If you were to start a reef tank. How would you set it up?

[Anonymous]

If you were to start a 58G SPS/LPS/clam reef (36x18x21) tank today.

How would you set it up and why? (LR/Sand)

Equipment nad why? (pumps/lighting/skimmer/etc)

How long to stage the tank before adding inhabitants?
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Honda NH series

 

[Anonymous]

Well lets see, first thing before anything goes in, make multiple return manifolds from the sump/refugium areas (yes they are needed) have nozzles all over the damn place, work for that 50-80x turn over rate. Make sure you have flow coming out at all places at the tank, not simply from the top down like many manifolds are.

I'm a sucker for sand, but I think with that setup I'd have a shallow sandbed just to cover up the piping, you can always stir it up and clean it as needed. Besides I'd want a DSB in a refugium that's a good fraction of the size of the main tank (atleast 30gallons), so no worries there. Live rock of course

Pumps, problem is by going the "clean" route and not having powerheads in the tank, you lose on the side of efficiency, so no seios or tunzes. I'm really unsure about the high powered pumps that are out there though, i'd want quiet pumps though.. Quiet One 4000 pushes about 1100gph.. but for 50x turn over you'd need atleast 3 of them.

Skimmer, I'd probably use one of those coralife superskimmers, the largest one they have (I think its rated for 220 gallons), it's only about $170, so you'll get lots of skimming without having to pay EuroReef prices.

Lighting, have to go with metal halides with SPS & Clams, probably 250 DE bulbs. Problem is heat from the bulbs, so you're on your own there, I'm not very experienced with lightbulbs like this, I do know that my 2 -175w halides over my 135g tank do noticably raise the temperature a couple degrees, so I can only imagine what a couple 250's over half the tank volume would do.

As mentioned refugium is a must must must. And depending upon location, might want to go with a surge

How long? I'd probably wait a good month.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd drill that sucker for an external overflow. 1 1/2 durso/stockman minumum

Ocean Motions 4 way return powered by a nice pump. Depending on setup, I'd put 2 returns in the back corners high, and 2 in the front corners. low. I'd make sure the plumbing from the fronts had some kind of syphon break. Maybe a small 1" to 1/2" threaded T with a piece of airline tubing or the like.

I'd use some 250w DE 14k pendants. Keeps the heat away from the tank, and it lets you see the clams from the top easier.

Depending on flow, I like the look of a little sand. I'd throw some nice pieces of rock in there.

I'd probably go with an underated skimmer. I hardly ever skimmed my LPS tank, I'm sure my clam liked the little extra nitrates. I did feed that tank a LOT. Hey, it was LPS. They love it!

and depending on how cured the live rock/sand was I'd probably wait a month for some easy corals. Shrooms, rics, Then in another month a couple of LPS, THen another month a couple of SPS and then the clams a month after that.

B

 

[MandarinFish]

What I am doing - zeovit and a bubbleking skimmer.

Barebottom.

HUGE sump inside a shed outside my house (Righty - I blame you for this and the whole notion of scrapping my HideousMonstrosity 1.0).

Tunze wavebox, though I would not use that on a system your size. The streams rock the waves.

I believe in a refugium, though not sure if sand or just LR will be in mine, or maybe all chaetomorpha, maybe some mangroves.

My aquascaping will be radically different too - no more sloping slag heap. I'm building free-standing narrow towers of rock and aragrocrete, basically pillars with room for corals and fish between. Maybe some arches.

Whatever you do, I'd get the most powerful and effective skimmer possible. I'd get at least an H+S or a really big external EuroReef. Bubbleking isn't for everyone, and for the money I think it beats Grotech and Deltec. But I don't want to get flamed... just giving my take from what I've seen.

External skimmer, as big as possible, regardless of brand would be my starting point.

 

[Anonymous]

It should be mentioned the question is what *YOU* would do... I wouldn't spend much money, evident by my skimmer choice, where as Jake having the $1000 model does ...

Oh yah Ocean Motion.. forgot about that, add one or two of those to mine... although might be overkill with a surge.. I haven't seen in person what they actually do as far as flow oscillation, but who knows, maybe the bubbles from the surge might be bad for the clams... *shrug*

 

[MandarinFish]

I agree on the OceansMotions... everyone raves.

I'd get the biggest skimmer you can possibly afford if you're serious about SPS and clams, personally.

