Hello Peeeps

Hello everyone,

I am new to the boards and more importantly i am new to this wonderful, addicting, money pit of a hobby.;D I was recently at an old friends house and was completely taken in by his saltwater tank. I am very impulsive and pulled out 400 bucks and told him i wanted it, LITERALLY KNOWING NOT A THING ABOUT THE HOBBY. He assured me that it wasnt a bad deal at all. Considering there was probably 50 pounds of live rock an assortment of "frags". The lighting system was a 4 bulb 65W 10000K CoraLife Fixture. There were two Marineland Penguin 350 filters on the back. I was so excited i thought i stole this thing, little did i know how poor of condition the water, sand, and system truly was in until i bought all my API test kits. After doing Intensive research I realized that this system was lacking some crucial equipment. e.g PROTEIN SKIMMER, POWERHEADS, OVERFLOW, SUMP, REFUGE. I quickly had to fix this so i went out and made a few purchases.
Aiptasia X (works amazing)
Coralife 65g skimmer
Koralia Evo 750 GPH
Koralia Nano 240 GPH
B-IONIC 2 step
35 Lbs of Live rock covered in coralline algae

I have a few pictures attached of what the tank looked like PRIOR to spending any money on it except for the initial purchase.


OK SO NOW I REALIZED I MADE A HUGE MISTAKE. I HAD BOUGHT A TANK THAT WAS OVERSTOCKED TO BEGIN WITH AND I MISSED OUT ON THE WHOLE FUN PART OF THIS HOBBY. e.g cycling, and thinking about livestock. aka (drooling over an empty tank)

so of course i had to spend more money

Deep Blue Solarxtreme 4 x 54W T5HO With 8 LED MoonLights and Built in Timer
(This is a new company Highly Recommended) $200

75 GPD 5 Stage RO/DI with dual inline TDS Meter (bulkreefsupply.com)$200
72 Bow drilled with megaflow overflow and Kit (LFS) $315
Mag 9.5 return pump (950 GPH) (LFS) $100
eshopps 20 gallon sump (rated to 100 gallons) (LFS $175)
eshopps protien skimmer (LFS $115)

This is the most recent video i have. ( waiting for HD camcorder i ordered ;D)
YouTube - Nikko's 55 gallon sumpless reef tank

I am still waiting for all of this stuff to come in except for the light which is currently on the 55 gallon

I have a dilema. I dont know what i want to stock the 72 Reef tank with. I want a small bioload and dont want too many fish. Mayb 6 7 at the most. I think i plan on keeping the yellow tang, fox face rabbit fish, and the Radiata lionfish. The Maroon clown in the tank is truley beautiful but is a mean fish and im not his daddy so i think im gonna purchase a pair of mated onyx or picassos. Then part of me wants a purple tang im just very confused. Any input is always greatly appreciated.

I also am deciding between 4+ inches of sand or 1 Inch or under

Let me know what you think....thanks



Nikko

 

Welcome to 3reef

Congrats an doing research even if it was after a purchase. You have done well to rectify the husbandry errors from the previous owner. You should do well when you get everything cleaned up.

 

Hi and Welcome.

Looks like your making good progress in getting the system back in shape.

Sand bed depth is really a matter of personal preference. Either works IMO.

Are you going to make this more of a mixed reef type of system or one dominated by fish?

 

i am not sure about what i want in the tank as far as corals go. I am very new to the hobby and need some stuff that is gonna be easy to care for, i really dont want to have to resort to target feeding...That being said i only have 216 watts of T5s not the best for a 72 bow which is 24 inches deep i believe. I was told by many people that T5s are very effective just dont penetrate much deeper then 18 inches so i was thinking mayb using a deeper sand bed (which i dont like appearance wise), or just raising the corals on the rock work

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3 reef Nikko

thats a fine looking set up you have there

Steve