New Guy - Couple Questions

Yea, I will have to see what kind of lighting it was. I remember it put out 236 watts, the lady said it should be enough to keep some hard corals. I mostly like the soft corals though and fish. My Mother wants to put in a clam though so we will have to see.

I have 7lbs of live rock sitting in a 5 gallon bucket full of saltwater. Will they stay safe in there?

 

you also need a power head or an air stone to circulate the water, and remember if it is truly live rock it's going to be some die of from it you will need to change that water ever so often

 

I gotcha. I will fill up the bucket with new water from the inlet every few hours then, worried about all this rain in the water though. I'm hoping I have all the plumbing done tomorrow.

 

Just rmember go slow let it grow welcome to 3reef

 

welcome to 3 reef, lots of good information on here, and lots of GURU'S, they will help you out buddy!!

 

ok if it were me for that system I would not do a wet dry but obviously a sump. Get the largest sump you can fit under your stand, and the largest skimmer you can fit into that sump. I'm not a fan at all of refugiums so i will leave that one up to you but that's how I would go with the filtration on that. Now for lighting, does your tank have a center brace in the top???? If it doesn't, with a 36 inch tank that's not very deep you could do 2 mogul base 175 watt mh in that and have plenty of lighting for anything you want to keep without frying some stuff. just givin you some tips and this is the way I would do it. My ways aren't perfect by far and there are 6 billion ways to accomplish one thing in this hobby. you just have to find what works for you and run with it.

 

Wait, what is the difference between a wet/dry filter and a sump?

 

Welcome to 3reef!!! You will learn lots here....8)

 

sump
A sump is a separate container connected to the main tank where filtration takes place

Wet/Dry Filters
A wet/dry filter (also known as a trickle filter) is a fairly simple system for providing biological and mechanical filtration, as well as aeration, in your sump. Water from the tank is poured onto a plate with a bunch of small holes in it. Water spreads across this "splash plate" and trickles down through the holes. Below the splash plate is some kind of bio-media, such as Bio-Balls. As water trickles through the porous media, it is exposed to air, as well as oxidizing bacteria. This aerates the water and removes ammonia and nitrites. After passing through the bio-media, the water is passed through some kind of mechanical filter to remove particulate debris. Chemical filtration can also be added at this stage. From here, it enters the main area of the sump, where a protein skimmer is typically housed. The water is then pumped back into the tank by means of a return pump. Wet/dry filters are very easy to maintain and can easily be constructed as a DIY project if you are on a tight budget.
Although a wet/dry filter is a good way to expand your biological filtration and aerate your water, it is not perfect for every application. The big drawback associated with a wet/dry filter is that it tends to create a lot more nitrates than your typical biological filtration would. This occurs because, when exposed to air, the bacteria do not only break down ammonia and nitrites, but they also break down proteins into nitrates. Also, when ammonia and nitrite are converted to nitrate by live rock, the nitrate is created in close proximity to the deeper, anaerobic areas of the rock that are occupied by nitrate-consuming bacteria. Excess nitrates mean you need to either change your water more often, or add a refugium with some macroalgae to consume some of the nitrates.
One other way to get around the problem of excess nitrates in a system with a wet/dry filter is to remove some or all of the biomedia that are in the aerating section of the filter. You can experiment with different amounts of biomedia to figure out what is right for your system. You are looking to get the least amount of nitrates possible, while keeping ammonia and nitrite levels low enough that they are undetectable. This will be primarily be determined by your bioload and the amount of live rock in your system. Ideally, if you have enough live rock, you do not need any biomedia at all. A system such as this, with live rock and a protein skimmer providing virtually all of the filtration, is called a Berlin system. I still like to keep my wet/dry filter in place because having the water trickle through the plate and splash into the sump does a great deal to aerate the water and keep they oxygen levels high

 

Forgot about that

Yea, I just gotta see some different things around the stores.