help to set up a 150 gal bare bottom sps tank

[ycnibrc]

Hi
I just want to have some idea for setting up my sps reef tank.
Tank dimension is 24x60x24 with center over flow. It has 2 3/4" return. I use iwaki rxlt 40 for main return pump. I have 40 gal sump with a reef devil skimmer and a rio 3000. A rio 2500 feed to an Arctica 1/4 chiller then through a 50 gal refugium tank then gravity feed back to sump. I have 1x400 watt 14k hallide on each side and 1x175 20k in the middle. I also have 2x55watt acitnic power compact. I use an Octopus 3000 controller to monitor ph,orp and temperature. For flow I have a tunze wavebox and a tunze stream 6010. This tank was set up succesfully before with mix corals and fish. But now I want to try out the difficult SPS corals. I have move all my sand to the 50gal refugium and go bare bottom in the main tank. I think that I need to upgrade my skimmer?any thought?ASM,Euro reef or the Deltec.

Thanks for your input

 

[kirstenk]

Sounds good. Buy the very best skimmer you can. I have a 150g (170g total) I run 2 ASM G3's. HTH

 

[Serioussnaps]

WELL..

---the first thing you need to do is ditch the rio..trust me....dont want you to hvae to start a thread about how it blew up in your tank and killed all your livestock...trust me this will happen.....maybe not now....maybe now...maybe in 5 years....but its gonna go so get rid of it!!! thats your first mistake

----i say if you are going to really go BB then dump the sand all together unless you really want a remote DSB...but my vote is to get rid of the sand(its probably already a nutrient sink anyways which really contradicts the BB approach)

----UPGRADING the skimmer is always a good idea IMO..i mean WHY NOT??....i like my ASM G3 on my 55 g which is really heavy skimming(and yes i am completely BB... no sand not even in sump and it was best thing i have done to my tank)

so i have a vote for ASM....euroreef i say no.....ASM is basically a Euroreef for a lot less money and very little difference while the price is markedly different

--never owned a Deltech...but i have never heard anything bad about them at all..only good things.....well besides the dough..if you can get around that then get a Deltech too...

bottom line.....if you got the money get a Deltech if you choose ....if you dont go ASM...or you can have the money and go AsM and save your money on getting another tunze or something as you will eventually need more flow as your coral grows out

 

[ycnibrc]

In my main tank right now is BB and I wash all the sand and move to my 50 gal refugium. Without the sand bed what do you use for your biological filter. I have enough live rock to create a reef structure but I'm affraid not enough to handle the corals and fishes load. I got an ASM g4x skimmer today but it was too tall for my stand...will pick up a g3 tomorrow.

 

[NuclearReefs]

DONT move sand from a refugium or another tank to this tank. Never recycle sand that has been used in another tank.. you will NOT like the results... High nitrates from dieoff in the bacteria from the begining...... Rock is a different story.. ifs its cured.. your cool moving it...

Get a skimmer rated TWICE the size of your tank... and I agree on the rio. Ditch it ! i use the only rio i have to stir salt with .....

The Rock will be enough surface area for your tank......

Post pics on your progress..

 

[Lobster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8323764#post8323764 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ycnibrc
In my main tank right now is BB and I wash all the sand and move to my 50 gal refugium. Without the sand bed what do you use for your biological filter. I have enough live rock to create a reef structure but I'm affraid not enough to handle the corals and fishes load. I got an ASM g4x skimmer today but it was too tall for my stand...will pick up a g3 tomorrow.

Trust me, your rock is plenty. Ive got less than 20 pounds of rock in my 30G tank and my tank is too clean. The idea of BB method is to keep all particulate in suspension so that it does not collect anywhere and break down into bad things (P and N products mainly). If you put sand in there, you are creating a place that does just that. Just my opinion, but you won't need sand or a refugium in the equation if you set the tank up as described by BB gurus.

If you are used to DSB tanks for many years (like me) than switching to BB is quite a learning experience and a new way of thinking.

