Hello again! I've been out of the reef hobby for more than a few years, and am looking to get a saltwater reef set up again. I thought that I'd post my tank setup plans here for comments on what would work well and what I should reconsider.
The theme that I'm trying to adhere to is to keep things simple, both for ease of maintenance and also general complexity and likelihood of problems in case of equipment failure/trouble/etc. Cost is a tertiary concern. As an example, I'm trying to have a small to medium sized tank with no overflow or sump. I may eventually add a HOB refugium, but that's about it.
Here goes . . .
Tank - 38 gallon Oceanic (24" wide, 18" deep, 21" tall) on stand
Water filter & salt - SpectraPure 90 GPD, any high quality salt (I used to use Reef Crystals)
Test kits - API
Lighting - geared towards a SPS/LPS tank, although I would like the LPS to be brightly colored. After some research, I'm thinking of 1-2 AquaIllumination Primes, an AquaIllumination Hydra 26 HD, or 1-2 Kessil A160's. I'm leaning towards either AI setup due to the Wi-Fi lighting input rather than having to buy a controller, although the shimmer is supposed to be great with the Kessils. Open to other LED options.
Filtration - live rock with non-Caulerpa macroalgae and a 1-2" sandbed (1 mm sand?), Tampa Bay Saltwater aquacultured live rock. Vodka carbon dosing with skimming and/or GFO in a HOB filter as needed.
Skimming - intermittent/as needed via HOB skimmer during setup and for problems but hopefully running skimmerless most of the time since my last tank was skimmerless and ended up with lots of feather dusters/sponges which I quite liked. Either AquaMaxx or Reef Octopus BH-90./BH-1000.
Fish bioload, in order of addition - royal gramma, common clown, pink streaked wrasse, midas blenny. Common clown may be replaced with a shrimp goby. For a skimmerless system, I'm assuming that 5 fish is pushing the bioload outside of a reasonable range.
Calcium replacement - 2 part, ? homemade (haven't researched this recently)
My big ?'s revolve around lighting (is a single AI Prime or Kessil A160 enough light, or do I need 2 of those/stick with the Hydra 26 HD?), skimmer choice (I assume that AquaMaxx/RO is largely a tossup as they are both good choices for a HOB), and bioload/fish selection.
Also, the tank has been moved a few times, so I need to put it in the driveway and fill it with a garden hose to make sure that it doesn't leak. How likely are tanks to fail after repeated moves?
Thanks in advance for any advice! As this gets going, I aspire to be putting pictures up (which may be wishful thinking!).
The theme that I'm trying to adhere to is to keep things simple, both for ease of maintenance and also general complexity and likelihood of problems in case of equipment failure/trouble/etc. Cost is a tertiary concern. As an example, I'm trying to have a small to medium sized tank with no overflow or sump. I may eventually add a HOB refugium, but that's about it.
Here goes . . .
Tank - 38 gallon Oceanic (24" wide, 18" deep, 21" tall) on stand
Water filter & salt - SpectraPure 90 GPD, any high quality salt (I used to use Reef Crystals)
Test kits - API
Lighting - geared towards a SPS/LPS tank, although I would like the LPS to be brightly colored. After some research, I'm thinking of 1-2 AquaIllumination Primes, an AquaIllumination Hydra 26 HD, or 1-2 Kessil A160's. I'm leaning towards either AI setup due to the Wi-Fi lighting input rather than having to buy a controller, although the shimmer is supposed to be great with the Kessils. Open to other LED options.
Filtration - live rock with non-Caulerpa macroalgae and a 1-2" sandbed (1 mm sand?), Tampa Bay Saltwater aquacultured live rock. Vodka carbon dosing with skimming and/or GFO in a HOB filter as needed.
Skimming - intermittent/as needed via HOB skimmer during setup and for problems but hopefully running skimmerless most of the time since my last tank was skimmerless and ended up with lots of feather dusters/sponges which I quite liked. Either AquaMaxx or Reef Octopus BH-90./BH-1000.
Fish bioload, in order of addition - royal gramma, common clown, pink streaked wrasse, midas blenny. Common clown may be replaced with a shrimp goby. For a skimmerless system, I'm assuming that 5 fish is pushing the bioload outside of a reasonable range.
Calcium replacement - 2 part, ? homemade (haven't researched this recently)
My big ?'s revolve around lighting (is a single AI Prime or Kessil A160 enough light, or do I need 2 of those/stick with the Hydra 26 HD?), skimmer choice (I assume that AquaMaxx/RO is largely a tossup as they are both good choices for a HOB), and bioload/fish selection.
Also, the tank has been moved a few times, so I need to put it in the driveway and fill it with a garden hose to make sure that it doesn't leak. How likely are tanks to fail after repeated moves?
Thanks in advance for any advice! As this gets going, I aspire to be putting pictures up (which may be wishful thinking!).
