Converting fish to reef

[kam243]

I have a 29 gal that I would like to convert to a reef tank. Other than the live rock, The only major living thing in it is a single sea urchin. The base is crushed coral and it has a Fluval 204 external filter and a single overhead tube light.
My question is what changes will I have to make to make it a successful reef tank? Lights? PowerHead? Base Gravel? Water Chemistry Changes? Others?
TIA.

 

[kingfish8302]

First what type of corals are you going to keep. From that you can choose what type of lights you need and how much turn over with powerhead your going to need.
Second you need to change out the Crush Coral (CC) to live sand. Be less of a pain in the nitrates part.
Keep everything at zero but you need your SG to be at 1.026 along with cal at 450.

 

[kam243]

I have not thought about what type of coral. I am open to any suggestion that you might have. This will be my first reef tank so keep that in mind. I wish Saltwaterfish.com had a starter package with coral and inverts in a single package.

 

[kingfish8302]

Softies are going to be easier than SPS. Shrooms,Zoa's, and Xenia are easy to start off with. For them you want about 16 turn over for you tank. You want enought powerheads to turn over your total over vol of the tank. (i.e. for a 50 gal tank to be turn over 16 times you need enough powerheads to push 800gph, 50gX16=800gph). I would get MH system for your just in case you get a clam or SPS down the road. What size is your tank?

 

[turtlegirl933]

The light are going to have to change, unless you are going to get corals that do not need light. If you are going soft, a power compact will be good, but if you want stony corals (like agos), you will need medal hide lights.
By "exernail filter' do you mean a power filter? If you do have a power filter, i would recamend upgrading your filtrition. I personally like canister filters, but I have heard that wet/dry filters are good too. Will need a skimmer, I like the remora skimmers, but you will gave to do some reseach about them.
You base gravel is fine,but you need to seed it with some live sand.You will need a good amout of live rock also. Some filters come with attachment that will comvert the outake into a powerhead type thing. Bepending on the coral you plan to keep, you may need some additinal power heads.
Listed below are the ideal parimeters of a reef:
Temerater: 75 degress
Salinaty: 1.025
PH:8.1-8.4
Alk.:8.0-12.0
Cal.:about 450
Magnesium:1288.0
Strontium:8.0-10.0
Iron:0.1-10.0
Phosphate: Up to 0.5
Silicate:Up to 0.5
Ammonia:none
Nitrite:none
Nitrate:Up to 10.0
Check and be sure that that urchin is reef safe.
Good Luck!