Moving On Up

[Allen1]

I've been successful in maintaining a 20g tank for almost a year. After initially losing all my fish due to parasites, which I finally figured out how to get rid of them (don't add verts for at LEAST six weeks), things are now fine. Being a novice NOT a nerdful reader (no patience), I typically do the trial by fire method and then hope and pray! In the end, my fish love me, eat right out of my hand, are healthy and appear happy.

So.... I'm considering purchasing a 90gal since I've been told by locals that the bigger the tank, the easier it all is. We'll see about that. I need direction in purchasing the right equipment and then a careful balance of verts, inverts and cleaner animals. I prefer it to be primarily a fish tank with live sand, live rock and limited coral that the fish nor inverts won't scourage. Can anyone provide any recommendations on quality equipment, including tank, filtering systems, lighting, etc.?

[ April 18, 2002: Message edited by: Allen Sandy ]</p>

 

[Broadwave1]

You are right the bigger the better. I will suggest one thing, if youa re contemplating a 90 go with the 120!! The 120 is only a little more but you have a depth of 24" vs. 18" which will pay for itself in the long run, plus it's MUCH easier and more versatile when building a reef.

For equipment..

I would go with Sea Swirls, for circulation. They attach to your return lines from your sump and give a sweeping motion not leaving any "dead spots" on you water allowing for good aeration.
I would also add RIO 800's in the front corners and behind the reef (total of 4) on a Tsunami HD wave maker.

For a return pump, I would go with an Iwaki 40 RLT. Great pump, pay the extra for the japanese motor. It last ALOT longer.

On filtration, I would suggest you go to www.lifereef.com . Jeff has eceptional products. His skimmers are top notch and he can custom build a sump/refugium/drip tower to fit your needs.

Lighting...
Since you are mainly a FOWLR flourecents will do. Depending on what type of corals you are talking about adding will depend on what type of light. on either a 90 or 120, 2x400W 10,000k MH with 4 x 03 actinics (VHO or PC) would be the max.

For the clean-up crew. Green Serpent/Brittle stars are always helpful as well as the black banded stars. I would suggest a few of these type of stars. Depending on what kind of fish you place in your tank will depend on the Inverts and snails. If you really like Wrasses snails and hermit crabs will be replaced regularly and will lead to really fat wrasse!

My clean up crew consists of Astrea snails, scarlet and pacific red leg hermit crabs, serpent stars, Mithrax crabs, CLeaner shrimp, six line wrasse (he's amall and only eats worms and brine) and a sand sifting cucumber.

Any questions please feel free to ask.

HTH

HTH