New to the forum...Here's my setup. Can I get some pointers??

Hello all. New to the forum here. I have had a FOWLR tank running for the past 2 years. It was initially an aggressive tank, but I had some non compatible fish and i had to sell them back to fish store. Then I got a new job and didnt have time for it at all so I didnt get anymore livestock, but I kept tank running. Now my hours have switched so I have time for the craft again and plan to get fully back into it.
-My tank is a 125g with 80lbs of live rock, running a Toms RP3 wet/dry (i know wet/drys are considered bad, but this has 2 filter pads before it gets to the live rock rubble/bio balls section so no visible detritus builds up in there), then it goes to a third chamber where i keep a bag of Seachem Denitrate, then it goes to the small built in protien skimmer, then back to tank.
-I also have a pelican dual biowheel HOB (pads changed regularly and wheels rinsed in tank water once in a while)
-My lighting is a quad T5 HO w/4 10ks. (2 blue 2 white) and 4 moonlight leds.
-I plan to add a Reef Octopus HOB Bh 2000 skimmer
Tank has been running for 2 years now with only live rock, a peppermint shrimp, and a handful of cleaner crew snails and crabs. They all seem to be thriving and coralline is
beautiful on rocks. Filter maintenance has been kept up, but water changes gave not.did a quick test strip(will do better test tomorrow) and all parameters are ok except dkh is about 110 and ph is about 7.5.

I plan to go reef. What should I do to accomplish this given all my specs. I would like to keep most of what I have. Thank you all for your time.

 

Welcome to 3reef!!The first thing you need is some decent test kits(or a good lfs). If you are planning a reef Magnesium,Calcium,and Alkalinity will have to be maintained and therefore tested.
I use a Hanna meter for Alk. and Salifert for Calcium and Mag.
Test strips are usually not accurate.

 

Ok thank you. I plan on having it tested at lfs today. I will post results.

What about my setup? I know it might not be what someone would do if they were to start fresh, but will this equipment combo be ok for reef?

Thanks

 

Absolutely (check my sig ). With proper maintenance (and you seem to have a good handle on that) your filtration will work fine.

You may need to get better bulbs for your light and a couple powerheads or wavemakers (depending on what exactly you plan to keep). Other than that, sounds like you're on the right track.

 

Welcome to 3Reef.

I think we need pics of all this!

 

Welcome to 3reef!

I also have a wet/dry filter but plan on adding live rock rubble little by little into the wet/dry filter and pulled out the bio balls as I place the rubble.

I never knew about this until I came to this site

 

Here are my comments:

- You have a lot of filtration - probably not needed. You could easily get rid of the bio-wheel filter. I know some people will say why not keep it, but everything you run on your tank is another maintenance item. You only have so much time for maintenance so get rid of unneeded equipment. Heck, with a little more live rock you could support a decent bioload on the rock and skimmer alone.

- The protein skimmer you're talking about getting should suit you well.

- As Mr Bill mentions, you will need flow in the tank. How much depends on what you decide to keep. I'm a fan of Sicce Voyagers. They give you a lot of bang for your buck.

- If you want to keep any stony corals then, again as Mr Bill mentions, you will need more light. Four T5s is fine for most softies, but not quite enough for LPS and definitely not enough for SPS. Additionally, stony corals require calcium/alk/mag dosing. I use a Kalk reactor. It is very easy and it works tolerably well. It tends to short the system on Alk so I add a supplement to my make up water supply.

 

I agree with others, when I read your list I thought probably some good bulbs in the T5 - do the bulbs have a reflector on each bulb? You may want to add on two more or look at LED's. Also powerheads at least a couple of good strong ones. I have a wp-25 and one koralia on my 65 and the 25 provides a lot of flow. Longevity of the wp models have yet to be tested because they are a fairly new pump.

oh, and I want to see pics too!

 

What a team!!!!;D
I agree you are probably overfiltering but you may consider removing all mechanical filtration from the hob and just use it to spin the wheel.;DA seeded wheel and an easily removable filter are valuable tools for use in emergencies or to seed qt/hospital tanks.

 

Thank you all for the replies. I didnt get around to testing today. I will post pics and parameters for sure tomorrow.

As for the HOB biowheel. I initially got it for good surface agitation and read that the more filtration the better, so I kept the pads in there since they're easy to change.

The lighting does have a reflector for each bulb and they are 10k HO. no good for hard coral or clams? If so, are there bulbs I can get that would go into my quad fixture?