My new setup?

J

JaredRic

New member
Hey everyone,

I just recently purchase a tank to start up a reef tank, I have very general idea of the fish / coral but am in now way set on anything specific yet. I'm still in my initial phases of putting the tank together and getting the hardware situated where I want it. I was hoping I could get some guidance on what I've got so far. I went on a buying spree and tried to get most of what I knew I'd need right out of the gate.

  • Red Sea Reefer 350 (73 Gal display tank, 18 Gal sump, Built in ATO)
  • Reef Octopus Classic 150 Int Protein Skimmer
  • Zetlight ZT-6600A LED Light
  • Apex Jr - Neptune Systems
  • 2 WAV powerheads - Neptune Systems
  • 60 lbs ARAG-Alive Reef sand
  • 88 lbs dry rock
  • Finnex HPS-300 Heater

Items that I still need to purchase:
  • 790 GPH Return Pump
  • RO/DI Unit
  • Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
  • Test kit (is there a specific kit I should I get, or purchase them individually?)
  • Kalkwasser?

Anything on here that isn't needed or anything that I'm missing for a brand new tank?

-Jared
 
I would recommend the lower alkalinity Coral Pro salt in the blue bucket.

I would wait intil I've determined what kind of reed I'm going to build before committing to Kalkwasser. That decision can wait.

The API ammonia/nitrite/nitrate kit is fine for monitoring your cycle. You won't go wrong with Salifert or the all in one Red Sea kit for Ca, alk & Mg. Don't bother with a chemical kit for phosphate, they're almost useless except for crazy high concentrations. Get a Hanna URL meter for that if you plan to check PO4.

You might as well go ahead & make or buy s screen top to prevent fish from jumping out. It will give you something to do during the cycle.

Nice system you're building. Have fun.
 
Thanks for all of the info!

I've already got a freshwater API Master test kit that check ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Can that be re-used to check the SW parameters too? That would save me a little money, in this mass amount I've already spent :D

I think if I do end up checking PO4 I'll probably do that at a later date, so I'm not too worried about that currently. Will look into the kits for Ca, Alk, & Mg.

I'll have to look up some options for a screen top, I really like the look of the tank now with no top, however I also don't want to lose any fish to the floor.
 
Welcome aboard :)

Sounds like you're developing a plan... Do the research, take your time, you'll be fine.

Salifert kits for Calc, Alk, and Mg are reasonable, and fairly effective.

Get the low range Hanna checker for Po4, when you reach that stage.

Depending on the kind of rock setup you want, 60lb LR + 80lb Base may well be more than you need. Back in the day, we'd fill half the volume with a solid rock wall, but that's no longer the trend.

Same with the sand, you may not want that much. I put 40lb of fiji pink sand in my 60, it was plenty.

Once you decide on types of coral, you might opt for 2 part calc/alk/mag dosing instead of Kalk.
 
Greybeard said:
Welcome aboard :)

Sounds like you're developing a plan... Do the research, take your time, you'll be fine.

Salifert kits for Calc, Alk, and Mg are reasonable, and fairly effective.

Get the low range Hanna checker for Po4, when you reach that stage.

Depending on the kind of rock setup you want, 60lb LR + 80lb Base may well be more than you need. Back in the day, we'd fill half the volume with a solid rock wall, but that's no longer the trend.

Same with the sand, you may not want that much. I put 40lb of fiji pink sand in my 60, it was plenty.

Once you decide on types of coral, you might opt for 2 part calc/alk/mag dosing instead of Kalk.
Click to expand...

Yeah, so far I've bought a bunch of stuff and am trying to put it all together and get the tank cycled. I'd like to start with some clown fish and build from that. I looked into puffer fish but looking at the care that is required for them I'm hesitant to purchase one until the tank is ~1 year old.

For the rock I purchase it based on tank volume from what I had read in random articles. Overall it was recommended to do 1.2 - 1.5 lbs of rock per gallon. I did my calculations off of just the display tank rather than the whole volume of water as I didn't want too much rock, so 1.2 lbs x 73 gallons got me to 88 lbs of rock.

Here is the rock I purchased: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-reef-saver-dry-aquarium-live-rock.html

I did the same for the sand. Reading, to get approximately a 1" deep sand bed I'd need around 10 lbs per sq ft of the bottom of the tank. So tank dimensions are: 47" L x 20" W which puts the bottom at a little more than 6.5 sq ft, so 10 lbs x 6.5 got me to 65, but rounded down because of how they were sold. :)

Am I off on any of that?

As far as corals there are a few that I've seen and liked, I haven't completely researched them to see what kind of care each one would require though. I'm trying to avoid a lot of manual feeding of specialized diets in order to make the tank a little more maintainable for myself.
uncleL said:
Welcome to the saltwater madness!! Don't forget about an Auto top off tunze 5017
Click to expand...

Right now i'm relying on the ATO that comes with the Reefer 350, not great but should work. It is done via a float similar to a bathroom toilet.
 
