A couple questions before beginning.

H

hberickson

New member
I recently finished purchasing everything for my tank and I plan on buying water and LR in a week or two!!! Needless to say I am super excited!!

Here are my various (random) questions:

1. Is 40lbs of LR sufficient for a 46g tank?

2. How much live sand would be recommended for a decent sandbed (3-4") in a 46g bow?

3. How should I go about hiding my powerhead cords?

4. How often should I do water changes, and what quantity of change? I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of an 5-10g change every two weeks. Also, what is the best way to go about doing this; using water from the display or sump?

5. Any suggestions on how high I should hang my reefbreeder photon24 lighting fixture above my tank? Could anyone with a similar tank size (40-55g) recommend settings for this particular model?

6. When should I add my cuc? I am buying water and fully cured LR/sand from my lfs so the cycle should be extremely short because it is essentially a tank move.

7. Any recommendations on stocking my tank? I'm interested in colorful active fish and inverts. I would like the tank to be as peaceful as possible as well.

8. Thank you to the entire reefcentral community for helping me make my transition to saltwater as smooth as possible! Also double tanks (hehe) to everyone who takes the time to answer my slew of random questions :))!!!
 
I have one recommendation, buy a ro/di unit, instead of buying water. Its not going to speed up the cycle buying from the LFS. Everyone I see suggesting this says it was the best purchase they ever made. Myself included , matter o fact im thinking about upgrading mine to a larger gpd unit. You won't regret it.
 
hberickson said:
I recently finished purchasing everything for my tank and I plan on buying water and LR in a week or two!!! Needless to say I am super excited!!

Here are my various (random) questions:

1. Is 40lbs of LR sufficient for a 46g tank?

2. How much live sand would be recommended for a decent sandbed (3-4") in a 46g bow?

3. How should I go about hiding my powerhead cords?

4. How often should I do water changes, and what quantity of change? I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of an 5-10g change every two weeks. Also, what is the best way to go about doing this; using water from the display or sump?

5. Any suggestions on how high I should hang my reefbreeder photon24 lighting fixture above my tank? Could anyone with a similar tank size (40-55g) recommend settings for this particular model?

6. When should I add my cuc? I am buying water and fully cured LR/sand from my lfs so the cycle should be extremely short because it is essentially a tank move.

7. Any recommendations on stocking my tank? I'm interested in colorful active fish and inverts. I would like the tank to be as peaceful as possible as well.

8. Thank you to the entire reefcentral community for helping me make my transition to saltwater as smooth as possible! Also double tanks (hehe) to everyone who takes the time to answer my slew of random questions :))!!!
Click to expand...

Hi HB I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

1. Depends on the density of the rock, for the most part yes.

2. Not sure, I would just go with dry sand and let it become live. Any good aragonite should do.

3. You will just have to figure this one out.

4. 5 gal every two weeks should be enough. Maybe more at first. You will want to siphon the detritus off the sand in the display for the most part. Every now and then clean out the sump. You can also siphon through a filter sock back into the sump between water changes.

5. I have 0 experience with these lights.

6. Good choice on the rock. Wait till the ammonia spikes and the nitrites read zero. Nitrogen cycle. As you say you may not have much of a cycle. Make sure that there is enough algea growing though. You don't want to starve your CUC.

7. Frogspawn coral is a good one as are hammers. Torch can be aggressive to the extreme in a tank that size. Ricordia would be nice and zoanthyds are very colourful. Cardinal fish are really cool in a tank that size. Hawkfish are real characters and colourful also.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Neil
 
Thanks for the answer neilfox! Ska d, I was looking into getting one and I am only starting with water from the lfs. They sell it rather cheap there so I don't have a problem starting out with theirs. Any recommendations on a particular ro/di unit for my size of tank (46g). Thanks!
 
The shop is not selling natural sea water. They premix their own water and use it throughout their entire system. They have enough water and fully cured LR/sand to setup a new 500+ gallon system in a day. Mark (the owner) has been in the business for over 20 years, and I have found him to be extremely honest and helpful.
 
For the sand you would need to give us tank measurements. For my own 37 gallon bow I used two 20 pounds of live sand and one 10 pound bag of dry sand. This created about a three inch bed for my tank.
 
I cannot remember the exact dimensions, except that it is 36" long. Hrmm if you used 50lbs of sand for a 37 bow then I will probably just use 40-50 live and 10-20 dry. Could I go half and half on live and dry, or would this extend my cycle by a significant amount?
 
hberickson said:
Will going half live and half dry sand extend my cycle by a significant amount?
Click to expand...

Not one bit, sand helps a little but only the surface provides any form of denitrification you should be concerned about now. Put the dry sand on the bottom. The rock will give you all the denitrification you need...

See how the shops seawater works out for you. How much per gallon?
 
1. Is 40lbs of LR sufficient for a 46g tank?
It depends on the rock, you need to know the type you want to see in the
tank. 40lbs of pukani would probably not fit in a 46g tank for instance.

2. How much live sand would be recommended for a decent sandbed (3-4") in a 46g bow? Go with as little as you can to cover the surface and to support any animals you want to have that might required digging in the sand.

3. How should I go about hiding my powerhead cords? Cover the back 3 sides of your tank in black. Use a cabinet rather than a stand.

4. How often should I do water changes, and what quantity of change? I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of an 5-10g change every two weeks. Also, what is the best way to go about doing this; using water from the display or sump? Buy and RODI unit from Bulk Reef Supply and maybe a 25 gallon contain from somewhere. Be sure to get the float valve with the Rodi and connect it to the container. This bit of work will save you enormous amounts of time later. Change 10% + per week

5. Any suggestions on how high I should hang my reefbreeder photon24 lighting fixture above my tank? Could anyone with a similar tank size (40-55g) recommend settings for this particular model? This is usually an area where everyone just gets creative.

6. When should I add my cuc? I am buying water and fully cured LR/sand from my lfs so the cycle should be extremely short because it is essentially a tank move. NOTHING IS EVER FULLY CURED unless you do it yourself. I no longer used live rock or sand because of the risks involved, but you will need to cycle your tank despite what the LFS says which means plan on anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to cycle. You will want to be sure the tank can cycle 1 to 2ppm of ammonia in 24 hours with nitrites registering zero.

7. Any recommendations on stocking my tank? I'm interested in colorful active fish and inverts. I would like the tank to be as peaceful as possible as well.
Try this link: http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com/wiki/Marine_Model_Aquarium_Communities
 
Tyvm kiethhays for all the answers!! I really appreciate it. I had never seen that site in your link before and I find it very informative.
 
As for when to add the CUC... wait until the tank cycles, then add.

In addition, don't follow any recommendations from the people that sell CUC's. My advice is to tackle problems as they present themselves. Identify the algae you have present and add members to deal with those "problems". If you try to fly blind as I and many others have tried it'll end up biting you in the rear... financially and aesthetically. You need to know what you have in your tank and know how to cultivate/sustain/eradicate it.
 
That's good advice. I will probably do that because I don't want to just through in snails, hermits, ect....that will just end up dying because there is not enough food for them. I have been looking into buying my cuc from reefcleaner.org and was wondering if they sell quality livestock?
 
I'm a big fan of reefcleaner's crews. I tend to be generous with feedings and my crew is still going strong after half a year. I also bought empty shells for the hermits for when they outgrew their original shells. You can also opt for a non- hermit crew. I have a 40 breeder and went with a crew for a 20 long...sometimes the owner sends extras :) really great service!
 
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