New to Hobby - a few questions

[Greg Wiesmore]

Firstly, I am new to the hobby. I have been doing a TON of research as I want to give this new hobby the best chance of success right from the start. But, I have a few questions and would like some opinions.

I have a FO tank now w/only 2 occupants (flame angel and emerald crab.) I am making the move to a reef system. I will be tearing down the FO, cleaning it up and starting fresh with the reef in the same tank. The reason for this is two fold: 1) I used tap water in the FO. 2) I have a crushed argonite (sp.) and shell supstrate in the FO, which needs to be replaced with live sand. The angel and crab will go in a 5 gal FO I just put together for my kids.

My equipment:
42g hex tank
250w MH pendant 10k - just ordered
Amiracle SL5 - HOB wet/dry w/skimmer (removing bioballs when I setup)
2 Maxijet 900 on a Natural Wave powerstrip (to alternate tank current)
Typhoon RO/DI

I do not yet have the Live Sand or Rock. I am waiting for the light to be delivered. I have decided on Gulf-View for both sand and rock because of the diversity of life and all the positive customer service feeback on this and other boards. I expect some unwanted critters but will deal with that as a consequence of creating my "Life Loaded" reef. I have 2 young children who will love to discover all the new life (good and bad) in a thriving reef.

Livestock Plans:
50lbs live sand for approx 3" DSB: 80lbs live rock - buying in 2 shipments (50lbs Coraline to cycle, then 30lbs Deco rock to top it off after the initial cycle.) I will add a cleaner package at the same time or shortly after the addition of the 2nd shipment of rock.

My Questions:
1) Does my setup/livestock plan sound OK? Any suggestions?
2) What suppliments should I add once the reef is in and how often?
3) Do I need to feed the reef or critters? If so, what and how often? I don't see much on this topic anywhere.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

[Bobzarry]

First of all welcome to the Reefs.Org.
I am sure others will shime in, but here is how I see it.

1) sounds like alot of rock for a 42g hex. Remember youl want to leave space for corals when you get them. Rule of thumb I believe is 1-2 pounds per gallon, in a hex I would go closer to 1. Otherwise the rest of your eqipment sounds ok, tho you may want to think about a sump skimmer set up instead of the HOB. However with your current setup this is something you can switch to later on if need be.

2) Add nothing. You never want to add anything you cant test for, and you wont want to add anything that is not needed. Once your systems starts to age, keeping a close eye on your perameters youl know what to add and you can always ask questions here.

3) Feeding will depend on what you have as far as "critters" in your system. For instance: I have mostly softies with a couple of stonies in my system and a few small fish. I feed flake and frozen and thats all. In my systems this seems to meet all of the requirements for what I have. DT's seems to be very popular with refers here and if you do a search I am sure youl find alot of info on this site.

Good luck and happy reefing.

Bob

 

[LFS42]

I agree with BZ, but IMO the angel won't be happy in that 5 gal for the new home.
I would also wait until the second shipment of live rock is cured to add the cleaner package.

 

[Greg Wiesmore]

Wow, thanks for the welcome and quick reply's guys.

If anyone has similar or different opinions, I welcome all the advice I can get.

Thanks.

 

[liquid]

Greg Wiesmore, welcome to Reefs.org! Please take a moment to check out this URL to help you get the most out of your Reefs.org experience: http://www.reefs.org/library/howto.html

To answer your question: I'm going to agree w/ pretty much everything Bobzarry said. The only thing I will add is that on point #2, I do dose kalkwasser for calcium and alkalinity supplementation. Occasionally I may need to dose either Kent Turbo Calcium or Kent Super Buffer dKH to bring my calcium and alkalinity back in line, but that's pretty much it.

hth

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure about the HOB you mentioned, but I have used a Aqua-C HOB Remora skimmer and thought it was excellent.

As mentioned above CA/alk is the only additive you really need- and for just starting out the 2 part supplements like B-Ionic are very convenient.

 

[Greg Wiesmore]

Thank you all for your replies. Sure makes this startup a whole lot easier with feedback from experienced reefers.

 

[Keeping_it_real]

I would suggest you have your new setup running for at least a week (depending on the weather where you are at) to make sure that your halide does not heat up the water to high. Keep in mind if you are in a climate that is currently going through winter it is possible that during the summer months you might see a considerable rise in temperature in your tank. In short if you are running at 80 degrees 24/7 and it is 30 degrees outside where you live right now, what is going to happen once the summer months come?

Just something to think about

 

[rwesurfn]

I am relatively new, but would agree whole heartedly not to add anything that you can not test for

 

[Anonymous]

and another fwiw:


you really won't need lr at more than a lb/gallon

regardless of how much rock you get-remember that rock should be placed in such a fashion as to provide a very open structure, with as little rock touching rock as possible-in order to ensure as much water flow over as much rock surface as possible

we also have some newly placed links at the top of the rdo pages-the how to link liquid provided, among other very informative links, like the library list, and beginners guide, hitchhiker faq, can be found through the links on the rdo homepage link 8) (thanx, liquid :wink: )

welcome to the board!

 

[0db]

you really won't need lr at more than a lb/gallon

I was thinking he's not too far off... I've got a 55g stocked with 90 lbs LR, but mine is Fiji rock which as I understand is a LOT less dense than the Gulf-View FL rock, so I was thinking 80 lbs of that rock would probably take up about as much space as 50 lbs of more typical tropical live rock.

 

[Anonymous]

But Hex tanks tend to go up rather than out, another reason to go light on the rock and more towards providing better circulation through out.

 

[Greg Wiesmore]

Thanks guys, I will scale my order of LR down a bit... I can always add more later. I appreciate the feedback.