New Tank, some filtration questions

Thanks I agree that you can def save $ by getting a lower ratio of Live to Base rock. The main reason I mentioned a close to 50/50 ratio was taht having more quality LR will help speed the cycle up. I know how tough it can be waiting to put your first inverts or fish in a new tank.

Also good advice on the inspecting your LR, the last thing you'll want is to have a 29g Mantis tank

One thing I forgot to mention is that the smaller a SW tank is, the harder it is to maintain stability. Usually 55g and up tanks can be easier for the newbie to keep as swings in params won't affect the whole tank as quickly.

 

So here's what I got now.
Worked with my friend this past weekend helping him with tanks. The trade off was free live rock from his ten year old established tank. I got at least 60 pounds of the live rock. I purchased a 20 pound bag off live sand, I know I'll need some more. I also purchased 15 gallons of saltwater, just to cover the rock. It's now just sitting with 2 power heads circulating it, until I hook up the skimmer and the fluval filter.

I have an RO DI unit which we've been using to make water for this tank.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/reef-setup-our-job-85912.html

This week, I'm going to be rock scaping and hooking up the filters.
#1. I have no problems cleaning a fluval every week, it's one of the easiest filters to clean.
#2. I'm very disappointed that this light wont be enough to maintain any kind of corals or nems.
#3. rather than one powerful heater, I was thinking about getting 2 at half the power. I've heard some nightmare sories about what can happen when a heater fails.

Here's a pic of what I've got running right now.

 

So I took some recommendations and did away with the fluval filter. I ended up building a sump out of a 20G long tank.


Eshopps Overflow to a filter sock, skimmer, to baffles in which I have fiter pads and chemi pure, refugium which right nowonly has Live rock, to the return.

 

Nice setup


Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

Looks like u have plenty of sand. Looks good

 

Excellent decision on going with a sump!!!! Best of luck to you!!!

 

Here is an update of the tank.
I adjusted the rocks the way I wanted them. Added a bunch of snails and crabs. 2 Chromis and one black combtooth blenny. there's also a few ricordea shrooms and what appears to be some kind of zoa polyps starting to grow.

 

I'm going to add this question to this original thread since it's all related with this tank.
My question probably has no right or wrong answer, but I was curious about water changes. I'm wondering how I know I should perform a water change, or should I just do it on a constant schedule. The reason I ask, I haven't performed a change yet, and was actually going to do it next week, but the tank is looking more healthy now, and I'm wondering if I even need to do a change yet. I have a bunch of snails and hermits. One chromis, one blenny, 2 scissor tails. A bunch of zoas, mushrooms\ricordeas, galaxia and blue star polyps (most of those are small frags). I had some algae grow on the back and on the return hose and stuff, but since it's been eaten by critters, it's actually not even growing back in the display. Everything is open and looking very good. The tank looks super clean.

 

For my personal logging:
did my first water change on friday 9/10/2010, 10 gallons. Now seeing first signs of coraline on the back of the tank glass. Also installed a SCWD from my return pump and removed a power head.
Did a flatworm exit treatment today and will probably do a 5 gallon change this afternoon. Flatworms died, there didnt appear to be very many, I just wanted to nip that in the butt before they got out of control. Nothing else seems to be effected so far.
Tank as it looks today.

 

Some people do water changes every week or bi-weekly or monthly or yearly. It depends on what works on your system since each is different. If you dose you could probably get away with less but you need to test what you dose. For me, it's just cheaper to do a WC and gives me a good chance to clean up any algae on the sandbed or suck junk out of the rocks.

In the beginning I would do at least bi-weekly while you get your nitrates to be 0 constantly. I am still working on this step so hopefully you are a little more lucky than I am