My 60 Gal Setup

Three months in and I thought it time to share what I've done so far. Trust me when I say this has come a long way in three months. I was given a lot of bad info from my LFS as well as jumped in with two feet on the deep end without looking. Two restarts and here is where I'm at now. I think I'm on the right track.

I put together an Imgur album of my setup.

The Specs

• 60 Gal Cube DT tank 24"x24"x25"
• 2 MP10Ws
• 55 gal sump with 24" as refugium with 6" DSB
• Vertex Omega 150 Protein Skimmer
• BRS GFO Reactor
• RKE Titanium with Net module and 4 PC4s
• 40# of live rock in fuge. This was from my LFS
• 45# of dry rock cured in a bucket for a month in DT. (still didn't help curb diatom bloom)
• BRS RO/DI water system

Quarantine Tank

• 15# of live rock
• Eheim 2227 (soon to be replacing this with a HOB UV filter with skimmer. Easier to change media if I use copper etc.

Current Stock
3 cromis. They get frozen food once a day, either mysis shrimp or brine shrimp.

Cleanup crew

• 30 Cerith snails
• 15 Nassarius snails
• [STRIKE]3[/STRIKE] 2 hermit crabs (lost one some where) I'll also add that I ordered 15 from reefcleaners.org and all were dead on arrival. Not guaranteed with USPS even though they arrived in less than 12 hours from shipping notification.
• 17 Florida Cerith snails
• 16 Nerite snails
• 1 chaeto ball (golf ball sized with copepods and amphipods)

On order

• 6 white leg hermit crabs
• 6 blue leg hermit crabs
• Chaeto ball with pod pack

Thinking about ordering more snails to get this diatom bloom under control.

I also upgraded all my testing kits. I was using the API Reef tester kit as well as the API Saltwater test kit. I seem to get varying results at times so I wasn't confident in the results. I have since purchased two of the Hanna checkers, one for Phosphates and the other for Alkilinity. I also purchased Red Sea Calcium test kit as well as a Nitrate kit. If necessary I'll still use the API ammonia and Nitrite tests, but doubt I will need to as these have been under control for some time. I also purchased some refractor calibration fluid. Want to make sure I'm getting good consistent accurate results.

Next purchases for the system

• Tunze Osmolator ATO system
• BRS Two Part dosing system

How I plan on stocking the tank

• SPS and LPS and softies. I don't know what yet. Looking for ideas if anyone has some.
• 1 Bubble tip anemone
• 2 clown fish
• 1 pistol shrimp/goby pair
• 1 blenny
• Some day a mandarin goby

Based on what I've read and learned in the past few months, this system should allow me to get to that goal. I should have enough lighting as well as water movement. With both MP10s cranked full up I should get 3000 gph of water movement and the sump goes through roughly 300 gal an hour. Skimmer is rated for a 120 gal tank with light bioload.

I'm going to let the tank just "cook" for a while (6 weeks min). I am still getting my skimmer dialed in.
It seems to be either very wet or super dry, and doesn't get in to the overflow area. This skimmer seems to be strongly influenced by water height.
Any other things I should be considering, any feedback is appreciated.

 

Off to a fantastic start.

You should put some of the images on your post in the future.

Lighting type? I looked and looked for it?

Sounds like an excellent plan regarding letting the tank sit for awhile.

I honestly do not think anymore snails will help much. The diatoms should just slowly fade away.

 

I am using an aqualife dual T5 HO and a coralife T5 HO Lunar

 

Wicked!

 

Nice setup! Looking forward to seeing it stocked.

 

So where are the pictures?

 

Nooze, in the first post in an album.

Everything looks really, really nice bigdubb. You've really done a lot of work on making this system obviously. Great job!

Your stocking list sounds awesome!

 

Awesome setup!

 

Hey bigdubb! I don't know if you seen this ( 75 gallon saltwater reef ) This guy in woodbury is parting out a 75 and have lots of nice corals going for $10. wish I was ready for that, I would get a few.