What have I gotten myself into....

After admiring friend's tanks for years, I accepted an offer to take one on for free. A friend of a friend, just entered law school and didn't have time to care for his 55g reef setup any more.

He sold off all the corals and all but one fish. I got the 55g tank, back of tank refugium, all the live rock , sand and, equipment for free. My roommate, who hat a small 30g years ago, talked me into this by agreeing to help with the maintenance.

He had never had a refug before and i think is confused by how it works.

I need lots of help/advice.

 

okay. how bout starting with some pics followed by some questions

welcome to 3reef

 

Well that sounds like a nice starting out set up however some pictures would help 100 time better than words.

 

welcome! give us some pics and questions like NU said and we can help out.

 

Ok, working on pics, but questions for now;

Refugium... How does it work? What benefit does it have to the main tank? Do I need any supplemental filtration?

Planning on adding some easy to care for corals, sifting gobies, cleaner shrimp, and a few colorful fish.

 

on A Hang on fuge add enough fine arragonite sand to make it about 3" deep and let it be you want to have the pump to send a small amount of water through about 60 GPH on a 55 give or take a little and just let it ride until there are nutrients in the system to keep the alga's /plants fed . then add some and light it up 12 hrs aday on a reverse time cycle of the main aquarium lights . Then as the grasses mature and fed on excess nutrients from the aquarium water passing through just pull the algae and toss them in the trash . Leaving about one third of the plants behind to regrow . Just like a little garden is all it is. You can complicate this up or dumb it down I do the dumber myself My fuges are so nasty looking I'd never stick my hand in there . Can't even see in really it's supposed to be a salt marsh swamp .To catch waste and clean nutrients from the water passing through hence the slow flow , As for pictures Naww seen one swamp you've seen them all
'

 

Pics are in my album.

 

Welcome to 3reef. Joining this place was the smartest thing you could do - the people here will not steer you wrong. There are unlimited resources here - so ask lots of questions.

Took a quick peek at your album - you got yourself an amazing setup for free. Wow. Lucky you

+K

 

I'm in it about $400 for a new light and some supplies...so not totally free, but definitely a deal.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/members/reef-er-madness-albums-my-setup.html

There is a link to it.

You can setup a free account with photobucket. Upload your photo's there, copy the "URL" code (it's really just a link to the pic surrounded by