Starting Over

[MrsFish]

Sorry for the long post, but experience reef keepers will probably find many things in common with this ..

I have had a fish tank for as long as I remember. We lived in California, and I had a 70 gallon bow-front tank - originally tropical. It became very boring and so I invested some money to convert it to Reef.

For about 3 years I maintained it as a reef. Initially I lost a lot of coral and fish - probably thousands of dollars if I'm realistic. About 3 years ago, I sold it on Ebay because we were preparing to move to the East Coast (Boston).

Everytime my husband asks me what I'd like for my birthday, Christmas, 'as a treat', I've said ... A fish tank. I think this Christmas my dream came true!!

So this Christmas, I have a gift certificate for Tropic Isle in Framingham. It's not enough to get me the huge tank I desire, but it's at least 1/3 of the way there. By the end of this week (owing to a business situation) I will know whether I am relegated to a 30 gallon reef ... or upgraded to a 100 gallon reef.

My experience with converting a non-drilled tank has made me rather opinionated. I used to have a refugium hanging on the back - which dripped salt down the wall behind. Also a protein-skimmer. Then a UV thing (can't remember what it was called) because I didn't have a sump and couldn't upgrade to the proper filtration because it was not a drilled tank. I used an external cylinder pump which I rarely cleaned and did water changes only about once every 2 months because I had to drop the water level by 8 inches and it damaged almost every coral at the top. However, I did have many successes - the Xenia did well and I had lots of baby sand-sifter star fish. I loved my tank, but recognized the down-sides of doing it this way.

So, here I am preparing to go straight into reef-dom!

This is what I want to do .. I'd appreciate a few opinions and suggestions if anyone is willing!!

I want to get a flat front tank this time - it's too hard to clean the bow fronted ones with a magnetic cleaner!!. I want to start in at 75 gallons min. External sump - filled with live rock. Not doing the UV thing. Not doing the refugium thing. Not doing the protein skimmer thing unless I need to. I will load it with about 100 lbs live rock. Plenty of live sand. Heaters will be in the sump. If all works out OK will get the metal halide lights so that I can have the corals requiring the best lighting.

I don't want to cycle the tank with the dansels .. they're too hard to remove when cycling is complete and they destroy any other kind of fish (based on my experience). What do you recommend? I would have clowns .. but don't want the cheap cycling fish again.

Last time having loads of tank cleaning crews worked well. I have lots of crabs, sifter starfish, yukky things I can't even touch .. including those brittle stars (which freek me our because they look like spiders from your worse nightmare!!). However, these clean-up guys made the tank stable and I think I've load it up with these guys again - opinions, please?

The tank I have in mind has an overflow system.

I think you probably get the picture. I have an opportunity to do it properly and with my past experience of 3 years in the reef game I am really ready.

Is there anyone from New England out there who can recommend places to get coral/fish? I am obviously getting the tank and supplies/cycling fish from Tropic Isle, but since I've also been in New England for only (almost!) 2 years I'm not really sure of the alternative stores and places to buy supplies.

I would really appreciate ANY comments, feedback, suggestions, advice. What would you do if you could have your set-up chance again???

Mrs Fish
Lexington, MA
Formerly of San Jose, CA
[email protected]

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to RDO!

Just a couple suggestions.
Do not cycle with fish, you don't need them.
Get the skimmer put it in the sump.
Get an ro/di unit and use it from the get go.

Good luck!

 

[MrsFish]

Just a couple of questions ..

If I don't cycle with fish, what do I use ... I presume you mean not to cycle with anything??

Why do I need the skimmer if I'm using over 1lb of live rock to 1 gallon of water. I was told that I don't really need the skimmer if I have a good quantity of life rock AND life sand.

What is an ro/di unit? I have no idea .. what is it??

Sue

 

[Mihai]

You cycle it with live rock. Just put the live rock in and it will cycle it (by all the animals that will rot in the process). If you get very clean rock you can feed the tank a few days and the creatures in the rock will eat it and start the cycle.

Regarding the skimmer - you can go without if you're prepared to do large regular water changes (say 20-30% every month) and you'll stock very light. With a skimmer you can be a bit more sloppy with the water changes.

Finally, an RO/DI is a reverse osmosis with de-ionizer filter that makes very pure water. It's really the best choice in the long run, and great if you start with it (many algae problems are related to not using such an unit). I got mine on ebay for $100 and it works great (aquasafecanada or filterdirect).

Go with the overflow option - it's best in the long run.

Do add a cleanup crew by all means, but do not buy *lots* of them: most will end up dying of hunger. Also skip the sifting stars: they will eat all good creatures in your sand. But keep the brittle, snails (even hermits if you like them).

If you can afford the patience, try to keep the system without fish for 3-6 months (I managed to do mine for 6 month). This stabilizes the system really good before fish come in.

