Glenn Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Ok, after a year of planing and buying I am finally ready to set up a new tank. The reason I took so long is I wanted to research everything before I bought it and I wanted to see what methods were working the best. The tank will be a 20L. Anyway here's what I have. Lighting Ice Cap 660 ballast Ice Cap end caps (2 pair of doubles w/ standoffs) 4 URI bulbs, 2 Actinic White and 2 Super Actinic R 300w total Filtration 10 gal. tank to be used as a fuge E-bay overflow Excalibur skimmer (came from another setup, good skimmer IMO) Maxi-Jet 1200 return pump (low head) Misc. 2x150w Ebo Jagger heaters (in case one fails or the house heat breaks) Float Switches (2) One for topoff and the other to make sure the tank doesn't overflow Mini-Jet 404 for top off system 4 Maxi-Jet 400 (106 gal/hr.) for circulation Knop Calcium Reactor (mostly so I don't have to worry about cal. levels when I'm out of town) 5lb. CO2 tank w/ Solenoid, Regulator, and bubble counter PinPoint pH monitor Live Rock 20-25lbs. Fiji Corals Sun Coral Frog Spawn Torch Hammer/Anchor Ric's Zoo's All the equipment I already have the only thing I lack at this point is media for the reactor, CO2, and test kits (Salifert), and LR. All of which I will be getting soon. For the main tank I will incorporate an approx. 2" oolitic sand bed w/ a coarser top layer to keep from having a sandstrom from the PH's. In the fuge I will use a 4.5" sandbed and have spagehtti macro's. Please look over the list and see if there is anything I have forgotten or need. Also any comments are welcome (especially w/ the corals.....comments, care, feeding, etc.). TIA Link to comment
Spencerx Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 sounds very good. Should be a very nice setup when done. Should be able to keep anything you would want too. Its very nice to see that you researched alot! see ya Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 A calcium reactor on a 20 long? Huh. Since you already have it I think that's awesome. I can't justify the cost for my 20 long so I depend on B-Ionic and test, test, test. You may be a tad light on the rock. 25-30 lbs would be a more realistic estimate IMO. Lights are awesome for the corals you plan to keep. Personally I think a 4.5" sandbed in your 10 gallon fuge is overkill and ultimately could come back to hurt you a few years down the road when it has ran out of gas. Your call on that though. What kind of flow back into the tank from the fuge? Is the tank drilled? Reason I ask is you may be able to use that for light flow and cut back one one power head. IMO the less powerheads and junk in the tank the prettier and less cluttered your display tank can be. At any rate, great planning and nice coral selection. Be sure and post pictures so we can see your progress! -Jeff Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 29, 2003 Author Share Posted July 29, 2003 Spencerx: Thanks. I have plenty of exp. w/ FO systems but I wanted to make sure I knew thoroughly what I was doing before attempting a reef. And I don't like the simple, low light corals so I knew tht if I was to succeed I would have to put alot of research time in before starting. jdsabin1: First off I am using your tank as sort of a reference while setting this one up. AWSOME TANK!! I know the cal. reactor is a little over the top, but I bought it originally planning on this being a SPS/Clam tank (with the addition of a 400w MH, of course ). But I decided w/ my exp. I would start out a little simpler. BTW, I already have the 400w MH. I figured the LR was going to be a little light. The sand bed may be a little shallower due to me using oolitic sand. I read alot of posts about the ticking time bomb SB but I figure w/ it in the fuge I can easily change it out if needed. My retrun pump for the fuge will be a Maxi-Jet 1200 (295gph). I doubt it will be this much since it will be pushing a 2-3' head. I want to keep the flow through my fuge on the slow side so as to give the macro's time to absorb the nutrients. The tank is not drilled, the fuge is being fed via prefilter. I thought about drilling the tank and using a closed loop but I like the versitility of PH's. If a coral is getting too much or too little flow all I have to do is move the PH. As for pic's I will be posting a set up series in the members tank section. I figure this way I can document the setup and if I have any problems in the future I can refer people to the setup thread and they can have a more in debt look into my tank. Thanks for the comments so far and keep'em coming. Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 30, 2003 Author Share Posted July 30, 2003 Almost forgot I have a refractometer (ATC). Link to comment
Spencerx Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 also when you have it setup and cycled I can send you some frags thermos-style since we are "kind of" local lol. Link to comment
Dustin Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 Great Coral selection! Just add a blasto m. they are cool Link to comment
Dustin Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 O ya, maybe we all can meet and check out your tank sometime Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 30, 2003 Author Share Posted July 30, 2003 Spencerx: Definitly! Maybe we can do some trading in the near future..... Dustin: What is a blasto M.? I've probably seen it a hundred times just not sure of the scientific name. Link to comment
Dustin Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 Blasto Merletti, its really cool. I think Jsabin got one Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 Blastos are awesome, easy to keep corals. Here are mine: Merleti: Wellsi: Link to comment
