I took the plunge! Any feedback on this setup?

[dont827273reef]

OK, my wife and I decided to take the plunge. We've been nano reef-ing for a couple of months with good success. We went out tonight and bought the following -

AGA 54G Corner Tank with built-in overflow (TwinFlow)
AGA Sump - Reef Ready, Model 1
Coralife Super Skimmer, up to 65G
Rio 12HF pump
Visi-Therm Stealth 100 watt heater (x2)
Hydor Koralia Turbo Pump 3 (X2)

We are going to add 40# Indo-Pacific Aqua-Live LS anf 15# Florida CC.

We did not decide on how much LR to add. This is going to be primarily a coral reef tank with maybe 4-5 fish (TBD). Any experienced suggestions here will be appreciated.

We are still researching the lighting for the coral. We will probably use compact fluorescents for the LR during the initial cycling of the tank. I want to get full time moon glows as well (later). I know different corals require different lighting. Suggestions welcome here as well.

What do you all think of this? I know its a bit of a cop out, not building the sump and all. But I have time enough to maintain but building would be time consuming and probably frustrating to me. So I opted for purchasing. Besides, buying it helps with my wife's instant gratification needs.

Thanks,

Don

 

[mr_X]

they say the rio pumps aren't any good, and that you are much better off with a mag drive. i have both, 1 in each tank, and i see no problems with the rio yet.....but anyway, that's the popular vote.

i think the skimmer is underpowered. the manufacturers are overly generous with the capabilities of their skimmers.

add as much live rock as you can fit, and the tank still be pleasing to the eye. 50-60 pounds or so.

you don't need to use compact flourescents for the live rock. live rock doesn't need light, and you'll probably just fuel the algae blooms.

purchase the strongest fixture you can, because i have heard many more times than not, that people made a decision early on and ended up with underpowered lighting. i suggest a couple halides, with actinic supplement.

i wouldn't add the crushed coral either. i have a sand and cc mix and after some time, it turned a bit on the ugly side. you can view the last couple pages of my tank thread and see pics of frags and stuff, but take a look at the substrate it's on. :?

btw, welcome, and good luck!

 

[ufotofu]

I went with a Mag Drive pump. It works flawlessly so far. Mr. X's neutral comment regarding the Rio is about as good as it gets . I'd stay away from Rio.

I agree with X on the skimmer, wholeheartedly. Ditch the Coral Life skimmer - not b/c they are bad (dunno), but b/c you need a much larger skimmer if you intend to have anything in there other than rock. Most companies do over-rate their skimmers - not all, but most. I'd look for a skimmer rated at 200 gallons, at least 150. Don't skimp here.

I wouldn't add so much rock. It would be good if you get buy your rock locally so you could pick out your own pieces. You want a lot of open space, not just a pile of rock sitting in the middle. I made the mistake of cramming a lot of rock in my tank at first. I ended up removing about 1/3 of it after I noticed too many slow flow areas and not enough open swimming space for the fish. You got to also take into account room for corals and their growth - especially if you're gonna keep SPS. I'd recommend hand-picking some nice pieces to biuld a very open structure. Weight depends on density of the rock. Look at the tank biuld threads on here to get an idea what to get and how to aquascape it.

Position those pumps and the returns so you get really good flow, but not in just one direction (laminar flow). The more random the better. Firing two pumps into one another will do the trick. You really want to move some water to keep the detritus suspended in the water column.

Lighting? I don't know how you plan on covering the tank (canopy, glass tops, no top, etc), but I'd go ahead and get a 250W Metal Halide and at least 2 T-5 or CF actinic lamps. I have a fixture with one 10,000K 250W'er, 4xT5 actinics and 12 day/moon LEDs. I'd suggest something similar for your tank - I have a 50gallon. The all-in-one fixtures will certainly fullfill your instant grat needs! If don't intend to keep bright-light stuff like clams, purely photosynthetic corals you can get by with PC lights, but I'd go ahead and do a MH if you can afford it. Don't skimp on lights either.

I personally wouldn't use lighting during the cycle. It just fuels the algae. Let the ammonia and nitrates go away and then kick the lights in gear. SPeaking of algae, I would strongly recommend you acquire an RO/DI unit if you don't have RO/DI water available for purchase locally. It will really save you a lot of worry. It's not a cure-all, but it will definitely make the hobby more enjoyable.


The live sand is good. I wouldn't fool with the crushed coral, though. I'd probably add even more live sand (60-ish lbs) to take full advantage of denitrification in a deep sand bed. Either go with a light bed (1/2"-1") or go full throttle with a nice, deep bed. If you go deep, get some critters that burrow into the sand and keep it turned over. I've got about 3-4 inches. I used live sand, but I also seeded that with about 10lbs of goop from the bottom of a live rock culture pool. After doing that, I barely had any cycle/cure time.

Choose the fish wisely. Once they're in a reef tank they are there for life (which is hopefully a nice, long time)

 

[trido]

These two guys pretty much said it all. :wink: Alot of great advice in the posts above.