JaredRic said:
...it was recommended to do 1.2 - 1.5 lbs of rock per gallon. I did my calculations off of just the display tank rather than the whole volume of water as I didn't want too much rock, so 1.2 lbs x 73 gallons got me to 88 lbs of rock.

I did the same for the sand. Reading, to get approximately a 1" deep sand bed I'd need around 10 lbs per sq ft of the bottom of the tank. So tank dimensions are: 47" L x 20" W which puts the bottom at a little more than 6.5 sq ft, so 10 lbs x 6.5 got me to 65, but rounded down because of how they were sold. :)

Am I off on any of that?

Right now i'm relying on the ATO that comes with the Reefer 350, not great but should work. It is done via a float similar to a bathroom toilet.
Click to expand...

1.2 lbs dry weight rock per gallon is fine, but it is quite a bit of rock. Several years ago, an 'wall' of rock was the most common setup. Many folks are keeping more free space in their tanks these days.

With that much rock, preferably sitting on the glass, without sand under it, 10 lbs per sq ft of sand is going to give you much more than an inch, since the rock is going to take up > 50% of the available floor space.

Nothing wrong with what you are planning, I was just suggesting that you may not need that much sand and rock.

Oh, and I use a 5 gallon reservoir and a plain old float valve for my ATO. Yeah, it's a bit primitive, compared to some of the fancy systems out there, but it's works just fine for me.
 
Thanks again everyone for the tips!

I've been delayed quite a bit because I couldn't figure out h ow/where my RO/DI setup was going to go. I'm still kind of in a transitional phase but I've got it setup in my garage and am using a trashcan for the mix. At least in theory, still filling the can.

I finally broke out the rock that I've had sitting in boxes for a few months now and made some structures I thought look good. To do this I used the rule of thirds as described in this post: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2217633



Sometimes my wife says I'm too exact with things, I don't know where she would get that idea:



What do you think so far?

Next on the to do list:
-Fill the tank with sand
-Fill the tank with water
-Cycle the tank

EDIT:
Greybeard, I didn't use near the amount of dry rock that I had purchased, but it was good to have that much since it gave me more variety to build with.
 
Last edited:
Tank is cycling.

I had a bunch of ammonia left over from a FW tank cycle I did a while back so I was going to use that. Problem is, I didn't have any test kits yet so I was shooting in the dark with it.

I went out and bought a bunch of test kits:
  • Ammonia - Salifert
  • Nitrate - Red Sea Pro
  • ph - Red Sea
  • Alk - Hanna (dKH)
  • Ca - Red Sea Pro

I actually forgot to grab a Nitrite test. I ended up purchasing 2 of the Red Sea Reef Mature Pro Kits in order to cycle my tank. I'm on day 7 day now with some diatoms showing up in my sand now.

I have a clean up crew from ReefCleaners to be shipped out on Tuesday and hopefully be here by Thursday or Friday. Red Sea's cycle instructions have you add the CUC on day 10 which should be Wednesday.

Also, they advise adding 1 herbivorous fish per 25 gallons to the aquarium on day 14 (next Sunday). I'll probably end up doing that on Monday or Tuesday due to shipping and currently I'm only looking at 2 juvinile ocellaris Clownfish.

Tank:
CycleDay7-Tank_zpssvwlnsr0.jpeg


Sand:
CycleDay7-Sand2_zpsp32n4i8i.jpeg


CycleDay7-Sand1_zpsypfif1ja.jpeg
 
Well, reviving this thread a after a long time.

Previous tank was cycling well but I let it slip too much during the cycle and it fell into disarray. I had CUC in but no fish or corals yet. As a result I turned off everything off and it just sat there for for about 7.5 months. This all happened because I overthink things and the green hair algae that was propagating on the rock in the tank had me bummed out and I felt like it was something I couldn't easily recover from. (However after doing some more reading recently I think that is to be expected in a cycle.)

Needless to say I wasn't too happy with myself given I spent so much money on the setup.

Well a few weeks back I cleaned out the tank, still had some dry reef rock from my initial purchase, bought new live sand, spent even more money to switch to vorTech MP40s instead of the Neptune WAV system.

Still working on the cycle now, this time using IO Bio-spira to expedite the cycle.

Current readings:
SG: 1.026
NO3: 8
NH3: <0.15

Still no nitrite test, so currently in the dark for that.

I'm really crossing my fingers that I can stick with it this time and enjoy this tank and hobby.
 
Trill said:
Thanks! So how noisy is it on a scale 1-10. Im can't wrap my head around what return pump to choose for my 350 I'm getting next month.
Click to expand...

It is very quiet. If had to put it on that scale probably 2/10. I can't hear it unless I get my head right inside the sump compartment.

Also my protein skimmer is louder than it so if that is running I can't hear the return pump at all. But, even with the skimmer, when the doors are closed I can't hear any of it. Only noise I heard from my tank normally is the overflow, and I think that might just be me not correctly tuning it.
 
So I've added two new things to my setup.

1) Additional ATO volume.

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2) Magnetic locks to keep my 2 and 4 year old kids out

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