DarkDevil Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 blasto is short for Blastomussa, which u will often see as the species of Blastomussa Merleti and Blastomussa Wellsi seems like good selections you got there, but I have some opinions, like jdsabin1 said, I would rather drill a hole at the back of the tank instead of the overflow, less 1 item, more prettier, and u have like 4 powerhead, so I don't know, to me it looks like a lot of stuffs in the tank, and it's only a 20G, I would keep it as simple as possible, I don't know, maybe it's just me, good luck on your setup, buying stuffs and setting it up isn't hard, the hardest part is to make it work well, good luck Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 30, 2003 Author Share Posted July 30, 2003 DarkDevil: I like the versitility of PH's. If a coral needs more/less flow all I have do is move or reaim a PH. All the PH's that will be in the tank are going to be MJ 400's. These are pretty small and I don't feel they will take up much room. I'm pretty sure the bottom glass is tempered so I don't want to chance drilling. Besides, technically a prefilter takes up less space than an overflow, since it doesn't travel all the way down to the bottom of the tank. After over a year of research and helping many people I feel I can make this work. If I can't I have plenty of places to look and even more people to ask. Don't get me wrong I want critcism to help find flaws in the setup I have chose. Everyone has their own way of doing things and I say if it works run with it, but it may not necissarily work for the next guy. jdsabin1: Thats a neat looking coral I may have to check into them. I am looking to add a variety of colors and textures to attack the optic senses. Link to comment
heuerfan Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 15 watts per gallon, maybe you should get some SPS, montipora digita is very nice! Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 30, 2003 Author Share Posted July 30, 2003 heuerfan: I may consider it in the future, although I will probably upgrade to the 400w MH I have in waiting if I ever decide to. I aggree on the Monti., they are nice. Don't care much for the watts per gallon rule of thumb. But w/ the watts I have and it being so shallow I doubt I would have much trouble w/ all but the most light loveing corals and clams. Dustin: Thanks alot. If I've done my homework correctly and put in the time I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to make this tank nice. But no one person knows it all so I am going to have to rely on you guys to help me keep it nice. Link to comment
ryan2183 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Hey, Your setup sounds really nice (to say the least), and with that lighting you'll be really set to do anything you want. That's why I was wondering why you're even bothering with the 400W metal halide for the future. My friend has a 20 gallon high with 2x64 watt PC's, and he has a clam, SPS, and pretty much whatever else he wants in there, and it's been going for a few years without any trouble. So my other question for you is what are you doing for cooling? I'm sure you'll need to set up some fans or something with 300W on that tank. Just my two cents! Good luck with everything. Link to comment
Glenn Posted July 31, 2003 Author Share Posted July 31, 2003 ryan2183: Thanks. The info. on your friends tank is encouraging. What does he feed or dose? As far as the halide well that will be just in case I don't like the coloration of the corals if I ever decide to add some SPS/Clams. Although I know SPS/Clams can survive under less than halides it is my opinion that they color up better under halides, but that is JMO. The cooling question is a good one. I am going to take the test and tweak route. I will be building a custom hood to set on top of the tank w/ the back left open and 2 fans blowing in (instead of one blowing in and one blowing out to keep the salt from messing them up. I also read a thread at RC awhile back by a few guys who seemed pretty knowledgable on heating and cooling that said it is more efficient to use 2 blowing in and leaving the back open. They also listed all kinds of formula's that were above me). I don't feel that the heat will be that much of a problem but if it does turn out to be an issue I will incorporate a chiller. Thanks for all the comments and keep'em coming!!! Link to comment
MiniMasterFlash Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Some suggestions: 1: If your already doing a topoff system, it might be easier to top off kalkwasser water. If you already have the reactor, and don't want to part with it, then go ahead and use it i guess. 2: My minijet 404's suck ass in terms of placing them to get proper flow. I don't have a better suggestion, but i think 4 of those powerheads will be a little unsightly/ungainly, and my suckers never stay on the glass for more then 2 weeks at a time. 3: The lps, frogspawn/torch/hammer will look pretty neat if you can get different color morphs. Not all the drab green variety. Sounds good dude! p.s. what about fishies? Link to comment
Dustin Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 ya, what fish are you getting? Still cant get over a CA reactor on a 20 gallon tank. Link to comment
ryan2183 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 My friend doses with Kent liquid calcium 1ML per day, phytoplankton (not sure how often, but he says he thinks it helps his corals), and Kent iodine 1ML at 1 time per week. Everything sounds great and good luck! Link to comment
ucsd reefer Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 those blastos are stunning. Link to comment
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