Finally, the best two advices I can give you (and you didn't ask for ) are:

1 - buy a good book (two is better ) and read them. For basic information a good book cannot be beaten.

2 - if you ever in doubt (even slightly) ask on this board - there are lots of people with loads of experience that can help you out.

All the best,
Mihai

 

[MrsFish]

Mihai

Based on your answer, I will definately go with the protein skimmer- that may have saved me on the water change frequency before.

I will look into the ro thing.

Very pleased that I don't have to fill it with fish that I basically don't want just to perform the cycle. Not sure I can wait 3 months ... or even 1!

I am currently reading 'The conscientious Marine Aquarist' ... which has made me extremely concerned about buying Metal Halide lights. It lists them as exploding often and being a huge fire risk. I think I'll set up a separate post to see if anyone knows about this - I am a bit concerned now and I had my heart set on them if everything works out OK.

Thanks for all the useful information. I will definately post to the list with queries.

Mrs Fish

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Mrs Fish and :welcome:

The advice you recieved above is dead on.

You should definately look into the RO/DI unit. It will help you maintain pristine water conditions. Buckeye Field Supply has some of the best pricing out there on RO/DI's.

If your metal halide lamps are in a reflector that has a glass lense, then you wouldn't have to worry about exploding bulbs. I have never had one explode in my 5 years in the hobby. B

Louey

 

[wereef]

First off.. welcome

I decided to post your light question here due to the activety on this thread.

MH lights are IMHO your best choice for lighting. I have ran the gammit from Power compacts, NO flourecent, Vho Flourecent and MH and am absolutly sold on the MH. I run 10,000k 250w halides and 2 uri super actinic VHO's on my 55 and love the coloration. I have been running the MH for about a year and have had only one problem caused by my own stupidity.

Yes MH lamps get REALLY hot. I have the scars to prove it.

Make sure you shield the bulbs from comming in contact with you or the water by having a glass shield under the bulb. I didn't and when My arm touched the lamp, I jerked my hand into the water thus splashing water up onto the bulb causing it to go off like a grenade!

Just make sure yo protect the bulbs and you will have no problems with what i did.

You didn't state if you preferred pendant style lights or a hood but if you use a hood, then put 1 fan at each end of the hood blowing air into the hood. The reason for blowing in is simply to better protect your fans. Blowing out means salt spray goes into the fan and over time will kill your fans.

The only other thing about MH is the Ballast. It also gets pretty warm so do not place it on the floor if you have carpet. use some sort of stand to keep it off the floor. If you put it in the stand, remember the heat will heat up your tank too. Last, keep the balast clean. I have only heard of 2 instances of a fire being caused from MH ballasts and in both cases, the fire was caused from the dust and lint that had accumulated and was left on the ballast.

You are going to want to consider a tank sitter if you leave for a week. Use the timers as they will keep a constant light schedule which is good, but it's good to have someone check on the tank while your gone. Leaks and other problems just love to hear you are going to be gone :wink:

 

[Entacmaea]

Hey Mrs. Fish, sounds like you are geared up to set up this tank right, which is great to see. A few things- your cycle will take probably at least a month to be safe, and adding a lot of life quickly after that is less disireable than going slowly (I know patience is hard- you want to get the cool stuff in there!) Hardy corals, then more delicate ones, then fish last- adding them least agressive to most aggressive.

Mihai is right, you can cycle your tank with your live rock. However, you can help preserve a little more of the life on the rock, by setting up your sand bed first(if you are having a sand bed) and cycling that, then add your live rock afterwards. Add your sand (preferably live, which will have some bacteria already in it, but dead is okay too, your cycle will just be a little longer) and sprinkle maybe a teaspoon of sinking fish food pellets in the tank, so they settle on the sand (they'll be eaten later). You can also put a cocktail shrimp in the tank and it will cycle as well (remove it after cycle).

A good place to get small sets of janitors is www.etropicals.com. Use their build-your-own package to get $60 worth of critters with free shipping. This is a small package to start (add after live rock as cycled) then you can get another one, only if needed. If you have done the cycle correctly, have a good skimmer, and have gone slowly on adding corals/fish, $60 of janitors (snails, hermits, etc.) is all you will probably need for a 75 gallon IMO.

Also, invest in good test kits, before you start the cycle.

Welcome back to reefing! : )

Best, Peter

 

[Mihai]

Absolutely go with MH. They are the most efficient lights around and are really nice (spectrum and glitter lines). I know of many people that have them without the protection and yet I heard of one bulb breaking (no explosion) and no fires. This being said, I have them in a pendant with a protective glass under them .

Regarding the 1 month waiting period: if you don't start counting until after you cure your rock (don't trust the LFS - nobody has fully cured rock), you'll have to wait the 1 month just for the rock to cure. Then you can get some hardy fish (clowns?) to stare at them until the system stabilizes. .

M.