sps tank

what type of equipment would i need to put together to create the perfect sps tank? i'm getting a used tank from a guy at work, he says it is a 50 gal tank. what size of equipment like skimmer,powerheads,live rock or no???? i would like to do something like a frag tank, something interesting like a science experiment. hahahaha!!!!!! i just want to be able to have very nutrient free water. my 29 gal. reef tank is loaded to the gills with nitrates---api test kit maxed out on color chart!!!! i only have the one fish and the one brittle star, no clean up crew---that might be the problem never had been able to keep snails for more than 2months. my tank is over 2 years old, do you think it has never fully cycled???? anyway, what would i need for the sps/frag---tank?

 

I'll start with nitrates levels of anything above deletable in any LPS or SPS tank is totally unacceptable. I'd say until you learn to control the NO3 then you are a long ways off form SPS corals ,

 

well, tangster ole buddy---give me the 411 on that lil secret
i got one of those coild denitrater things, been up for a couple of weeks. i know---not fully cured yet. i don't overfeed, about twice a week :-/

 

how often do you change water?
this will help bring down your NO3

 

i do about 40-50% wc once a week. i have the corallife 65 needle wheel skimmer---does pretty good job. i have it in my sump with the quiet one 2200 pump---581 gph. wow...just writing that makes me think the water is flowing to fast past the skimmer....but, then again it shouldn't matter. do you think i need bigger or maybe a couple more skimmers? :

 

Ummmm. That's a lot dude. The WC part that is.

 

yeah, you got that right....they go down and a couple days latter their right back. wc is not the answer, just a patch for now...in the process of refugium...i believe it will help but how much, who knows :-/

 

Oooohh. OK. I thought that was a part of the regular routine!!! Makes sense now.

 

An SPS tank takes some time. and 40 to 50% water changes will not be acceptable for SPS. 10% Max a week.
Unfortunately you need to learn with each system the balance of food to feed the fish, lighting for the corals and water movement.

If I where to set up a 50G SPS tank I would get 1 250W MH with VHO actinics. I would likely do some sort of closed loop for water movement. This would mean drilling the tank.
I would ensure the tank was reef ready meaning it had overflows to a sump.
I would get a Skimmer in sump rated for the tank made by Euroreef, H&S, Deltec, or Bubbleking

J

 

thanks jason....it really helps to get a straight forward answer instead of being told what your lacking in knowledge of this hobby.....give me something to work with and i will make it work and learn from my experience from it.......;D i think lack of watermovement is my problem on my 29gal...not getting all the deitrus out and in the sump...redsea wavemaster pro should be here tuesday...what i've read it seems like a good unit, i like the fact of it having a soft start feature....