After many years of keeping planted tanks, the time has come to venture into our first reef tank. Much like skipping the community fresh water tanks and jumping straight into the high-light planted tanks, I'm looking at jumping into mixed reef with an emphasis on SPS. For the past few months, I have been investigating/planning a new SPS reef display tank in between our family room and dining room. Initial plans involved utilizing some bow front glass to make a double-bow tank. After more investigation, we decided to do a slightly larger remodel and will be ordering a larger custom 6'x3'x3' setup. Anyway, that is another story (thread) that I'm not quite ready to start"¦
Since the main tank is looking to be 12+ months out, I'm investigating splitting the task into two phases. The first phase would be an initial 40g tank that could transition to a frag grow-out tank. This would allow me to get a system up and running, build a sump and start the fish room build out. Phase2 would be the full DT. The goals of this initial phase is to start small, to collect and start growing corals, and allow the incremental purchase of the infrastructure and hardware.
In the full build-out, I am planning on a 40g breeder frag tank. To enable running this guy early, I'm looking at building a 40g breed sump tank as well. I have seen builds with 20L sumps, but would like to increase the water volume and I have the space. For my big DT, I have a bigger dream sump in mind for later down the road, but I think this should be sufficient initially for the frag tank and possibly for the beginnings of the DT. Not to mention I want to play with a smaller sump before deciding what I want in a bigger one.
Below is an initial flushing out of a "œfrag tank" style system - bare bottom (other than small beds for tridacna clams) and MarinePure ceramic media for bio filtration. I have not ruled out a more traditional live rock setup, but was thinking of waiting until the main tank to go that route.
So, here are my thoughts, plans, ideas"¦ Please review, question, suggest, tear apart, improve, etc. Feedback is welcome.
Tank
- 40 gallon breeder
- 24" AcroOptics LED light
- Coast to coast (or 16" synergy reef) overflow with bean-animal drains
- 2x 3/4" return lines (possibly siphon break from CustomAquariums.com)
- MP40 (or possibly some MP10 or Maxspect Gyres)
- Shelving/egg crate/etc
- Plugs and Walt Smith rock rubble for attaching frags
Sump Design
- 3x 4" filter socks
- 8x8x4 MarinePure ceramic media
- Protein reactor: Currently looking at trying the new Pro-tienClean reactor (B model with 7-10" water).
- Return Pump: Vectra M1
- Refugium area: 7 gallons (9.5 x 16 x 14" high)
Tank / Sump Questions
- The MP40 would provide additional flow over an MP10 and also movable to the main display tank. The MP10 would be limited to frag/refugium only due to glass thickness. Recommendations MP40 vs MP10 vs some other solution
- How much MarinePure would be required/recommend for biological filtration when used without liverock? From the website, it sounds like a single 8x8x4 block is sufficient for 60+ gallon system for active filtration (ammonia, nitrite). The surface area per volume of media is very appealing, not to mention the lack of rock curing required.
- Livestock "“ I'm thinking some CUC snails/crabs/shrimp. Any recommendations in this area? The LFS around here have tangs and filefish in their sump tanks.
- Sand "“ I was thinking bare bottom, but don't know the pros/cons here "“ it looks like the hobby has mostly moved away from BB tanks"¦
- Refugium "“ I have managed to hit the 10% system volume. Any ideas on whether this would be sufficient for nutrient export?
- How fast to corals grow in a frag tank? Would growing out corals in this environment for 12-18 months while waiting for the main DT work?
Here are a number of items I might address prior to setting up a main DT, depending on time, budget, etc...
Phase 1.5 "“ expanding the frag environment prior to DT going live"¦
- Nitrate/Phosphate management "“ once things get up and running, I'm looking at adding either an algae scrubber or reactor.
- Dosing "“ eventually I would like the main DT to use a calcium reactor. From my planted tank, I already run CO2, so adding a calcium reactor would not be too big of an investment. For the frag only setup, I was thinking two part dosing from BRS looks to be pretty straight forward and sufficient while starting to grow out.
- Automation "“ The DT will have a full APEX setup. Whether I pull this into the frag-only setup or not, we will see.
-Steve
Since the main tank is looking to be 12+ months out, I'm investigating splitting the task into two phases. The first phase would be an initial 40g tank that could transition to a frag grow-out tank. This would allow me to get a system up and running, build a sump and start the fish room build out. Phase2 would be the full DT. The goals of this initial phase is to start small, to collect and start growing corals, and allow the incremental purchase of the infrastructure and hardware.
In the full build-out, I am planning on a 40g breeder frag tank. To enable running this guy early, I'm looking at building a 40g breed sump tank as well. I have seen builds with 20L sumps, but would like to increase the water volume and I have the space. For my big DT, I have a bigger dream sump in mind for later down the road, but I think this should be sufficient initially for the frag tank and possibly for the beginnings of the DT. Not to mention I want to play with a smaller sump before deciding what I want in a bigger one.
Below is an initial flushing out of a "œfrag tank" style system - bare bottom (other than small beds for tridacna clams) and MarinePure ceramic media for bio filtration. I have not ruled out a more traditional live rock setup, but was thinking of waiting until the main tank to go that route.
So, here are my thoughts, plans, ideas"¦ Please review, question, suggest, tear apart, improve, etc. Feedback is welcome.
Tank
- 40 gallon breeder
- 24" AcroOptics LED light
- Coast to coast (or 16" synergy reef) overflow with bean-animal drains
- 2x 3/4" return lines (possibly siphon break from CustomAquariums.com)
- MP40 (or possibly some MP10 or Maxspect Gyres)
- Shelving/egg crate/etc
- Plugs and Walt Smith rock rubble for attaching frags
Sump Design
- 3x 4" filter socks
- 8x8x4 MarinePure ceramic media
- Protein reactor: Currently looking at trying the new Pro-tienClean reactor (B model with 7-10" water).
- Return Pump: Vectra M1
- Refugium area: 7 gallons (9.5 x 16 x 14" high)
Tank / Sump Questions
- The MP40 would provide additional flow over an MP10 and also movable to the main display tank. The MP10 would be limited to frag/refugium only due to glass thickness. Recommendations MP40 vs MP10 vs some other solution
- How much MarinePure would be required/recommend for biological filtration when used without liverock? From the website, it sounds like a single 8x8x4 block is sufficient for 60+ gallon system for active filtration (ammonia, nitrite). The surface area per volume of media is very appealing, not to mention the lack of rock curing required.
- Livestock "“ I'm thinking some CUC snails/crabs/shrimp. Any recommendations in this area? The LFS around here have tangs and filefish in their sump tanks.
- Sand "“ I was thinking bare bottom, but don't know the pros/cons here "“ it looks like the hobby has mostly moved away from BB tanks"¦
- Refugium "“ I have managed to hit the 10% system volume. Any ideas on whether this would be sufficient for nutrient export?
- How fast to corals grow in a frag tank? Would growing out corals in this environment for 12-18 months while waiting for the main DT work?
Here are a number of items I might address prior to setting up a main DT, depending on time, budget, etc...
Phase 1.5 "“ expanding the frag environment prior to DT going live"¦
- Nitrate/Phosphate management "“ once things get up and running, I'm looking at adding either an algae scrubber or reactor.
- Dosing "“ eventually I would like the main DT to use a calcium reactor. From my planted tank, I already run CO2, so adding a calcium reactor would not be too big of an investment. For the frag only setup, I was thinking two part dosing from BRS looks to be pretty straight forward and sufficient while starting to grow out.
- Automation "“ The DT will have a full APEX setup. Whether I pull this into the frag-only setup or not, we will see.
-Steve
