Patrick Bateman
In Memoriam
Greeting everyone.
I am not new to Reef Central. I have lurked from time to time over the past five years. I had an active account at one point, but since my focus over the past few years has been on planted aquariums, I completely lost track of it and created a new one for simplicity sake.
Out of nowhere -as it usually happens-I picked up a reef keeping magazine and drooled over the reef tanks. I have slowly started to begin researching different reef tanks and for the third (fourth?) time in my life, I am seriously considering setting one up.
I live in a house with 10 of my fraternity brothers. We like to throw parties on occasion, and they tend to get out of control. I had a beautiful planted tank set up in my room. One night I came home from the bars to find about 20 drunk kids in my room. I kicked them the hell out and when to bed. When I woke up the tank was filled with brown murky gunk; someone had poured a beer or two into the open top of the aquarium. I tried massive water changes, but the bacterial bloom kept multiplying no matter how much cleaning I did. Within a few days my meticulously grown foreground had melted and everything else in the tank was following closely behind. Total destruction.
before
after
I decided to cut my losses and scrap the whole system. It was heartbreaking.
Recently, I have been bitten -yet again- by the bug. The thing is, this time I'm leaning towards a reef set up. I've been here before, but I think that I want to make the plunge as this summers project.
Here are some things I am considering:
1. Space is limited, so if I do a tank it will have to be smallish. I'm loving the 20 long. I have always thought that the footprint was awesome. My planted was a 29 gallon, which is really only 9 gallons of added height. This was beneficial for my planted tank (Less pruning on those fast growers), but I think the shallower depth will serve me better for a reef since I plan on using T5 lighting.
2. To sump or not to sump. This is where I always get stuck in planning a reef. I know from my research that there are people who don't use a sump on nano tanks, but I don't want to be constantly worried about shifting parameters. My biggest concern with a sump is screwing up the plumbing and flooding my room. If i didn't use a sump I would probably DIY a HOB filter (aquaclear 70 or 110) into a fuge, but I don't know how well this would work.
Also if I went with an "off the rack" stand, I don't think I could fit a sump bigger than 10 gallons underneath. Is such a small sump even worth the trouble? I think my ideal setup would include a 20 L display with a 20 L (or 20 H) sump. I could try and build a stand that could fit a 20 gallon underneath, but my carpentry skills are not that great and I don't know if I could be comfortable with something I built. Anyone make a simple stand around here that turned out well?
3. Lighting. I have a 36" 2x39 watt Aquatic Life T5HO that I used on my 29 gallon. For a planted tank this was considered overkill lighting, but it ended up working well. It doesn't have true individual reflectors; but even though the reflector is a single piece, it curves around each bulb. Not the best but not bad either. Finding a light for the 30" long 29 gallon turned out to be a real pain. most 30" lamps only had 24" bulbs that left dark spots in the corners of the tank. I decided to get a 36" fixture with bulbs the length of the aquarium. No more dark spots! The overhang didn't look bad at all and I actually liked the look of it better than the 30" fixture. Here's a picture with the 36" fixture on an early version of my 29 gallon.
Do you think this 78 watt T5HO fixture will be sufficient for the shallow depth of a 20 long? it's only 12" deep compared with the 18" 29 gallon. I don't want to get into extremely difficult corals. I think some softies and maybe a few hardy SPS is what I will be after.
4. Skimmer. This is another aspect I am interested in. Is a skimmer necessary on a nano system? I would be more inclined to add one if I decided to make a sump, but even then, would it be worth the cost? I have heard that weekly water changes will suffice on a small system. I am already used to doing weekly 50% changes from my freshwater systems, so I don't consider that to be a big issue. What do you think?
5. Live Rock or dead rock? This is another area i am really confused on. I have read that dead rock is the way to go to avoid destructive hitchers. I like the price compared to live rock ($12/lb in KY-absurd!), but do you have to wait 3-4 months for it to grow bacteria before you can start adding corrals? I'm not in any rush to add fish, but I would not want to wait 3+ months to get some corals in the tank. Does rock need to be living before you can add corals the tank? or does the cycle just need to be complete?
I follow Mr. Saltwater Tank Tv from time to time, and I saw an article where he recommended dry rock and Dr. Tim's bacterial additive (or something like that) to cycle the tank and seed the dry rock. I was surprised that someone like him would recommend that, because I thought cycling additives were a big no-no. Thoughts?
6. Sale thread in the forums?- Is there a sale thread in the forums here? I purchased nearly all of my plants and livestock from plantedtank.net's sale forum, and hopefully I can do that here at Reefcentral...
Okay I'm going to stop, I've thrown enough out there for now. Hopefully I will actually be able to make the plunge into reefing this summer. Thanks for the input!
