Hello, all! I’m very new to this hobby YahoO (also coincidentally to this forum), and have been working diligently/patiently on my new tank for about 3 months now. I have a few pictures documenting my build, and I’m hoping to get a better understanding on what I may be doing wrong (or what I need to start doing right, rather) before my newbie-ness becomes detrimental to my tank. Pics will follow shortly.
Stats on the tank:
29 gallon reef setup
Overflow box (design from melevesreef(dot)com)
260gph Koralia powerhead
2.5" Live sand bed
10 gallon sump w/ bubble trap + refugium
500gph sump return pump
ASM Mini-G in-sump protein skimmer
30lbs Fiji/pacific live rock
Refugium has 3" Live sand bed, 2 lbs Fiji Live rock . . . Macro Algae to come, haven’t decided which kind to get as of yet.
Like I said, I’ll be posting pics later. Thanks for any advice in advance!
Well first off - Welcome to the club!!!
Secondly - you’re not doing anything wrong.
Now a couple of things - it’s ook to list melevs site here- we try not to be too finicky about other reef sites. besides, Melev’s is awesome.
A 10g sump/fuge combo does make me a little nervous as it doesn’t provide much of either function. You’re going to end uo topping off everyday or twice a day in the summer months due to evaporation. Any fuge is better than no fuge, but when you add macro you want to be able to give it room to grow.
I understand that space underneath the stand is probably the reasoning for a small sump, but maybe you want to consider putting the sump underneath, then pump up ABOVE the display tank to a seperate fuge. Personally I like the look of an exposed fuge. I think the fuge offers just as much to see as the display tank.
Make sure you’re using RODI (Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized) water. You’ll have less algae that way. Make sure you’re using a refractomoeter to measure salinity and not a swing arm hydrometer - they are historically bad, wrong, and very dangerous to rely on (Instant Ocean HATES it when I say that).
Most importanly -ask questions!!! You’ve stumbled upon a wealth of knowledge and information here - make sure you use it - we love showing off how smart we are.
So what’s in the tank? Fish, coral, inverts?
Thank you for the reply!
I have been using RO/DI water, my LFS is right down the street from me and they’ve been extremely helpful. I haven’t put any coral in the tank yet, just 2 snails and a handful of hermit crabs to deal with the small amount of algae that keeps on growing from the inital cycle (nitrates down to around 10ppm now, so I’m thinking it’s not as much of a problem anymore). I’ll be ready for corals and critters within the next week or so, I’ve been taking things pretty slow to ensure doing things right the first time.
I plan on growing softies at first, and after awhile I plan on investing in a better lighting system to grow some harder corals. The main purpose of the tank is for reef life, but I plan on putting a goby (or 2), a starfish, and possibly 1 or 2 small fish that swim medium - top level (since the gobies will be at the bottom). I read that clown (percula?) can nip at coral and sometimes be a little territorial (ontop of being almost a cliche’ in saltwater tanks), any advice on smaller fish that will do well in my size tank?
Details on the hydrometer? I have an instant ocean one, and have noticed discrepencies with the readings. I take 5-6 readings at a time and average them out. If there’s a better solution, please share . . .
I have read alot about a sump as small as a 10 gallon being more of a nuisance than help, and it’s turning out to be pretty truthful. I’ve been topping it off every other day with a half gallon or so, i was thinking that it was becasue I don’t have a top to put on the sump just yet. I’m VERY interested in setting the pump to go to a separate 'fuge tank and remove the partitioning, but don’t know how to go about setting one up (I read that a slower flow rate is desired, and I don’t want to sacrifice overall flow rate through the skimmer). Any input would be greatly appreciated!
welcome to the club. instead of an IO hydrometer, you really should get a refractometer. ebay or lfs or a sponsor here. the one you have is most likely [read that word as ‘assuredly’] off. gobies and blenies make up the majority of my 65 gallon tank fish wise. the variety is amazing and they have personalities, too. look into them. small and non-aggressive.
again glad to have you on board. you up north or south?
:Welcome) to the club! Hope we get to meet you at this months meeting! and i think a refractometer is one of the raffle prizes YahoO
Used to have a freshwater tank didn’t you?
I remember when I was setting my FW tanks up I selected fish based on where they tended to swim - top, middle, or bottom. I’ve yet to find that in a saltwater system. Unlike a river or stream where FW fish are found that is 6-15 feet deep, our fish come from reefs in the ocean that are anywahere from 10-50 feet deep. Most SW fish will cruis the whole reef, front to back, and top to bottom. Your best bet will be to take a look through some pictures, find fish you like, then look up the necessary tank size to keep them as adults.
Now I will stray from popular opinion and say there is nothing wrong with putting a 1" hippo tang in a 29g tank - as long as you realize in a year or 2 you’re either going to need to upgrade tanks or find a new home for the fish. Personally I don’t like finding new homes for my fish - I’ve had a few for 3-4 years and am very fond of them - the idea of selling them or trading them at the LFS isn’t appealing to me at all.
