n00b saying Hi

In an effort to learn more before I get too far into a path of no return I am looking to grock as much information from the collective intelligence of the reefers here. I apologize in advance for my silly questions or what may seem silly.

I was a long time fresh water tank enthusiast until that tank sprung a leak and I got away from it for some time. I have since remodeled my basement and moved my home office down stairs. IT's a dark room, with no natural light, so I needed something alive in my space. So, an aquarium felt like the right choice. No light, not subject to temperature change, on a cement floor. Seemed right.

I started my adventure by picking up a 60 gal cube tank. 24" x 24" x 25" with a small bulkhead in the back and drilled with two 2" ports. One for supply one for return.

For filtration thus far I have an Eheim 2227 wet/dry canister filter, a Cascade 600 submersed filter and plan on going with roughly 40# of live rock in the tank. The filter is rated to pump 230 gph and the the biological media is the EHFISUBSRAT that came with the filter. I can't find any information as to how much the 4L of this media can handle as far as fish waste goes. I have also added a small poly mat to help polish the water. Does anyone know how much 4L of the filtering media can support?

On a side note here with this filter. I had it (what I thought) working for the previous 4 weeks. After looking at my supply it was trickling down and the float was never going back up which allows it to pump at higher volume. I did some digging around and found that there is a piece that can be replaced to help with the water pumping further. My return was about 130cm from the bottom of the pump. The default piece only allows for pumping the water up to 120 cm. When replacing the piece I noticed a piece of wood caught up in the return too, so this was removed. After fighting with micobubbles tonight things seem to be working well. I'll add the documentation for the Eheim was HORRIBLE.

The bottom media is a fine beach sand from my LFS. Its got some bits of shell as well as some small plant particulate. I am not planning on doing a DSB tank but am curious as to the benefits of this vs. a traditional shallow sand bed tank. I am hoping with the water filtration I may not need the DSB.

Lighting I have two balasts. First one is a 2 bulb T5 HO and the second is a four ballast system with two T5 HO and two White light with two blue LED lunar lights.

As of this weekend I am 4 weeks in. I just did some water checks and things seem to be progressing quite fine. I've started a log to track my levels to see how things are going.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlTtuXMrfYY3dGVLN2tBanE5aGpjYlIzR1FkcV9QQ0E&usp=sharing

The tank I'm looking to build is a obviously a reef tank with a few fish, shrimp and ideally some LPS and SPS corals. Specifically I haven't gotten that far yet.

Things I plan on getting in the near future to support this tank and add a bit of automation

- (2) EcoTech MP10
- ReefKeeper Lite w/Net

More questions to come as I delve a bit further into the hobby.

 

Welcome to 3reef. Sounds like you are well on your way!

 

I was going to say look into a sump but it seems you've already started, good luck!

 

any pictures?? welcome to 3reef, there is a wealth of knowledge and experience here

 

Pics to come

I just stirred stuff up around. In my haste to get the tank up and running I neglected to clean the sand, so there is a ton of fine particulate material in the sand. Once things have settled down a bit I will get some pics up. Its pretty bare right now; a canister filter, a heater and a bulkhead.

One thing I noticed when moving around the sand and getting it so my heater cord was behind my bulkhead ther was a substance on teh suction cups of the heater. The are now floating free in teh tank. I'm assuming this was just because of the lack of water flow initially? Is this correct. Should I be worried about this?

Also, I've been reading about live rock. That its not supposed to be directly on the sand. Burrowing animals can move the sand and this could cause the rocks to tumble and break the tank. am I too late for this? how can I compensate for this?

Thanks everyone.

 

Be as patient as you can be setting this system up. Haste and reefing dont usually mesh well

LR absolutely can be directly on the sand. But how deep is the sandbed in your DT? and what types of animals are you thinking about putting into your system?

Pictures would really help as well.

 

The sandbed is about 1"-2" deep.

For fish I'd like to have a couple of clown fish, a mandarin gobi (after some time, a goal fish if you will) corals both LPS and SPS so I know I'll need good water movement but think I have sufficient lighting so far.

I hope once the tank settles down to get a few pics up.

I known I was a little eager, which is why I have been hesitant to put anything in the tank to this point. So if... I need to restart I can with out huge repercussions.

what does the acronym DT stand for?

 

I would advise against much "stirring up" of a live sand bed..

You will get a million different opinions here, but as far a I know (which I like to believe it a lot lol) you would either want a light sand bed or what we call a Deep Sand Bed (DSB). The problem with anything in between, is it will trap detritus and because it isn't deep enough, wont provide the anxious areas needed for denitrification, therefore becoming nothing but a trap for nitrates.

I can try and find some old pictures of a friend who did a lifted rock platform. Hard to explain so before I try I'll go hunt down the photo.

DT is your display tank.

 

This is not a good practice. Always place rocks directly on the glass and then put the sand in. Better to be safe then sorry.

 

Welcome to 3reef.