 

[dots]

So whats up with the whole add a remote DSB and a refugium in you tank to get good color and what not? Seems a lot of people add remotes for that reason? I have heard a lot of people putting sand back in because they had bad coloration.......or is it they had too nutrient poor tanks and weren't feeding a tad more to offset it?

Couldn't any nitrate buildup that these people could be seeing could be offset with say....vodka or sugar dosing?

The reason I ask it was suggested to me by a couple of people I respect that said they had these problems and should add one right away before I experiece the longterm effects they did. But I tend to agree with the above.....the sand bed is just a nutrient sink that produces nitrates, rather the other way around as people seem to be decribing and going back to the in tank sand bed.

Remote DSB YES or NO? and why or why not?

 

[Lobster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8324684#post8324684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sacramentodots
So whats up with the whole add a remote DSB and a refugium in you tank to get good color and what not? Seems a lot of people add remotes for that reason? I have heard a lot of people putting sand back in because they had bad coloration.......or is it they had too nutrient poor tanks and weren't feeding a tad more to offset it?

Couldn't any nitrate buildup that these people could be seeing could be offset with say....vodka or sugar dosing?

The reason I ask it was suggested to me by a couple of people I respect that said they had these problems and should add one right away before I experiece the longterm effects they did. But I tend to agree with the above.....the sand bed is just a nutrient sink that produces nitrates, rather the other way around as people seem to be decribing and going back to the in tank sand bed.

Remote DSB YES or NO? and why or why not?

I'm interested to hear opinions on this also. I don't understand why they would have nitrate buildup at all. Its so easy to keep the tank nutrient poor. And I mean really nutrient poor! I'm going to great lengths to add nitrogen sources to my tank right now. If you have a nitrate problem in a BB tank, I would think there is some problem with the system... detritus buildup, underskimmed, overfeeding, etc... that is causing it in the first place. I would fix that rather than add the remote DSB, but thats only my preference. Same with refugiums... I personally dont see much benefit to having one in the past and so far dont think they would be a solution to any problem a well-setup BB tank would have.

Still, I'm having the color issues you are talking about (I have pictures in this thread). I've gotten many great suggestions so far, but remote DSB is not one of them. There are many beautiful BB tanks that don't use sand or refugiums (check out several here... clkwrk, concept3, blstravler, etc) and that is why Im convinced there is a solution to my color problem -- I just havent found it yet!

 

[ycnibrc]

I don't have any sand in my main tank at all. I clean them out soak in fresh RO water for a week and put it back to a new 55 gal refugium. The refugium is taller than the main tank so water gravity feed back to the sum. I look at all the T.O.T.M and most of them have sand bed one way or another. I agree to ditch the RIO that was back in 2000 hahaha...I will try to take some picture tonight and post it.

Thanks for all help

 

[ycnibrc]

BTW I just got an ASM g4x skimmer yesterday and it didn't fit under my sum...:-( Did anyone modify so they can use out of the sum?

 

[dots]

Yeah, those were my thoughts as well pertaining to a DSB......I am going to add macro algae to get away from the sugar dosing however.......

I do agree that the water could be too clean and either letting more light get to the corals and slighltly bleaching them or there needs to be more nutrients in the water, because I have seen them lighten sligtly in the past few weeks.....but nothing crazy to make me start adding sand again.......between adding a little more flow from going BB, a dosing pump....and the general alk and ca stability that comes from it, my growth rates have doubled....some corals have grown in a month that took 6 months before......I will check out those threads....thanks

 

[ycnibrc]

finally ready for acion photo of my new SPS tank

finally ready for acion photo of my new SPS tank

After 4 months of cleaning and moving my new SPS BB tank has ready.

 

[Serioussnaps]

you wont have a problem with biological filtration...i would suggest making the rock structure more open to flow so that stuff doesnt settle

 

[ycnibrc]

I'm thinking to add the Korallin Cal reactor to the system. Any suggestion ??