Changing from fish only to reef tank need help.

[chetrod]

all Lighting in a canopy 10" above the water 18" deep tank with 4" CC base.

Current lighting schedule......
2:30 to 8:30 Middle MH 15k XM bulbs schedule
11:30 to 7:30 Right and Left MH schedule
8:00 AM to 12:00 noon then again at 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM Two T-12 VHO Actinics Schedule

Moonlights 24-7
Refugium 6000k bulb 24-7

Is this a good schedule to follow? Was FOWLR now will be adding coral. Have and LTA, Torch Coral, and a mushroom currently. Looking to add more corals not sure what I could keep with this set up.

Aquanetics 1/3 chiller water pump through chiller up to refugium then back to sump via gravity. Chiller has a 6" fan attached to the top and it comes on with the chiller to vent the heat into the attic attached with dryer vent hose.

Two corallife 4" cooling fans on from 8:00 am to 10:30 pm in canopy

4 maxijet PH 3-1200 gph 1-900gph on 24-7
Little Giant 3-MDQX-SC 875gph 6' head

18W turbo twist UV not connected. Because of refugium I read not to run UV light? What are your thoughts?

Phosban reactor not used. Do you need to use reactor while using a refugium?

 

[kraze3]

I would ditch the CC. It accumulates all kinds of crap and becomes a nitrate factory. I would replace with a nice white sand bed. I think youll like the look much better. You can also get all kinds of critters to dig and borrow and keep it clean.

I say forget the UV. It kills good things as well as bad. They are a waste of time IMO.

 

[odyssey1]

The light schedule seems to be ok in the main display. I only run the lights on my ref. at night! I only run moonlights until 12:00pm.

IMO the 4" CC is a bad Idea for several reasons. Mainly because of possibility of pump falling moving the CC around expecially the nonaerobic bacteria. This happened to me when I had a deep sand bed in my display. The whole system crashed in a matter of 10days. Since I created a DSB in my sump. As for everything else it looks fine. I only run my UV for 10hrs. a day. This gives the system time to recoperate.

 

[odyssey1]

If you can create some water movement in the tank like with a wave maker on the maxis you should be able to keep SPS, LPS and softies as long as your water paramiters are ok. You will want the tank to be setup and running for about 5-6months before adding SPS though. Just give it time to settle in. If you decide to add SPS make sure to be prepaired to add a calcium reactor and test calcium, Alk, Mag. and NO3 levels frequently. It will be alot more to keep up with but when you nail it WOW you will love your tank.

 

[Zack33]

i would run your ref. lights during the time ur display lights are off, this will help balance ph.

I would ditch the CC for sure!
I personnally don't think UVs do anything for reef tanks, i think it is better to let the filter feeding corals do what they do best

Also what kind of Metal Halide do you have? 175? 250? 400? (watts i mean)

I would suggest using the reactor but use it to dispense other items into your tank you could run carbon when you think it is needed and then it can be left empty or have other loose material run in it.

you only need your fans going when you have the metal halides going the VHO's will not cause enough heat to be suffiecent at all especially when you run a chiller.

finally maxi jets are out dated, unless u have modded them i would look into a different powerhead (tunzes, koralia and vortech are the best out on the market now, and they suite all different price ranges koralia is the cheapest, but you will need the most of them vortech you could possibly get away with 2 of them in your tank and tunze i would go with 2 or 3. Koralias are what i run though, and i love them no complants, I would suggest 2 K4's and a K3 for your tank, that would give you good flow, I would think

Also the tank is the 125 stated in your information correct???

One last thing.....What PROTEIN SKIMMER ARE YOU RUNNING??

Hope this helps

Zack

 

[chetrod]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14669936#post14669936 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Zack33
I would ditch the CC for sure!

Also what kind of Metal Halide do you have? 175? 250? 400? (watts i mean)


finally maxi jets are out dated, unless u have modded them i
Also the tank is the 125 stated in your information correct???

One last thing.....What PROTEIN SKIMMER ARE YOU RUNNING??

Hope this helps

Zack

Can we remove a little of the sand at a time? and then replace it with white sand.

The MH are 175 Watts

The Maxi Jets 2 of the four have mod kits on them I have a third one that needs an impeller made.

Protein skimmer is a Berlin Turbo with a Gen X pump. Lots of bubbles and lots of crud in the collection cup cleaned every week.

 

[Zack33]

i would do it all at once before you start to add corals and as i'm guessing u will have very little if any fish in the tank?....what fish do yu have in there to begin with?? If your going to still have a good amount of valuable fish or for that matter any fish in the tank...i would remove them for 2-3 days as you change the sand over...preform a large water change as you do this (40-50%) and then after 2-5 days after the change over and the water change you should be fine to reintroduce your fish to the tank (this time is also great time to add more cured liverock to the tank for coral placement, and to create a more reef friendly habitat for corals and reef fish (lots of over hangs, caves and high up built for the corals that require high light

the halides should be fine as long as: i would suggest lowering them, 3-4 inches from where they are now(just be sure to have low light corals at the bottom of the tank and High light sorals (sps and some lps) at the very top of the tank....i'm a fan of alot of lighting over a reef tank...I have 2 400w halides over my 75G tank its 19" tall.....the powerheads should be fine for the time being but once u get a full tank of corals and growth you will deffinently want to upgrade the powerheads

The skimmer is okay for now as well....in time once you find the need(if you do) to feed your corals with phyoto or another kind of tiny micro food you will want a much powerful skimmer...euroreef, ASM, bubble king...companies like that are what you would want in time...for the beginning until the tank is established for about 6 months i would say or so...you may want to upgrade if u notice a nitrate spike especially that no matter what you can't get down

Any more questions i'm happy to help you with

Zack

 

[chetrod]

Still not sure about the sand I like the look of the CC but don't like the algae that builds up on it. I have the sand ready to go should I wet it and add it a cup at a time to avoid clouding the tank?

 

[Zack33]

to be honest i would deffinently wash it alot....but as for adding it a cup at a time i would think that is ur call, you can add a bit let it settle once u notice it start to cloud up alittle bit then continue....completeing this process all at once....but if you are going to do this make sure all the CC is gone first! you don't want to have to sift all the sand and CC to seperate them...so empty the tank of CC run it BB for a day to let everything settle and all the dirt in the CC be taken ou by the skimmer and then add the sand....and after this perform a 25% water change to help with the nitrates of the change over....

How think of a sand bed are you going to try to put in??

Zack