Hi

I am in the process of having a new aquarium and cabinet made for me and I
am in the UK. I have kept marines previously, but went to discus for many
years. I now feel the time is right with all the recent advances to go for a
user friendly set up. I am having a 48"Lx 15"Wx 18"D made with two 50mm
holes. I am wondering whether to have one hole in the rear corner with a
weir assembly and the return hole on the back glass, both holes in the base
or both holes in the back. Is there any preference about which way to go
about it? I am also having a 36"x 12"x 12" sump made to sit under the
cabinet. What sort of medias should I be looking to use in the sump? I was
thinking of a 3 chamber assembly with the waste water entering #1, flowing
through some extra live rock in (and hopefully cultivating some copepods for
the fish in the process) #2 and equipment in #3. Normally in a freshwater
aquarium you would have filter foams and such like in #1, but I am lead to
believe that this is a no no in the marine environment, so what would go
there instead?

I am going to build the base up with "grotto rock" which is inert and also
very porous, I just need to find somewhere local that sells it. That said, I
have also read about reefs that have been built using honeycomb which is
normally used to separate a plenum. Does anyone have ay experience of that?
The downfall I can see is that the grotto rock and other rock will also
provide a huge filtering capacity which I would lose, although less water
would be displaced. I have been wondering about the depth of sand base to
use. Some shops/ books say to use a sprinkling and some say to use 2"- 3".
Whichever depth I decide upon, I will also use some of the live sand
cultures commercially available.

Not sure about skimming at the moment. I have kept mini reefs in the past
successfully without, but my fish stocks have been low. I am also aiming for
a low load in this tank initially, so it is certainly something which could
be considered at a later date should I decide to expand my stock. In this
size tank I am currently only looking to keep 2x clowns, 1x royal gramma and
1x mandarin goby.

Lighting will initially be in the form of T8 fluorescent tubes as corals and
anemones are not high on my list of priorities, plus I have plenty of these
starter units available to use. When considering the upgrade path though, I
have been lead to believe that T5 lighting is a good option as opposed to
the expense of metal halide. Are there any opinions on that please?

I have done some reading, but as usual conflicting advice is rampant,
besides which, the latest "fad" seems to be miracle mud systems. Last time I
looked into it, everyone was raving about plenums and mangrove plants, so
you can see my dilemma.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Mark