Hello, new guy here with a few questions.

[Lockheart]

Back in NY I had a 20 gallon FOWLR tank that I used a single 50/50 Coralife bulb in and everything was fine.

Well, I recently moved to FL and my boss gave me a 55 gallon tank that I plan on making a reef tank. A guy that comes into the scuba shop actually collects and sells tropical fish and coral so he's going to get me live sand, rock, and sea water since the tap here in Homestead is HORRIBLE and I'd rather not mix my own water anyway.

Anyway... I plan on starting off with about 2" of sand and about 50 lbs of live rock. I have a Whisper 60, and plan on adding a sump, a protein skimmer and at least two power heads. In your humble opinion will this be sufficient enough filtration and circulation?

I guess to get to the real point, the lighting system has two separate lights/ballasts. It was originally a freshwater tank, and I know I have to change the lighting. I'm curious though, if I were to put corals only on one side of the tank, would I be able to just upgrade the one light head and use a 50/50 bulb in the other? Also, would I have to change the ballast out in order to use a stronger light?

Also, any suggestions on lighting systems would be great. I would like to have hard and soft corals, invertebrates, and fish as well.

Thanks for any help!

 

[kgross]

Filtration.

2 inches of live sand, is good, I would suggest a little more than 50 lbs of Florida live rock, 75 to 100 lbs would be much better. With that a a good protein skimmer you have the filtration you need for a reef tank, as long as you keep the fish load pretty low.

Lighting,

Yes you can put brighter lights under 1/2 the tank to keep corals, but with a 4 foot long tank, it can be very easy to light.

I would suggest you hurry up and order one of these before they are all sold out.
http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1717

For the price you can't bet them and it will allow you to keep corals on both sides of the tank.

Kim

 

[iseeweed]

I would probably shy away from natural sea water. I'm not sure I have ever heard of anyone having success using natural water(could be wrong though) If you are planning on growing coral, a 15%-20% water change at least bi-weekly is needed.
You may want to invest in a quality RO/DI unit. One LFS close to me actually filters well water(full of copper and silica) and still grows nice sps corals.

 

[fungia]

once you add the protein skimmer and powerheads it will be sufficient. you will need more lights then two flurescents, this is not enough for corals. you should consider power compacts or t5 bulbs. there are a lot of kits for sale that are affordable. you need both different bulbs and ballasts, a regular ballast will not light a high output bulb any brighter.

 

[Lockheart]

kgross, that light head looks awesome but I don't think it's going to work with my tank. The top is split in half, and there's a bar that goes across in the middle (width wise) to hold the lights up. I don't think the T5 is going to sit flush against the top of the tank. I want to put 100 pounds of rock in, just not right away. On top of 550 lbs of water, probably 50 pounds of sand (or more), and 50 pounds of rock I want to make sure the glass is going to hold up.

iseeweed, ultimately I may end up buying an RO/DI but I just want to get the tank set up. The guy I'm getting my rock from told me that he uses sea water in his system and doesn't have any problems at all.

As far as the lighting is concerned, money is of no concern. I just want to get the best I can so that I can put what I'd like in my tank. I don't plan on putting many fish in there, but my girlfriend has absolutely insisted that once it's set up and ready to go I have to get a porcupine puffer.

 

[Ben1]

AFAIK, collecting rock in florida is illegal unless he has a bottom lease and put dry rock there and seeded it, like gulf view or tampa bay saltwater.

Florida rock is much more dense then figi so 50lbs might not look like much. If you are using natural seawater I would ozonate and run some carbon in it first, JMO.

A 55 gal tank is too small for a porcupine puffer, IMO and it will eat certain inverts. they can also add a lot to the bioload and IMO are not very good options for reef setups.

If you are planning a sump ditch the whisper and use something like Phosban reactor to run carbon.

As far as the RO/DI if the tap is truely horrible you will need some purified water anyhow to use for top off, since you wont be topping off with saltwater.

The center brace should not be an issue for using the T5 lighting and IMO the light shown would be just fine for a standard 55. If you want to go MH then you need to decide on wattage, 175, or 250's would be fine and also how you want to set it up. You can go for an all in one hood or DIY with some nice reflectors. Just depends on what you want to do.

What type of skimmer were you looking at?

Good luck.

 

[Lockheart]

I know collecting rock in FL is illegal... but collecting it in international water isn't. That's neither here nor there, the guy that is getting it for me is getting it from a wholesaler so it probably won't be FL rock anyway.

As far as the skimmer, I'm looking at the Remora Pro, it's rated for tanks 50-120 gallons and I figured it would be a good idea to go a little bigger than I really need just incase the bioload gets a little out of hand.

If you guys think that the T5 will work, I'll go for it! I just need to wait until I get paid. That's a great price and I hope there's one left when I'm ready to buy it.

I live about 3 miles from the ocean... so getting saltwater isn't really an issue .

