reef tanks???? pros, please help..
- Thread starter mujtba
- Start date
flatzboy
Active Member
If I were you I would start your 55 as a fish only tank with liverock. I would use your hang on back filters and buy livesand and liverock set it up let it cycle then add some small reef safe fish to start out with and get a feel for doing water changes and keeping up the tank. Then invest in a nice protein skimmer ( spend at least $180) like the aqua c remora would be sweet. Then after you get a nice skimmer a good amount of liverock start saving for a nice lighting setup. Once you get a lighting setup you can start adding corals and you will have a longer established tank compared to if you started out with areef right away.
latino277
Member
OK her is my $.02:
the hob is not a bad thing. what I would do IS gut it out. take the biowheel off and take all the sponges out as well. this will leave you with 2 things. Water flow/movement and a place to put you activated carbon.
Wet/dry... avoid it at all caost!!!
it will just create a Nitrate problem in the long run.
the only bio-filtration that you need will come from you LR/LS
If you don't want to spend that much money you can buy UN-Cured LR.
uncured LR is LR that has some die off (from being out of the water for a period of time). if you realy look you can fine it on the web for as low as $2/#. and if you get some good UN-cured LR, you can end up with some realy cool hitch hickers.
now if you use un-cure LR you can use this to cycle the tank and not worry about the raw shrimp thing.
That leaves me to a Protein skimmer!
Yes it does remove some want items from you tank! but the amount of carb that it remove far out weighs this small issue. Plus if your doing regular Water changes you end up replace all those trace elments that are removed.
some one stated that you need 10x the turn over in you tank. I have found you that this is on the low side. I have a 125G with 14X turn over and I find that it is still not what I'm looking for. I will be upgrading my closed system pump to a mag 36 which is rated at 2350g/p some time befor x-mas. this is on top of a Mag5 returning from my sump (a small tank in the stand that holds all of you equiment), plus 2 PH that are rate at 270g/h. I think that will get me were I want to be.
attached is a pic of my collection cup for my skimmer after 2 days
the hob is not a bad thing. what I would do IS gut it out. take the biowheel off and take all the sponges out as well. this will leave you with 2 things. Water flow/movement and a place to put you activated carbon.
Wet/dry... avoid it at all caost!!!
it will just create a Nitrate problem in the long run.
the only bio-filtration that you need will come from you LR/LS
If you don't want to spend that much money you can buy UN-Cured LR.
uncured LR is LR that has some die off (from being out of the water for a period of time). if you realy look you can fine it on the web for as low as $2/#. and if you get some good UN-cured LR, you can end up with some realy cool hitch hickers.
now if you use un-cure LR you can use this to cycle the tank and not worry about the raw shrimp thing.
That leaves me to a Protein skimmer!
Yes it does remove some want items from you tank! but the amount of carb that it remove far out weighs this small issue. Plus if your doing regular Water changes you end up replace all those trace elments that are removed.
some one stated that you need 10x the turn over in you tank. I have found you that this is on the low side. I have a 125G with 14X turn over and I find that it is still not what I'm looking for. I will be upgrading my closed system pump to a mag 36 which is rated at 2350g/p some time befor x-mas. this is on top of a Mag5 returning from my sump (a small tank in the stand that holds all of you equiment), plus 2 PH that are rate at 270g/h. I think that will get me were I want to be.
attached is a pic of my collection cup for my skimmer after 2 days
theishkid
Member
Those picture are wicked cool... I realize the problem I am having... I think it's the same one that a lot of people have. My way is best and nothing else is better. How do I know that my way is right? Well I don't but because it's MY way it's the best. I think a lot of people here may have not ever tried something any other way then the way they are doing it right now. Sound familiar to anyone else?
I think I will break this little tradition I have made for myself. I'm going to look in to protein skimming some more. I'm gonna break out of my shell and do some extra research. I mean it can't hurt. Yea I've got a good thing going for over a year but maybe I could make it better. I'll get back to what I've discovered tomorrow after work after I talk to a few people.
I think I will break this little tradition I have made for myself. I'm going to look in to protein skimming some more. I'm gonna break out of my shell and do some extra research. I mean it can't hurt. Yea I've got a good thing going for over a year but maybe I could make it better. I'll get back to what I've discovered tomorrow after work after I talk to a few people.
mackeytayl
New Member
This is how I got started. I was given a 30gal so I read alot (like you) and then put the substrate, curred live rock, distilled water with sea salt, filter, powerhead, and a shrimp in tank. That olone is exciting and gets the ball rolling. I then learned how to test the water and waited for amonia and nitrites to zero out. I then tossed in a couple damsels. I gave it a month to see if they would live, while also getting used to what it really took as far as maintenance. You will know when your tank is stable because you will feel it and see it cause your fish will be alive. It was then that I decided what I really wanted. It was then I thought about a skimmer, lighting, etc. If your lr is curred you probably can get by without a skimmer until you have a larger bioload. Even now I only run the skimmer when a film starts to form on the surface.
flatzboy
Active Member
Even if you don't have film on the surface you still can use. I never had film on the surface of my 20g, 75g, 46g and I run skimmers on all of them and they pull out so much crap its unbelievable. Just cus you don't have film on top of the water doesn't mean that you don't have organic matter and waste in the water. If you have enough flow you won't have film on the surface you just got to ''break the surface''.
rossim
Member
Originally posted by theishkid
see that's what i remember. i was tolld you dont need one unless you see the film on top. and i never see film.
Can you run a sucessful tank without one... yes
Are they beneficial.... yes
No one is telling you that you have to get one. They do help and you might find that your corals get a little more color if you have one. If you have the money and the room for one, its definitely worth the investment.
robchuck
Active Member
Originally posted by mujtba
once i change my lighting, do i turn it off at nite or is it always on?
thanks all for your help.
You'll want to turn the lights off at night, simulating the length of time the reefs in the ocean receive light each day. About 8-10 hours of full spectrum lighting is ideal, an extra hour or two of actinic light on either side of the full spectrum light period to simulate dawn and dusk.
No matter what lights you use or how your configure your reef's photoperiod, the best thing to do is put your lights on a timer so you don't have to worry about forgetting to turn the lights on or off.
theishkid
Member
Well I'll be completly honest here but DO NOT follow in my footsteps. Starting out I used tap water to fill the tank. I didn't know this was a BIG NO NO. Go to your local fish store and buy your water there. You will want to buy 3 or 4 5 gallon jugs. I have 2 with fresh RO/DI water and 2 with saltwater. If you're lucky though for your startup your LFS will probably let you borrow their jugs to fill up your tank. If I was doing it all again... and I will be when we move in to our new house and I get my 100 gallon... I would just go to the LFS and buy the saltwater there (but they will let me borrow jugs to fill it up). Plus they might even give you water out of their actual tanks to help break in your tank faster.