Want a tank like the pretty reef pictures? Here's how to start.

[dkeller_nc]

I'm hoping that when I finish my attempt to modernize my tank, I'll be able to bring the temp down with some fans. I'd prefer not to buy a chiller to handle a 150G tank. Ugh.

I can understand the reluctance to buy and/or run a chiller. Most of us have similar thoughts. But here's an angle that you might want to consider based on your location. Chillers are much, much cheaper than they used to be, and decent ones are very quiet (nearly inaudible).

In areas like yours and mine, summer temps can easily top out over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Waiting a day or two for repair of a failed house AC is no big deal if it's just us - we can always go over to friends or family's houses if the heat gets too unbearable.

But a broken AC could easily kill everything in your reef tank in a day or less at the height of summer. I consider having a back-up window AC in the room with the tank or a back-up chiller to be excellent insurance.

 

[Sk8r]

A VERY good point.

 

[Threshold]

Great post, Sk8r

 

[Sk8r]

A note, too, for people in areas of drought emergency, which is very serious in California, etc. Billdogg wisely suggests stocking hardy fish and corals which will be more tolerant of harder conditions: you can have a beautiful tank that just doesn't have fragiles...creatures that will be tolerant of older reef-keeping methods. Among these hardy corals are buttons and discosoma mushrooms, which will survive most anything; euphyllias in general (hammer and kin); damsels, including clowns---but note, only 1 damsel per tank (or paired clowns) if you have anything less than 100 gallons. Gramma, basslets; fairy wrasse; gobies, blennies. We don't like to say you can skip water changes, but you can skip a few safely, if you watch your chemistry closely. And most of all, using ro/di, you can use the wastewater for laundry, toilet fill, utility washing, ie, floors, and for watering flowers: there's no reason you couldn't drink it, except that it's probably not that sanitary where it's been stored. All that's wrong with it is a concentration of minerals and such. And at 4 gallons of waste for 1 gallon of ro/di, saving that water is a big savings. If you ARE in an area where you have to cut back on water changes, you can do it: watch your corals, and (my own crackpot theory) krill is not a bad food to add to the tank, because it's oceanic in origin, and has, in its insoluble parts, some mineral content. You can directly supplement (safely) buffer, calcium, and magnesium without any worry of running low on those. A periodic 30% water change, again using ro/di for which you have used waste water for household use, is going to replenish your other trace elements. Again---not optimum, but if you are in a critical water emergency, you can still maintain your reef if you use your test kits and watch your corals. If they're growing and multiplying, they're doing fine.

 

[smedlin]

But a broken AC could easily kill everything in your reef tank in a day or less at the height of summer. I consider having a back-up window AC in the room with the tank or a back-up chiller to be excellent insurance.

I never thought about that.

I don't think I'll ever tell the wife how much this project is costing me..

 

[banthonyb71]

1. set up rockwork with plenty of flowthrough caves and gaps, and have a pump that can deliver it. As a benchmark, 950 gallons an hour for a 55.

is this total flow? Say for instance i have 100gall tank. how many gph would i want my return pump and what total gph in my display including powerheads?

figure that fish are nice, but get reef-friendly fish to scale with your tank, ie, for a 55, gobies, blennies, dartfish, fairy wrasse, one small chromis or yellowtail.
3. avoid things like sally lightfoot crabs, arrow crabs, pistol shrimp (no, gobies don't need them, and they can kill the goby as they get older) and other crustaceans that are going to make you unbuild your tank to get rid of. That is REAL disruptive. And don't get a fish that says "reef safe with caution." Murphy's Law says you're going to lose that bet..

isn't this rather subjective? I've read numerous articles. in one it say avoid emerald crabs in another it says avoid crabs all together. in another it says avoid snails all together.

but isn't that part of the reason why some people took on this hobby? isn't that picking a balance by saying for example, I can either have a undisturbed sand bed or I can view the symbolic relationship between a Goby and Pistol Shrimp.

half the feedback I get from visitors to my home is about, the shrimps, snails, crabs and other odd invertebrate in the tank.
Why must we take the fun out? isn't that part of the excitement to try to deal with challenges of semi reef safe fish and invertebrate? my tank wouldn't be near as fun IMO if I took out half of what people suggest I don't have in my tank. what are your thoughts.

Great tips btw.

 

[Sk8r]

Re fish limitations: they grow. Remember we're talking about reefs, and the example given is a 55, which shouldn't have tangs, and angels (even the recommended ones) can take after your corals. Go to a 120, and you can manage a wider range of species. But just yesterday, talking to my lfs owner, she'd had a rabbit that had been in a 120 about 3 years suddenly decide coral was on the menu. Rabbits are essentially vegetarians. They aren't even supposed to like corals. Surprise. The damage was several hundred dollars worth. One supposes he just got bored. Angels in a reef? Even after a year or so, they're notorious for changing their mind and taking after corals. If a reef is your aim, you're going to have quite a large investment in corals, even if you grew it---and trying to extract a fish from a well-grown reef is not easy.

Re the inverts, I have plenty of crustaceans and snails and inverts of all sorts. I just avoid certain ones, listed above, that kill things you generally want, like fish, or that cause problems. The notion that an emerald crab is going to eat all your bubble algae is kind of urban legend: the facts are, not that much. I think one I had ate about 3 bubbles and half my mandy's tail, though it grew back: emeralds are a case of "If you want it, have it, but don't expect it to really do that much for your tank." They're cute, they're personable, and if you like them, great. URchins are in the same category. I won't, however, recommend the sally lightfoot, which grows large (as a dinnerplate) and begins to go after your fish. The emerald mithrax stays small, as do good micro-hermits. I prefer the scarlet hermits in general, and always have a handful, though my current favorite is a striped fellow whose main claw is just a little too large for my liking, though I've never caught him doing damage. Re the pistol---I had to nearly unbuild a reef to catch mine, which was doing in fish at a fair clip: I pass you my experience, tiger pistol and yellow watchman: he killed the watchman, then went serial killer on me. Why, whether it was gender, maturity, etc, I have no idea.

Re the flow, I can't give you a precise flow, but in my 105 I have a 2000 gph throttled back to about 1000-1250, because it will generate too much splash coming in, plus I have two strong powerheads at low level (it's a very deep tank, and I need to both agitate the surface (one powerhead) and the depths (the other blows through the lower rock caves.)