Share your experience!

I've got a 60g ( thanks calculators) tab that I'm wanting to develop into a reef tank. I've ordered 110lbs LR to go with 60 lbs live sand already have. I asked yesterday where to get my clean up crew and got that custom build being done now. I wanted to move out of the intro's and into the next step. My question for you guys are as follows:
1) water flow in display: how much water movement will I need? What do I need to obtain this?
2) what do I add after my clean up crew? The tank will have been set up for about a month by the time the clean up crew is added.
3) what testing equipment do I need beyond normal? I can test all the normal stuff plus phosphate, magnesium, and calcium. Do I need any others?

This is all I can think to start with. Look forward to advice.

 

1.) You need powerheads to get flow. I would say about 1500-2000gph total. I have around 1000gph in my 29g biocube and its packed full with coral. i have a Koralia 2 and another, im pretty sure thats close to around 1000gph total. So i would say around double that. Or more. But i am going to let someone else come in on this question since im not great with calculating flow.

2.) You can start adding starter fish such as chromis or damsels, the only thing about damsels is that they can be aggressive towards other fish and it would be a pain to get them out if you didnt like them. But chromis wont take up much room if you buy two small ones to start off with. And if they do well for about a week and the tank is doing fine, you could add another fish, such as a clown fish or a wrasse, or a goby(I highly rec. this one.)

3.) Sounds like your good with the testing equipment. For the most part, it depends on the type of reef your going to run. I have a mixed reef with only one colony of SPS in my tank and tons of xenia and other softies and alot of LPS..So i only test for nitrate,nitrite,phosphate,calcium, alkalinity and ph. But my tank has been running for about 2 years so i only test probably once a month. But test alot in the beginning..I would say about once a week, or even twice a week. Although in a larger tank it wont swing as much.

Also, are you going to making your own RO/DI water? or buying from an LFS? If your going to making your own, you can buy a water tester to make sure its clean with a TDS meter.

 

Zo,

Help me out with the acronyms. I got lfs, but the rest is gibberish to me. I have previously been mixing my water in. A 32g drum with am aerator and then adding it for water changes, but I ge the feeling this is wrong.

 

Ok found the acronyms thread and printed them all off so I'm good on what you said. Anybody else out there want to chime in? Also looking for suggestions on which ro/di machine would fit my needs.

 

Not much to add but for future reference 3reef has a neat mouse over feature for acronyms. Place your mouse over LPS for example, and it will show you what it stands for.

 

1) water flow in display: how much water movement will I need? What do I need to obtain this?depends on what you want to keep. it goes by turnover. low turnover for zoas and softies, high turnover for sps. You flow will be from a wavemaker like vortech or koralia. If it puts out 600 gph then your 60g tank it will have a 10x turnover, 1200gph would be 20x turnover in your tank.
my sps tanks have at least 90x turnover
2) what do I add after my clean up crew? The tank will have been set up for about a month by the time the clean up crew is added.if all levels are good then fish.
3) what testing equipment do I need beyond normal? I can test all the normal stuff plus phosphate, magnesium, and calcium. Do I need any others?important ones are nitrate, ALK, phosphate, mag, ca. I recommend hanna digital checkers for phosphate and alk.