 2010:

1. Change my pico to a frogfish heaven.
2. Build ATO system from my 55 gallon reservoir.
3. Build frag tank!

chk4tix - What kind of pump are you using? I want to move my refugium to the basement and turn one side into a mini frag tank but am not sure what size pump I should get to move the water the 15 feet it needs to travel.

It looks like one pump would be the way to go.

I'm probably not going to cut the pieces myself so I'm leaning towards glass.

Thanks for the input!

I am use acrylic for my frag and stock tanks, but mostly for the sake of being easy to work with, and easy to build to suite my needs. I plan on adding a warty frogfish to my frag tank soon, just for fun. 

bfessler wrote: Oh, one more thing.   Make sure your sump can handle all the return water when the power fails. a 20 Gal sump may not be big enough for both a 45 Gallon Display and a 30 Gallon Frag Tank. You don't want a flood when the power fails.

My returns are only an inch below the water line on my display - I'd do this on the frag as well so that it could handle it. The sump will actually handle about 30 gallons I just only ever fill it to the 20 gallon mark for this very reason. I figure if the power would go out I'd only be looking at five gallons in the sump from both tanks.