New to Marine Aquarium

[dan_chng]

Hi Everybody, was wondering if anyone can help answer some of my queries. I now have a 250 lit tank with a 70 lit sump, over flow. Planning to start off with fish only and then add corals and inverts. Thanks a million :roll:

1. What are good positioning of power heads for creating water movement in the tank? How powerful powerheads shld I use?

2. I am using an overflow with a sump at the bottom with 4 compartments. The 1st is for mechanical (sponges). Which compartment should I be placing my skimmer, before or after biological.

3. How long shld the skimmer be turned on for and when should I start using the skimmer.

 

[ReefRian]

Hi, and welcome to the hobby.

For the powerhead, you want to place them where they will create the most current, especially when you have corals and if you have live rock. I have a maxijet 1200 in the right hand side blowing across the tank and a maxijet 600 blowing from the left side across the back of the tank. There seems to be plenty of current for my tank. For your skimmer, I'm not sure where to place it since I don't know much about overflows and stuff. Though I would start your skimmer as soon as the tank is set up and I there doesn't seem to be any problem leaving it on 24/7. That's what I do.

Rian

 

[nicksreef]

If you have a well stocked library available, check out a book called "Reef Secrets" by Alf Jacob Nilson and Svein A. Fossa. It has just about everything you will need to know about making sure your fish will be reef compatible, and get along with each other. I wasted a lot of money on fish and invertibrates that were NOT compatible with my reef tank. They ate each other, and I can not keep shrimps due to the temp I maintain in the tank. I had some crabs that immediately started eating my corals. Do some research before you stock. I feel it's better to start with the live rock and get it going well before adding too many fish. Reef tanks require higher quality water than fish do, so healthy fish do not necessarily mean healthy reef tank (but the opposite is true)