First Reef Tank

For years now I have been running a 55 gallon saltwater tank with a hang on back filter and a simple T5 DayGlo light with 2 bulbs and no moon lighting. As expected my results with the tank were less then I had hoped for when I first made the switch to saltwater. The tank was gifted to me so I literally paid nothing for it, and it came with some live rock and a tang (I think).

Well since then it has evolved into an algae covered mess with pools of still water all over, having relied on just the HOB filter to provide water circulation. I of course made all the usual mistakes when I set my tank up originally, not enough light, not enough water changes, not enough rock, overfeeding, etc, etc.

Since the initial setup I have done a lot of reading about saltwater tanks, I have lived here in these forums as a silent observer for the last couple years just waiting and reading. Slowly I started formulating a plan on what I really wanted out of a saltwater fish tank.

Browsing craigslist on a regular basis I finally came across a deal which I felt was simply too good to pass up. Some guy was moving and needed to sell his 55g glass aquarium (undrilled) with a stand, a decent enough light, and a 30g sump. The sump came with all equipment necessary to get it working. The only things lacking were water, sand, rock, and livestock. Oh and I also had to buy my own tank heaters and protein skimmer, but other then that I was basically set with a whole new 55g setup.

Here are some pics of my new setup:



I added the shallow sandbed and the mixed dry live rock. After a couple of weeks when I was sure the tank had cycled I added the clownfish from my old tank.



The stand is pretty poorly made but it does have a kind of rustic look that fits well in my aquarium room/office



This return is the loudest thing on my whole tank, any ideas on how to make this quieter without restricting the flow?



I added the foam rock display on the back of the glass, I had to break it into three pieces to get it in there, after putting it back together inside the tank you can't even see where it was broken.





Picked up this skimmer for $50 at a LFS.



Running two thermometers for redundancy as I have seen others do on this forum.



I removed some of the bioballs that came with the sump and put them in the next chamber over, this gave me room to add a filter sock to the return.



There is a 4" Deep sand bed in the bottom of the refugium section of this sump. Since this pic I have added some macro algae and some live rock.



I picked up this powerhead because I felt like my tank needed more circulation. It is a Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200. I think I should have bought something smaller. When I had it setup as the circulation pump mode it would blow extremely hard, so I switched it to the power head mode and it seems to push an adequate amount of water. Eventually I want to get another one and put them on a wave timer.

So I have the a couple of regrets already. My space requirements mean I cannot have a tank wider then 48" which is why I have been using 55g. Looking around now I see that I could have went all the way up to a 110g tank and still stayed within 48" wide, so I am seriously considering buying a different tank already.

Second, I wish I had a bigger sump, the one I have works fine but I feel like it could be bigger.

Third, and this one is something that may turn out to be not necessary, I wish I had Metal Halide lights. I went ahead and purchased new bulbs for the T5 system that came with the tank, and it is a nice light. I just don't know if it will be enough in the end. BTW I am using two 1000k 4pin 55/65 watt 21" bulbs and two Actinic 2 55/65 watt bulbs. The light also has 4 deep blue LED's for moonlights which are still pretty bright.

So that is what I am starting with, I will post some of my questions here in this thread as they come to me.

 

FWIW, the first thing you'll want to do is add more LR or BR to the tank. What you have now is OK for a pair of tiny clowns, but if you plan on adding more livestock, the tank won't be as stable, even tho you do have some bioballs in the sump.

 

Yeah I want to build the rock up pretty high in the DT. I bought a couple of large rocks since the pics, working on getting more a little at a time.

Just tested my water parameters:

Calcium = 400ppm
Carbonate Hardness = 179ppm
Phosphate = 0ppm
Nitrate = 15ppm (need to get this down)
Ammonia = .25ppm (down from 2.0 when tank cycled)

Need to bring my Nitrate down some more, I'm guessing more live rock would help with keeping it down. Gonna do a water change later tonight.

Yesterday I added a pink tipped anemone and a couple of small frags, will post pics in a bit.

Thanks for the reply I'd love to hear any advice any of you have.

 

Here are some pics of the anemone, I had just got done feeding it so it had it's arms in it's mouth like NOM NOM lol.

 

I also just started a 55 gallon reef tank and I like you, I started out with a Maxi jet 1200. When it ran I thought the water flow was almost too strong for my tank (blowing sand constantly). I decided to go with 2 550 gph Koralias and 2 750 gph Koralias. I think using more smaller circulation pumps allows more selective targeting of corals and dead spots while still allowing a good amount of flow. Also I liked the Koralias over the Maxi Jet because my Maxi Jet had a very loud startup and I thought that would be a problem when using a wavemaker in the future.

 

Thanks rootfish! I like you too, but hey we just met, let's take this slowly lol.

I totally agree with the smaller pumps, I really wanted at least 3 powerheads in the tank and I could not imagine putting 2 more 1200's in there, my little clowns would get beat to death against the rock.

 

Nice setup so far.

To add to Rootfish's post, the Maxi-Jets don't fare very well on wavemakers. They're great, inexpensive pumps for continuous use, but the constant switching off/on will take it's toll rather quickly.

On another note- a 48" T5 fixture would use 48" 54w bulbs; the 21" 55/65w bulbs are PC (power compact) which does not produce as much PAR. With 4 bulbs it might be enough for your anemone, but I would recommend upgrading soon.

 

Well I hate to hear that, I just dropped $100 on new bulbs, I figured I did want to upgrade to MH eventually, but I would use what I have for now, we will see how the anemone holds up.

 

I also wanted to add that the inside of the aquarium is much brighter then those pictures can tell, my camera cannot capture the brightness and color intensity of the bulbs.

 

I picked this up at the LFS yesterday. The guy who sold it to me gave it some weird one word name that didn't sound correct. I looked it up and as near as I can tell it is a Neon Green frogspawn.