Need some Advice...please

[Rascus]

Have a 55 gallon tank and want to set up a reef tank with a few fish and mainly corals. I just need some advice on skimmers and power heads that will work for the size tank I have, and I have found these within my price ability and would like to know if they will be suffiecent for my tank.

Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel(up to 125 gal pump included)
Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel(up to 220 gal pump included)
Kent Marine Natilus TE Turbo Eductor (150 gal max)no pump (recommended pumpis Magdrive 700)
ZooMedPower Sweep 214 160gph
Eheim Aquaball Powerhead1212 (192gph)
MaxiJet 900 Powerhead (230gph)

The above items are what I have found within my means and I would like to install at least 3 powerheads. Please advise which may work best or feel free to offer anything that may work better for me, right now I just have an empty tank and am in no hurry as I may have to buy my equipment a piece at a time due to prices of lighting and protein skimmer. Any advice will be greatly appreciated....Frank

By the way I do not have a sump, am sort of confused about sumps and skimmers and the ways to set all up.

 

[jer77]

[welcome]

Well for the skimmer coralife is decent at best, but can be made better with DIY mods. I don't know about the Kent, but I'm pretty sure its not the best either. The question is whether you are going to do a sump or not? This will determine what skimmers you can get, because there are skimmers around the price range of the coralife 220 that are better. What are you confused about with the sump? Does your tank have an overflow built in or can you get it drilled for one? If not you'll have to use an external box overflow if you want a sump. A sump is very easy to make yourself. It just requires a glass tank and some plexiglass baffles that can be cut to size at your local home depot and glued in with silicon. There are many designs for sumps, but still an effective design can be very simple. Take a look at www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html for ideas and FAQ's.

For the powerheads maxijets are very well made, very reliable, and many people use them. The problem with them though is that they put out a laminar flow compared to a wide flow with other powerheads. For example the Seio powerheads have a wider flow and are just a little more expensive, but you can get away with less pumps. They also put out more gph which will provide more flow in your tank. So instead of using 3-4 maxi's you could get away with just using 2 seio's.

 

[Rascus]

The set up I have is a tank and stand bought at Walmart, just a typical 55 gall glass tank(dont know if it can be drilled or not) and the stand is really my problem because there is no space under it. I was thinking of using a rubbermaid for a sump but probably not enough space so I may be limited to one of the best HOB that I can get. Am I able to have a decent reef tank setup when limited to hang-on equipment? This whole thing is new to me and I have very little knowledge of saltwater, I only kept Cichlids before now and wanted to go with the Reef. Is the purpose of the sump to just keep equipment from hanging on the tank or are there other reasons for having a sump?.....thanks to for your replies and for sure I am trying to learn all that I can.....Frank

Great link you sent me on sumps...have been slowly reading thru some of it and hopefeully can glean much from it....

 

[jer77]

You probably cannot drill the tank because its most likely tempered glass on the bottom. You can take a look and see if it says so. How much space do you have in the stand? You should have enough for a 20 long, thats what I have under mine and I don't have much width to deal with. You should be able to fit a 20 long and get a HOB overflow.

Some of the advantages of sumps are increased water volume for stability, space for a refugium, space for other filtration like skimmers, and increased flow. I probably forgot something. There are many advantages for adding a refugium too. It helps to prevent the spread of nuisence algae in your tank; it can be used to grow macroalgae for nutrient export; it can be used to house animals not suited for your main tank, and many other good things I'm forgeting.

You can go without a sump though. I know many people who have great tanks without one. There are many good HOB skimmers.

 

[L and L]

Hey Frank,

Welcome to RC.

Another big plus about having a sump, is that it keeps the 55g water surface at the same height. As water evaporates, if you don't have a sump, you will see the water surface drop in your 55g. Also, when you have a sump, the main tank water surface is skimmed, then drains down to your sump... where typically people house their skimmer and/or refugium. The water surface because of it's charge attracts "stuff" and can accumulate surface scum over time. If the surface scum builds up, it can reduce/block the gas exchange for the tank (ie can't get oxygen to the animals). I have a 30g FOwLRLS (fish only with live rock live sand) and it has no skimmer or sump. The surface scum needs to be taken out from time to time (once a week or two weeks... just depends). And it's really easy to clean... I just take a paper towel and lay it on the surface. It soaks up the scum.

Many people have HOB type tanks with success.


The internet although filled with good info... it's also filled with opinions. Truth is that there are many ways to have a successful reef tank. It can't get confusing when people are saying you need to use this and not that.

That's why I would highly recommend that you buy Robert Fenner's The Conscientious Marine Aquarist . It is a great beginner book, but I still use it from time to time.

Another good all-around info link is the first thread here in New to the Hobby forum. It goes over lot's of different topics.

quick link: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1031074

good luck and happy reefing,

 

[Rascus]

Thanks Layne for your reply and the information you gave me ....Ive a lot to learn and appreciate all the input that I recieve.

And -J- is it possible that you can get me a photo of your set-up? Yes I do have 20 inches in length under my tank ...Im just not a lot of depth to work with, been searching for photos of different set-ups for something like I have. And correct you are IU cant drill the tank as the bottom is marked tempered glass. However the more I think about it the more I really want to have a sump set-up...so I will just keep researching till I get everything down the way I want it....Frank

 

[jer77]

This was my sump, the pics from over two years ago. I just buillt the sump and had a wet/dry before so I had just transfered some of the bioballs from it. Later on I removed the center baffle, the bioballs and added sand to the middle chamber along with some more rock and chaeto.

By the way a 20 long is 30'' long X 12" wide X 12'' high. Since the width of the 55 is 13'' it fit under my tank.