Chris's Very First Tank Ever! 30 Gallon Reef Tank.

Thanks to everyone very welcoming and encouraging. I started out being on Reef Sanctuary and this community is much more inviting and helpful so again thank you.

If I am planning on trying to add corals such as hammer, frogspawn, and Zoas how much more flow will I need? I have one Koralia 1 on the one side that you can see but I would like to add one to the other side. Just wondering what type of Koralia I will need to buy for the other side? Also is the position of my current Koralia ideal? I've heard you should try to bounce the flow of the glass so it is more random than trying to shoot them at each other?

 

Welcome to 3reef. Looking good. I like the go for it attitude. But dont try to rush things. Dont let your studies get in the way of your reef tank.... or is it the other way around. j/k this is a very addictive hobby and you will find everyone on 3reef is more than happy to answer posts, give ideas, and help out id'ing unknowns. There is so much to learn and you have come upon a wealth of knowledge and experience here.

 

What number koralia do you currently have in there? How long has your tank been set up and how many gallons is it? Can you list some of your parameters please.

 

I have one Koralia 1 in my tank currently and here are my parameters.

Age - 3 weeks

Size - 30 gallons

Temperature - 78-80

Salinity - 1.023

Calcium - 400

pH - 8.0

Ammonia - Close to 0

Nitrite - 1

Nitrate - 20

That is all the things I can test for if you need something else just ask.

 

I would try to get them nitrates down as much as possible before adding any coral. In a 30 gallon tank I think you could do like a koralia 3 on the opposite end of your k1 and return from filter. I have 2 k3's on a 55 that switch every 2 minutes on an ocean pulse wavemaker and its good flow.

Everything should be good to go soon with regular water changes

The coral you want dont require much other than light and your lights look good by the way and should be plenty. Most softies are low maintenance.

 

I told you people on here are much nicer here than you know where.

Nice photos of your tank. Those params are better than what they were a few days ago which is great. Throw a small CUC in there. It should be safe now. 20x turnover is the recommended amount of flow, but turbulent flow is better than direct flow. Place the korallia so that it bounces off glass and rocks.

skimmers near us :
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/for/1434336749.html
http://morgantown.craigslist.org/for/1450916997.html

I suggest getting the aquac remora pro in the second link.

 

Yeah and you were right. I'd like to get a skimmer but I want to wait and decide if I want to make a sump or not, its all confusing to me right now. Maybe sometime we can get together and you can show me yours and explain it. Do you have a thread for your set up Matt?

Thanks DaDaAtlanta I'll be sure to wait until after I've added my Clowns before I even think about coral. I'm probably going to go get that Koralia today so I can put it on the other side of my tank.

 

congrats on the new tank.. it looks nice

 

Welcome to 3reef Chris,

i have your exact set up going on 5 months now except mine is a 37 gallon, IMO i wouldnt get many corals with an eclipse 3 lighting setup, i have not yet attempted but ive been told over and over to not even try.

you would have to upgrade to t5 or MH if you want a thriving reef tank.

sorry to break the news to ya but i made the same mistake buying an eclipse 3 due to a lack of knowledge, dont get me wrong though it has been working great as filtration and i have no complaints about it, its just limited lighting wise.

one thing i did do is modify the hood with a dremal to fit a HOB protien skimmer, here is a pic of mine.

*protien skimmer on the right*

 

Welcome to the addiction..mmhmm I mean hobby Chris..In my opinion if your going to be keeping any type of corals, you should have a sump/fuge of some sort..on a 30G it would be VERY easy to set up a 10-20G fuge..put some baffles in it..add a small skimmer...to it...if you need any help don't be afraid to ask on here or PM me...I'd rather help someone do it right the first time than waste money learning the hard way..