New 30 Gallon Reef

[armyfishnj]

I am new to the SW arena and am putting together my own little nano-reef. I have decided to go with the 30 gallon long tank.(36in) I am asking for anyhelp with my new venture. I would like to set up the tank as naturally as possible and if at all have some fish possibly in the tank also.

 

Here's my setup as of right now....(No water in the tank yet!!)

 

30 Gallon long tank

Emporer 400 filter

2 Aquaclear 201 powerheads

Ebo-Jager 150W heater

Corallife Aqualight 192 W total( 96 Watts Actinic, 96 Watts 10,000K)

22 ponds live rock

Live sand( not too sure on depth of sand bed????)

 

Also what type of clean up crew am I looking at having in the tank. I've seen on the internet about a million different ideas on clean up crews...

 

Please help!!!!! I'm not sure if my p[lan is a good plan and if not what I need to do to change it.....

[surfy]

Where are you keeping the live rock and sand? if it's not in saltwater then it probably isn't live anymore. Snails and a magnet scraper are a good cleanup crew plus water changes.

I use astrea snails in my tanks, I like them.

Your setup sounds good to go. Fill it up with salt water, add the heater and powerheads wait a day or two, add the rocks and sand, hook up the HOB and start the cycle. Don't add any snails or livestock yet, after it has cycled then add some snails.

You don't need to run your lights while you cycle the tank.

[Chamkeeper]

I use a Emperor 180 sans Bio-Wheel on my 30L, you may be able to use a cheaper option as the biowheel just caused trouble. I also use a Prizm Skimmer, and the 96W light instead of 192. I add my cleanup crew as needed, dirty glass add a snail, dirty sand add a creature to address the issue.

[westkyracer]

Things you will need!

 

Salt, I use instant Ocean

More Live Rock atleast 1 Lb per Gallon and get some base rock and put your live rock on top of it.

Go ahead and buy your replacement bulbs while you don't need them!

Magnetic cleaners

Calcium buffer

Ph Buffer

Set of plastic salad tongs

plastic turkey baster (Nano Reefers secret weapon)

 

Small plastic basket usually found at the everything a dollar store. Use this to put cuttings in when fragging your corals to send to the people that helped you! LOL

 

Get a small Hob filter like an aqua clear 150 to put carbon in to polish water after water change.

 

Reverse Osmosis Water Filter

 

Clean up Crew

I use red leg and blue leg crabs. Snails. I am setting up a 20L and I am getting the 9 for 99 from www.ipsf.com

 

Get some water in that tank as soon as possible before your LR is just expesive base rock!!

[armyfishnj]

I am keeping my live rock in a curing container right now. About how much sand base am I looking at having....I haven't gotten the sand as of yet. Also....do I need to run the HOB all of the time or only after i am done doing water changes? Should water changes be done on a weekly cycle or a bi-weekly cycle? Thanks for all of your help....I think I've got almost everything ready to go at this point.

How many fish if any would you say I would be able to keep in the tank if I was to add fish to it and what would be some good canidates?????

[westkyracer]

What I have done is buy play sand and then get a few cups of live sand and seed it. I got mine at the LFS. And also the LR will seed it also. Or buy 15# live sand. I like about a 2" dsb. Some others on here like deeper.

 

I run my Hob all the time but I take the media out. Just for water movement until the Water Change. On a larger tank like a 30 probably a water change bi weekly would be fine of about 10%

 

My rule of thumb on fish is one inch of adult fish per 5 gallons

 

In my fish only 30 I had a lionfish, niger trigger, and a picasso. It was a preditor tank.

 

But when you add corals it will limit you to what you can have. Clowns and Gobies are good fish.

[zizmans]

westkyracer. Please tell me you are joking. Or is "ky" the key word in your nick? 30 gallon tank. Your rule of thumb is 1" per 5 gallons? You know fish grow right? Allright Lionfish, I'm assuming for arguements sake that you have a Dwarf lion. Get about 6". That is your 1-5 right there. Niger, one of the more peaceful triggers. CAN get 19+". On average I've seen adults at around 10-12". Picasso, very aggresive fish and get worse with age. About 10" as well. Also that is a massive bioload, what size skimmer are you running? WC's? If it was a typo I apologize, did you mean 90 gallon tank? I'm flaming ya a little but no harm meant. I see you said "had" did you move them to larger tank? If so you should say so because it confuses beginners reading the threads and could lead to someone making a poor decision. Cheers.

[Chamkeeper]

These posts have me lost, I feel for ya Army. I wouldn't let the sand get deeper than 1.5" thats plenty, and find some Southdown at a local home depot, it cheap and has a great proven history. You can mix dead rock and live, if you do, 22lbs. Live is plenty, and you'll add pieces with rock each piece of coral you add. The HOB you are planning is a monster on a 30, run it all the time but at a lower setting. I do 1 water change a week on my 30. My 30L has a False Clown, two firefish, one damnsel, Scooter blenny.

 

was MOS 35R 35N 82d AVN...NC

[armyfishnj]

Thanks Cham. I am starting to get a bit confused with all these posts. I was thinking that I might not use the HOB and just throw a refuge on the tank. Have you ever used the fuge? I have so much info now I'm trying to get my system started by the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the info.

 

was a 31R, 11B, and am now a 79R (recruiter)