Hi - New Here - Looking for Advice

[Nivar]

Mechanical Equipment:
100 Gallon (60L, 18H) Aquarium

Mega-Flow 3 Sump
Mag7 Pump (For Return)
CPR CS-100 Overflow

Odyssea PS-75 In-Sump Skimmer
300 Watt Heater (Unsure of Manufacturer) placed in Sump

Odyssea 60" 322 Watts PC Light
-1 65w CF 12,000 K
-1 65w CF Actinic Blue True 3
-1 96w CF 12,000 K
-1 96w CF Actinic Blue True 3
-5 Moonlight Double LEDs

2, 820GPH Seio Powerheads for Water Circulation placed in either end of the aquarium facing each other.

Biological:
60 Lbs. of Live Rock *
1" Deep Sandbed of Pink Somoan Sand **
Bioballs in chamber of the sump ***

* I have 52 more Lbs. of Live Rock curing in a big plastic bucket with a Maxijet Powerhead, a Heater, and a Red Sea Skimmer.
** do I need a deeper sandbed?
*** I have read throughout this site and other sites that bioballs can lead to high nitrates, and even worse, lead to significant fluctuations of nitrate levels. Sometimes, it is best to ditch them and place live rock in the sump.

Misc.
Coralife RO/DI Filter
PHOS-Buster (Algea Control)
Kent Marine Calcium Supplement (For the Coral)
Kent Marine Phytoplankton (To feed the Coral)
Marine Algea Flake (To feed the Fish)
Frozen Shimp (To feed the Anenome)
Instant Ocean Salt
Test Kits, Hydrometer, etc...

Inhabitants:
Fish:
1 Yellow Tank
1 Jeweled Damsel
1 Blue Devil Damsel
1 Flame Angel*
1 Coral Beauty*

*My LFS (Local Fish Store, I hope I understood that acronym correctly) had kept the flame angel and coral beauty in the same tank for 4 months, I had always thought you couldn't keep two angels together, but they don't seem to have a problem with each other.

Invertabrates
Bubble Anenome
Green Star Polyps
Snails (Lots)
Hermit Crabs (Lots, both red and blue legged)
Fire Shimp
Cleaner Shimp
Henry - (a HUGE Snail, and my favorite thing in the tank so far)

Readings:
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
PH 8.2
Nitrate: 15 ppm
Calcium ?
Phosphate ?

I need to find a test kit for calcumn and phosphate.

I am very new to keeping corals and this is my first attempt at keeping anything other than saltwater fish. I have kept a 55 Gallon Saltwater FOWLR tank for 3 years. I have always wanted to keep a Marine Reef Aquarium and so I have upgraded significantly. The sand, about 30% of the water, 60 Lbs of live rock, and all of the fish (except the two angels), snails, and hermit crabs came from my 55 FOWLR. I set the 100 gallon aquarium up 3 weeks ago. My LFS told me that I would be okay getting the two angels, the bubble anenome, and the green star polyp because most everything came out of my established FOWLR tank.

My questions.
1. Is my lighting adequate for non-SPS corals?
2. Is my circulation too much?
3. Should I remove the Bioballs?

The nitrates are my fault, I moved the sand over from my old tank and didn't rinse it as thoroughly as I should have. I am doing weekly 10% water changes to try and rectify my mistake.

The reason I am asking about my circulation (2 Seio 820 Powerheads) is my anenome hasn't grabbed on to anything yet and it's been 3 days. He's alive, he ate yesterday (1/4th of a shrimp). I can't turn on the second powerhead because if I do, he looks like a tumbleweed across the bottom of my tank.

Any suggestions, criticism, comments would be welcome.

Thank you,
Ted

 

[Anonymous]

My questions.
1. Is my lighting adequate for non-SPS corals?
2. Is my curculation too much?
3. Should I remove the Bioballs?

1.Yes, your lighting is fine.

2.Your circulation is fine for non-sps corals.

3.I would definately remove the bioballs. Nitrate factory. Leave empty or put live rock rubble in it.

 

[Nivar]

alright, thank you.

I just asked because, with all of the circ pumps on, my new anenome is a tumbleweed... literally, and I don't think he (or she) is very happy.