 

[Anonymous]

I am almost decided here. Keep the ideas coming. I should be ordering the new LR in a few weeks. I will try and keep the corals I have alive in a small tank with some sort of light with weekly water changes.

I am thinking of maybe a PVC rock rack with holes drilled throughout that has a mag5 or a hagen 70 powerhead (495 gph) to create flow throughout the LR.

I want sand but I am undecided.
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schrom strain

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I definately think some sort of PVC superstructor would be nice to help you get away from that pile look which is almost inevitable unless you get lucky with your rocks.

I'm not sold on the flow through the rocks, but that's all dependant heavily upon how your rock structures & main flow is setup.

 

[MandarinFish]

I'd go with the cheapest external EuroReef if you can afford it.

Come on Mike - I have a $500 skimmer. I'm going to a $2400 skimmer.

Who uses $1000 skimmers ?!?

:lol:

A guy in our reef club (Piya) used mangrove filtration almost exclusively. once they got going, I think he had no nitrates. I couldn't keep my mangroves happy enough. I bought them from Hawaii and think they needed acclimation, though the seller insisted they didn't.

My experience is a sunlit fuge with 3 macro types and a Euro 6-2 isn't enough to keep up with my nutrient rich, sunlit tank.

Mike and I are both bad about regular water changes because they present real problems for me (wood floors far from the water source, wife who doesn't like garbage cans full of saltwater in the living room for some reason), and Mike is basically smart enough not to overfeed nutrient-rich foods like I used to.

There are many, many ways to do a reef. Whatever you decide, water quality is obviously paramount.

My next system is going to have stacked 20-30g tanks to do quick, easy changes (on valves) and RO/DI auto-topoff.

Like you, I like sand too. I'm going to make it look like I have sand but not actually have any other than a thin layer glued to a sheet on the bottom. I have to see how it looks before I commit to that though.

I can't tell you how to keep a beautiful tank... mine is ugly. But I do have some extremely happy corals and I can recommend what not to do from my own mistakes.

Are you making any aragrocrete? I look forward to seeing your system come together. Plz share pics and ideas.

 

[cjsrch]

my friend would say drill it all over... literaly he wanted the back and bottom of my tank to only have acrilic UNDER the bulkheads... gah idiot


ok anyways. i would get a55 gallon fuge to go under it a few mag pumps.... a few oceansmotions deep sand bed put xenia in the sump.. good nutrient export.... id get a tunze automatic skimmer .. ( tell me how it works out befor i throw out 300 hehehe)


ok ill post more seriusly later

 

[Anonymous]

Here is what I am doing to reset my 60 cube when I get to it. I will rebuild the stand to have extra room. My current stanf is 24x24. New stand will be 36 long x 32 wide. I will be using the old rock for the most part. When I took it down I cleaned it up real good and now it is drying. I will cut down on the amount of rock I used and keet the pile as open as possible. I will add a chiller to keep the temp down so I can run my sequence 24/7. My ER worked just fine so I am going to keep it. I will be chainging my sump from a 10 to a 20 g tank. Several reasons for this. More volume for the system and the sump, slow the sump flow down so I can get less/no bubbles back in the main tank and I do not have to worry as much about power outage overflows. With the 10g sump I had less than an inch of coushin when the power was out. I will be keeping the ocean motions, worked well for me. I will redo the piping for the closed loop. I plan on adding more inlets so the water going into the CL is slower. I also will redo the CL outlet. Planning on more holes and less branches. Will try to add some down facing holes to keep the poop from setteling on the bottom. Lighting will stay the same 250watt 10KK DE MH with 2 24" VHO actinic. This tank will be SPS, clams and LPS only. For fis I want to add small colorfull fish. Maybe even just a school of anthits only.

 

[Anonymous]

So here is my latest plan allot of the euipment from today's setup will be reused after a good bleaching.

Lights 1 - 250W HQI 14K, 2 95W VHO actinics
Euroreef ES5-3 skimmer (may upgrade if needed or add another)
PVC spraybar of some sort behind the LR and to support the LR powered with a 450-500 GPH pump
Tunze Stream 6000 (1850 GPH)
mag 9 sump return
Re-plumb the overflow drain to be able to support a filter sock
Want a CA reactor but will see about that

The outstanding issues:
Sand or no sand
45 lbs of LR (trying to figure out how to choose good LR over bad)
Still may hire a LFS or someone with a clue to come and set this whole thing up
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