 

[Ben1]

I use a regular remora on my sons tank which is 29 gal and it is decent, he needed a HOT skimmer. I am not really a big fan of these skimmers for a few reasons and think for the price there are better options. The remora line uses a lot of space in the box for bubble removal, the actual area in the skimmer where water and air mix is not as large as other comparable skimmers and if you are adding a sump I might go with something like this instead,

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Protein-S ... _info.html

it is only a $20 difference and would be a much better skimmer for you, IMO.

HTH

 

[Lockheart]

Well noted, and that protein skimmer has been bookmarked. As soon as it's in stock I'll grab it.

As far as a sump is concerned, I could use a little help. I didn't have one on my FOWLR tank, as there was no need... and I've seen it done a few different ways.

I was told I could use something like this http://www.petco.com/product/13594/Penn ... lters.aspx (don't kill me for going to petco! I haven't found anywhere else to go yet) but basically they said that there are multiple chambers inside the canister and you can put bioballs inside one of the chambers to promote natural bacterial growth.

I've also seen it set up with a smaller box filled with bioballs hidden inside the cabinet with a pump... simple as that.

Since I am absolutely clueless... can someone (Ben ahaha) give me any suggestions?

 

[thomas576]

RUSHING! take your time and check things out some of the people here have years of experience and you want to keep live animals in a tank you want setup in a few hours! That is the easiest way to spend more money and kill some animals.

 

[Ben1]

Well assuming the tank isnt reef ready, no drilled holes for an overflow, you need an overflow, I perfer lifereefs version. It is simple and works well,

http://www.lifereef.com/siphon.html

and the other things you would need is a pump and a sump.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Octopus-S ... _info.html

For a cheaper alternative alot of people buy a standard glass tank like a 20L and use it for a sump, then just glue some baffles to prevent bubbles from going into the display in the tank. For baffles you can get glass cut to fit at a glass shop, thicker the better 1/4 with polished edges or acrylic from home depot you can score and snap your self work. Theres lots of info on doing this in the forums.

Any internal pump that will provide enough gph to properly operate the overflow, like a mag 7 or 9, or a nicer option would be an eheim 1262. You can also go for an external pump but that requires a bit more plumbing.

This will give you a place for you to run an internal skimmer, a heater, any probes you might add in the future, a place to add addatives so they mix a bit before hitting the main tank, etc..it also adds some volume to the system making it slightly more stable.

A canister filter like you linked isnt something I recommend for a reef set up. There is no need for bioballs in a reef setup becuase the biofiltration will be handled by your live rock and sand if you use a sand bed. A sump is much more versatile and usefull.

 

[Ben1]

BTW I dont know if you have any reefing books but some good ones would be The reef Aquarium vol 1-3, the conscientious marine aquarist, and Bornemans Aquarium Corals. They are all good reads and worh while.

 

[Anonymous]

I would probably shy away from natural sea water. I'm not sure I have ever heard of anyone having success using natural water(could be wrong though) If you are planning on growing coral, a 15%-20% water change at least bi-weekly is needed.
You may want to invest in a quality RO/DI unit. One LFS close to me actually filters well water(full of copper and silica) and still grows nice sps corals.

I actually prefer seawater, but if it's not yet been filtered well, I would run it through good mechanical, carbon, foam fractionation, and UV sterilization filters.

Let me put in a plug for Bob and Anthony's latest release, the Natural Marine Aquarium--Reef Invertebrates. Not so much a beginner book, but great information nonetheless.

 

[Lockheart]

Please understand I am by no means rushing! If I were rushing, I would have gone out and just bought a bunch of junk and thrown it together already, instead I'm here asking questions about what other people might consider if they were getting ready to start a new reef tank. My tank isn't even ready to be set on the stand yet, let alone set up. I have to build a cabinet on the current stand, completely scrub out the tank (it was originally a fresh water tank), figure out where everything is going to go, and start with the simple things like lighting and cycling the tank for at least 60 days.

Ben, I have noted the books you mentioned, and before I even set up the cabinet I will look into them. The only book I own (and I don't have a clue where it is as I just moved and have about 80 boxes of stuff in the garage that needs to be unpacked) is a marine animal identification/compatibility book.

On a positive note, I found out there is a salt water specialty store about 3 miles from my house tonight. I went over but they were closed. I'll check them out in the morning before I head off to work.

Thanks everybody for the advice! I truly appreciate it.

 

[Ben1]

If it was used as a fresh water tank be sure it never had copper used in it, otherwise IIRC the silicon absorbs the copper and this tank needs to be resiliconed if it is to be used as a reef.

 

[Anonymous]

Or, fill it with some SW and test it for detectable copper levels. I've stripped out and resealed more tanks than I care to remember.

 

[Lockheart]

Good tip about the copper absorbing into the silicone... I didn't even think about that! If it comes down to having to reseal the tank I'll just have the guys at the marine fish store do it.