Let’s start a new thread to talk about having a seperate sump and fuge and different ways to do it successfully. It will keep this nice introduciton thread from getting to cumbersome to read.
Lol, I still have my 55gal FW tank setup with a Tiger Oscar and Jack Dempsey. I wanted something more challenging/interesting/beautiful to work on, which is why I decided to try my hand at this hobby.
Where would be the most appropriate place to start up a sump/refuge discussion (unless there already is one open that I haven’t seen yet)?
Here are a few pics of my LR progression
Here are some of the overflow creation progression.
Sump/piping assembly progression
Quick question to all: Is there any other piece of equipment that you think would be beneficial/necessary? Reactors, denitraters, auto top-off, etc. I’m planning on 50/50 LPS/Softies, no real interest in making this tank SPS so having super clean water is not TOO important to me.
I am upgrading to a 20gal sump/refugium setup due to pump return/evaporation complications. Also I want to “black out” the refugium area (I’m getting sigificant algae developing in the sump, and only after 2 weeks of running the sump/refugium with chaeto).
I’m consideing adding a space to accept a cartridge filter (like the ones used in HOB carbon filtration for freshwater tanks) in my new sump to polish the incoming overflow from my DT. Beneficial, or waste of time?
I’m going to upgrade my lighting and add another 2-bulb Aqualife T5 HO ballast (for 29gal), I’m not getting the light I want/need out of my current fixture. Does anybody know the stock bulbs that come in these units? I want to make sure I get the wavelengths and intensities right for a good combination. I’m pretty sure I have a 10K and an actinic on there now, but I hear that I need something else to hit the 450nm range. Ken wrote something great on another topic, but it was mostly referring to MH lighting.
The stock bulbs are horrible! (10k and a crappy blue combo bulb they make) so with another 2 bulbs, you’ll end up with a total of 4 bulbs then? There’s lots of options, but i love the ati blue plus bulbs.
A filter sock would be more efficient for cleaning the water, and easier and cheaper to maintain then those carrtidges, and a reactor for carbon, and/ or gfo would never hurt… the carbon running really cleans up the water crystal clear.
Back to the lighting… do you like a blue look?
No need to black out the refugium - trust me when I say you WANT algae growing in your sump/fuge area. If it’s growing in oyur fuge than iut’s not growing in your DT.
I almost always reccomend replacing the stock bulbs that come with a fixture. ATI make nice bulbs, the higher the kelvin rating the bluer the tank will look. Also remember that the order in which you put the bulbs will afect the appearance of light in the water.
If you have (2) 10K and (2) actinics and you put the 10Ks in the back your tank will look more blue than if you put the 10Ks up front and the blues in the back. Personally I’d get 2 super actinics, 1 10K, and 1 12K bulb and sandwhich the whiter bulbs between the SA.
“There’s lots of options, but i love the ati blue plus bulbs.”
For any reason other than looks? Do they function rather well at a specific range?
“A filter sock would be more efficient for cleaning the water . . .”
Are they available at most LFS’s? I have my piping set up already, and the only place I can think of putting a sock is on my sump pump recycle “T”. Would a DIY media filter work, or is it better to buy one?
As far as the lights go, how would this work:
Back of tank → Front of tank
ATI Blue Plus - 10k - 12k - Super Actinic
. . . or would it be better to just keep it simple? After looking at the bulb performance from ATI to the stock ones I have, the only direction I can go is better. lol I didn’t know that there were better quality bulbs out there for the fixture I have, I just assumed that it came with the best (we all know what happens when you assume things . . . )
I DO love a more blueish look, and if that means better light quality then so be it!
Oh and as far as the filter pad idea - best thing I came up with was to make a holder out of egg crate (light diffuser) for large filter pads. I cut it as close to the true width and height of the tank as possible and just placed is in the sump. Forces almost 100% of the wsater through the filter pad. Another option is to slide it in between 2 baffles - just leave enough hanging out of the top to be able to pull it out and switch it often.
The nice part about this is you can use phosphate removal media, carbon, or just a filter floss pad.
auto top-off is a great thing to have. Especially if you have large to medium water evaporation and if you add kalkwasser to keep up with calcium.
Reactors are also good to have to run carbon or GFO. Another thing, if you go to the meeting next month the golden ticket prise is Bulk Reef Supply Media Reactor to raffle off.
The ATI blue plus bulbs have a high par output, and a great color.( they’re like a blue light sabre! ) on my big tank i just replaced the t5’s…and i tried diff color combo’s i ended up with 4 rows blue+…1 pure actinic, and 1 aquablue special (very white with a pinkish tint)… i love the color…
now on my 30, i have 4 bars… 1 pure actinic, and 1 aquablue special both ati…and 2 of the old aquaticlife blue combo’s… its a bit too white, just one white bulb drowns out a lot of blue.
i would like at least 2 blue +'s to replace the old ones, that would prob be perfect… imo