I am not new to Reef Central. I have lurked from time to time over the past five years. I had an active account at one point, but since my focus over the past few years has been on planted aquariums, I completely lost track of it and created a new one for simplicity sake.
Out of nowhere -as it usually happens-I picked up a reef keeping magazine and drooled over the reef tanks. I have slowly started to begin researching different reef tanks and for the third (fourth?) time in my life, I am seriously considering setting one up.
I live in a house with 10 of my fraternity brothers. We like to throw parties on occasion, and they tend to get out of control. I had a beautiful planted tank set up in my room. One night I came home from the bars to find about 20 drunk kids in my room. I kicked them the hell out and when to bed. When I woke up the tank was filled with brown murky gunk; someone had poured a beer or two into the open top of the aquarium. I tried massive water changes, but the bacterial bloom kept multiplying no matter how much cleaning I did. Within a few days my meticulously grown foreground had melted and everything else in the tank was following closely behind. Total destruction.
before
after
I decided to cut my losses and scrap the whole system. It was heartbreaking.
Recently, I have been bitten -yet again- by the bug. The thing is, this time I'm leaning towards a reef set up. I've been here before, but I think that I want to make the plunge as this summers project.
Here are some things I am considering:
1. Space is limited, so if I do a tank it will have to be smallish. I'm loving the 20 long. I have always thought that the footprint was awesome. My planted was a 29 gallon, which is really only 9 gallons of added height. This was beneficial for my planted tank (Less pruning on those fast growers), but I think the shallower depth will serve me better for a reef since I plan on using T5 lighting.
2. To sump or not to sump. This is where I always get stuck in planning a reef. I know from my research that there are people who don't use a sump on nano tanks, but I don't want to be constantly worried about shifting parameters. My biggest concern with a sump is screwing up the plumbing and flooding my room. If i didn't use a sump I would probably DIY a HOB filter (aquaclear 70 or 110) into a fuge, but I don't know how well this would work.
Also if I went with an "off the rack" stand, I don't think I could fit a sump bigger than 10 gallons underneath. Is such a small sump even worth the trouble? I think my ideal setup would include a 20 L display with a 20 L (or 20 H) sump. I could try and build a stand that could fit a 20 gallon underneath, but my carpentry skills are not that great and I don't know if I could be comfortable with something I built. Anyone make a simple stand around here that turned out well?
3. Lighting. I have a 36" 2x39 watt Aquatic Life T5HO that I used on my 29 gallon. For a planted tank this was considered overkill lighting, but it ended up working well. It doesn't have true individual reflectors; but even though the reflector is a single piece, it curves around each bulb. Not the best but not bad either. Finding a light for the 30" long 29 gallon turned out to be a real pain. most 30" lamps only had 24" bulbs that left dark spots in the corners of the tank. I decided to get a 36" fixture with bulbs the length of the aquarium. No more dark spots! The overhang didn't look bad at all and I actually liked the look of it better than the 30" fixture. Here's a picture with the 36" fixture on an early version of my 29 gallon.
Do you think this 78 watt T5HO fixture will be sufficient for the shallow depth of a 20 long? it's only 12" deep compared with the 18" 29 gallon. I don't want to get into extremely difficult corals. I think some softies and maybe a few hardy SPS is what I will be after.
4. Skimmer. This is another aspect I am interested in. Is a skimmer necessary on a nano system? I would be more inclined to add one if I decided to make a sump, but even then, would it be worth the cost? I have heard that weekly water changes will suffice on a small system. I am already used to doing weekly 50% changes from my freshwater systems, so I don't consider that to be a big issue. What do you think?
5. Live Rock or dead rock? This is another area i am really confused on. I have read that dead rock is the way to go to avoid destructive hitchers. I like the price compared to live rock ($12/lb in KY-absurd!), but do you have to wait 3-4 months for it to grow bacteria before you can start adding corrals? I'm not in any rush to add fish, but I would not want to wait 3+ months to get some corals in the tank. Does rock need to be living before you can add corals the tank? or does the cycle just need to be complete?
I follow Mr. Saltwater Tank Tv from time to time, and I saw an article where he recommended dry rock and Dr. Tim's bacterial additive (or something like that) to cycle the tank and seed the dry rock. I was surprised that someone like him would recommend that, because I thought cycling additives were a big no-no. Thoughts?
6. Sale thread in the forums?- Is there a sale thread in the forums here? I purchased nearly all of my plants and livestock from plantedtank.net's sale forum, and hopefully I can do that here at Reefcentral...
Okay I'm going to stop, I've thrown enough out there for now. Hopefully I will actually be able to make the plunge into reefing this summer. Thanks for the input!
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