Freshwater Convert

[Alumentum5]

Hello everyone! As the title suggests, I'm new to saltwater but, I've kept fish and aquariums for quite some time. As I'm sure keeping a saltwater tank is much more complicated, I've come here to find information and ask some questions.

The tank I have is a 58 gallon (36x18x21) and is pre-drilled. I have acquired a few pieces of equipment such as a ballast for lights, a sump, and 9 powerheads (most of which can be return pumps).

Lighting:

The ballast I have is an icecap 430. From what is described, it can power up to 12 feet of bulbs as long as they are HO or VHO and do not exceed 330 watts. That being said, would 4 2' bulbs be adequate for light demanding corals? Also, which sort of bulbs should I use to grow such corals?

Filtration:

I used to run a sump on a freshwater aquarium I had, so the idea isn't new. However, I have read about other forms of filtration such as a skimmer. Would an in tank tunze be adequate? I'd prefer to have this in the sump instead of the main tank.

Refugium:

Along with the sump, I'm very curious about the refugium idea. Can anyone help me in deciding what would be most effective in here? I'd like to try a nice deep sand bed as I've heard of the benefits. Macroalgaes would be nice to grow as well. Any information will be greatly appreciated. If needed, the size of the refugium will be 30' by 12' by 18', a 29 gallon converted into a refugium.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Lighting: Icecap ballasts overdrive T5 bulbs which decreases their lifespan and can cause premature bulb failure. I recommend you get either a T5 fixture (used works well) or research a T5 retrofit kit with the appropriate ballasts. Using a 2' light over a 3' tank is fine as long as you don't try to keep corals in the upper corners.

Filtration: A skimmer is useful as it totally removes nutrients from the water column, something a filter pad doesn't do. I've been running a Tunze 9004 in my office tank and its worked amazingly well. There's no reason you couldn't run it in the sump.

Refugium: The key with a refugium is picking one purpose for it and doing nothing else. The three main uses are a) pod production for food, b) algae production for nutrient export, and c) deep sand bed for nitrate reduction. Personally, I normally go for option B with the side benefit of having pods growing in the macro algae but they aren't my main purpose. I run a deep sand bed in a 5g bucket specifically for nitrate reduction. Not being part of the refugium it doesn't have a light, just sand and water, which means I don't have detritus settling on the sand or algae growing on it. Having the refugium being that large would be great for the system.

Make sure to read the stickies at the top of this forum. Lots of great information in there.

Good luck,