Its about time for my reef! Finally

well as alot of you know ive been bugging all of you with my fresh water ?'s for some time now (thank you for all the great info btw) but im now starting to put together a plan for my reef and would love some input.

This is what ive got so far,

55 gal tall drilled with 10 gal sump and a 24 in t5, and prob 40 lbs base rock i also have crushed coral for substrate but think ill go with live sand.
This was the black tank my oscars were in-http://www.3reef.com/forums/freshwater-aquariums/65-gallon-albino-african-chiclid-tank-70532.html

Im really fighting myself on what i want in the tank, all i really know that i want is a starfish and zenias. I would really like to go with some stuff out of the ordinary and colorful.

What kind of tests do i need to run on my tap water, im really thinkin of trying to use it instead of dis of ro unit.
Thanks in advance for all the help

 

Don't use crushed coral. Go with sand. You don't even need all live. You can get the most a little live to seed. You get worms and such, but really all "live" means is it has bacteria. You will have bacteria after the cycle. so you do not need to buy 60 lbs of live sand.

I would not use tap water. You can test for copper, phosphates, total disolved solids.... but that does not mean that is what you will get all the time. My LFS charges .25 a gallon. I have not had the desire to get a RO/DI unit yet. The point is, water quality fluctuates. Just because it gets tested, does that mean that is what you will always have. IF you run into problems you can't diagnose, then you always have it in the back of your head if itis the water. I know the gut that services my LFS so I know the water is always good.

 

You would want to get a report from your water company as there are no tests kits for a lot of things.

In addition to finding out if you have Chloramines and nitrates, you are going to want to know Iron levels, phosphorus levels, copper levels, etc.

In most areas of the country, tap water isn't good enough for a reef tank. personally think you'll find that running a reef with tap water will be challenging.

 

the problem is i really do not have room for in RO/DI unit and only lfs is petco and im not sure if they sell water and buying distilled water every week will get expensive

 

I use tap that I treat with the dechlorinator from API. I have really not had any really bad algea. I get just as much as others who use RO/DI. I also run cheato in my sump so my phosphates are pretty close to 0. There are quite a few people on here who use tap and have no issues with it. Just make sure you use some sort of treatment with it.

 

Could you go with a larger sump instead of a 10

 

What do you mean by room for a RO/DI? Do you own or rent?

 

You don't need room for one necessarily. Get the adaptor that attaches to the kitchen sink.

 

I'm in the process of building a 20 gal fuge, prob is room under my tank because its a talll its only 24 in wide happens to be excact width of 20 gal tank.

No we rent to own from her dad Its just a small house. Guess I could put ro in basement

 

Now that sounds more doable