New reefer in Huntsville

V

vehicular

New member
After a couple of years of pestering me about it, my buddy Tony (The Harbour on here) finally convinced me to start a reef tank a few weeks ago. I bought a tank from Coral Reef Aquatics in Athens along with a couple of 100w heaters, a Koralia 1 and some live sand and base rock to get a cycle running. I have since built a stand and decided I'm not happy with it and I'm going to redo it this week :rolleyes: . This weekend, I hope to fill this bad boy up and toss all this stuff and some live rock in and get this thing rolling. I wouldn't have bothered you folks with this, except that Tony insisted that I introduce myself and get opinions (and solicit cheap swag :D ).

Here's my situation thus far:

40 BR
2 100w Visitherm Stealths
1 Koralia 1
~40lbs base rock
20lbs Carib Sea Live Sand

-I dont have any lights picked out, though I was leaning toward a TEK 4x39w T5 fixture from reefgeek. I'd LOVE to take somebody's old stuff off their hands, though.

-I don't intend to use a skimmer or any filtration other than live rock. Tony has a GEORGEOUS softies tank that has been running like this for ~12 years and I intend to emulate him as much as possible for a while. I will probably never get much more than softies and a very few fish in this tank (as far as demands go), anyway.

-I'll be using RO/DI from John at CRA (I can't buy salt for what he sells water for). I can't recall which salt he uses, but I assume it's IO or Oceanic as he carries those.

-I'm thinking about dosing 2 part from Bulk Reef Supply.

-I'm thinking a couple of Koralia 2s along with the 1 that I have will be sufficient flow.

-Last night I started kicking around using a Reef Keeper 2. I don't really NEED any more automation than a simple light timer, but they are SO COOL! And I'm a geek, so I have to geek up something on this project, right?



What are everyone's thoughts so far? Nothing is really set in stone, so make whatever suggestions or observations you have. You're not going to hurt my feelings if I've done something stupid, so be sure to let me know.
 
Last edited:
Welcome!

I believe John uses the Oceanic and his water is usually at 1.022, I buy it from him as well and then bump it a little (1.024).

Are you going to seed your tank with sand and water from Tony's tank? ;) if he were a good friend he'd help you out and do like a 5 gallon water change and give you the old water and a couple of cups of sand.

You might check out Jay's thread that's probably near the top. He's got a bunch of live rock, sand and used equipment including lighting at great prices. He's only about an hour away from us.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12168507#post12168507 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stephish
yep, on my 3rd year out there Bio and Chem. You a victim too?
Click to expand...

Yeah... I'm on, like my 12th year in Mechanical.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12173127#post12173127 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vehicular
Yeah... I'm on, like my 12th year in Mechanical.
Click to expand...

Yeah technically (credit wise) i've been a senior for all 3 years out there. After this semester I have 3 classes left and should graduate in the fall.
 
2 part solutions work well. You can get the stuff free from Beaslbob, though. He is usually giving them away at our meeting.

As for the flow is concerned, the flow rate of Koralia 2 is 600 gph. Koralia 1 has 400 gph. I think these two will be more than enough for your 40 gallon tank if you are keeping just softies. Two Koralia 2 on top of Koralia 1 is an overkill for your tank with just softies.


Tomoko
 
You can probably get away with just one Koralia 1. However, if you place another one strategically, you can create a more turbulant flow. If you use two Koralia 1, your flow will be x20 the tank volume, which is more than enough for a softies tank.

A Reef keeper or Neptune type controller is nice, but I think it may be overkill for you setup. If I were you, I would look for a good auto top-off device. If you have money to burn, Spectrapure Litermeter 3 dosing device is good to have. It handles both automatic dosing of a two part system and an automatic top-off (with a level sensor sold separately).

Tomoko
 
I don't have money just to throw out the window, and I realize that I have no NEED for a controller like this, but it would allow for lots of upgradeability, in case I ever grow into a bigger tank, etc. I'm kind of iffy about buying multiple simpler controllers, as I would hate to have to spend my money again if I went to a more demanding setup..
 
Both are wonderful toys and not the necessity. I don't have either of them although I have a rather demanding SPS dominated tank. I do have simple auto top-off devices on my tanks. An auto top-off is a life saver for me! I wish I had one for my pico tank.

I don't see any overlap in the two controllers, though. They don't do the same things. They complement each other instead.

However, I find a Litermeter serves hobbyists running the 2 part system better than Reef Keeper or Neptune controllers do.

Reef Keeper 2 and Neptune controllers are great for tanks with Metal halides, a chiller, and a calcium reactor or a kalk reactor.

Tomoko
 
So I got my big britches on and filled that sucker up last night! After church, I dragged my dad out to CRA and used his truck to bring water home. After making about 200 trips up the stairs with 5 gallon buckets of water, I finally got it all topped off and got everything in there. Thus far, I'm still waiting on the sand to all settle out. How long should it take?

Also, how long should it take for 2 100w heaters to warm a 40 to reef temps? This morning after about 18 hours in the tank they had only brought the water up about 2* F... The outlet is getting juice and the thermostats were set at ~78 and 79. I went home at lunch and it was at ~74, but ambient was up a few degrees as well, so I turned up the thermostats some. I'm hoping that they're just not calibrated right and they just need to be set higher.
 
The heaters have worked out. They're set at ~81 and 82 now and the temp has gone up to reasonable levels.

BUT, it's been ~72 hours and the water still hasn't cleared... I can't decide if I want to move all the rock around now while the water's still gross or avoid touching it at all and wait until it gets a little clearer and hope the sand stays down. I also can't decide on whether to leave the powerheads on or not. It really just seems to make the clarity worse, but I don't feel comfortable leaving the tank all day without any water movement...

BTW, I went to H@rry's today to pick up a free computer (thanks again Harry). His tanks are ALIVE! There's just life EVERYWHERE! While we were standing in front of his 250, a hermit crab and a fighting conch had a little scuffle over who owned the corner of the tank! I was floored to see so much activity in there. The trip out there was worth seeing the tanks alone.
 
If you have live rock and/or live sand in the tank I would leave the powerheads on allow anything that is alive to remain alive. The downside of that is it will probably take a little longer to clear with the water moving and possibly cause a little wear on the impellers from the suspended grit. Like I told you last night, just be patient, it will clear up and you'll be pleased. The particles will be populated with bacteria and get sticky and clump together and fall to the bottom.
 
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