2 - 820gph Seio's + 700gph return pump

100 Gallons in tank + approx 25 in Sump = 125

The return is probably actually doing 600gph due to 6' of head height and a 90 degree bend.

So, if my calculations are correct:
I am turning over 800+800+600 = 2,200

2200 / 125 = 17.6 times the system is turned per hour.

If my circulation isn't excessive, what can I do about the anenome?

**added as I am thinking about it more**
Actually, I can probably subtract 15 gallons of water due to the Live Rock and sand?
that would make it 2200/110 = 20 times per hour

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

The anemone will find a place that will be happy for him/her. It will continue to move until it finds a comfy spot. Mine took a while (few weeks) before footing into a place.

Now that you mention your current, it is strong enough to put SPS.

Maybe someone will chime in to see if it's too strong for your anemone.

 

[Nivar]

Alright Crissy, thank you for your responses.

I'm probably just being overly concerned about my anenome since I am still really unsure about the invertebrate side of Marine aquariums.

Anyway, thank you very much for your responses.
If you see anything wrong with my equipment, or anything I am doing wrong or could be doing better, please let me know.

I am going home after work and will remove the bio-balls.

When you say replace it with crushed live rock in the sump, do you mean buy whole live rock, break it up with a hammer and let it cure, then put it in the sump in the same location as the bio balls?

The reason I ask is the bio balls aren't fully submerged, they have water flowing over them.

Should the crushed live rock have water flowing over it, or should the crushed live rock be fully submerged in the sump?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[Anonymous]

Everything else is looks fine to me.

Ask your LFS for Live Rock rubble. It's just small pieces of live rock, not crushed per say. It's usually cheaper too per pound. It's fine that it won't be fully submerged. The live rock is natural filtration and will not be such the nitrate factory as the unnatural bio-balls will.


Ask any time, that's what we are here for.

 

[Nivar]

fantastic, thank you.

After much searching I think I may have found the answer to my anenome's wander-lust in:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 01#1160501

 

[mr_X]

hi.
just watch that your anemone isn't getting blown so hard he could fly into one of the powerheads. that, is not fun!

 

[ChrisRD]

Personally, I would skip the rock rubble in the sump unless you can set it up in such a way that it won't be trapping any detritus (or you're cleaning it frequently). IME any area that can trap detritus is generally more harmful than helpful to water quality in the long run. It's definitely not necessary in terms of biological filtration - you have plenty of rock/sand in the main tank to provide all that is needed.

JMO...

 

[Anonymous]

If it were my tank and I was going to keep LPS and BTA's I would look to add more light and flow. 20x is the minimum flow I would consider in any tank. When I had my mixed lps and softie reef I had about 35x and 440 watts in a 110 gal.

AS for the anem see if you can help it find a spot. Place it some where it is out of any flow to see if you can get it to grab. I have a BTA in my mostly SPS reef with over 70X turn over and it attached in a few minutes and has not moved since I added it.

 

[Nivar]

Personally, I would skip the rock rubble in the sump unless you can set it up in such a way that it won't be trapping any detritus (or you're cleaning it frequently).

I removed the bio balls tonight.
Directly above the bioball area is a pad of blue floss on one side and white floss on the other (Standard Aquarium Floss I would assume) sitting in a black plastic pan with holes drilled through it so that water from the aquarium, via the overflow, drains into an area of the sump and then over a wall and into the floss pad and through the holes in the plastic sheet through to the bio balls.

This floss collects a fair amount of detritus and I have been cleaning it every week along with a 10% water change.

Based on what you are saying, I should remove not only the bioballs but the floss as well?
Or optionally, keep the floss and add live rock rubble underneath the floss where the old bioballs went and clean the floss weekly as the floss will prevent detritus buildup in the liverock rubble.

I am beginning to think I need to rework my sump drastically.

I would look to add more light and flow.

That's reasonable. Thank you.

AS for the anem see if you can help it find a spot. Place it some where it is out of any flow to see if you can get it to grab

It looks like he might have found a spot... unfortunately it's about two feet away from one of the Seio Powerheads which makes me a little nervous.

Thank you for all of your advice,
Ted

 

[mr_X]

2 feet away from a powerhead? that's ok. or did you mean 2 inches? 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Two feet is fine. My BTS sits right under my SEIO 1000 less than 2 ft away.