New Project - 66 gal. Half Cylinder Tank

I have been out of the hobby for about 3 years due to various things. I am now back as my firm is moving offices and my new office has a salt water fish tank. Right now it is a fish only tank with some fake rock/decorations and a sump with bio balls. I was happy to find it was a reef ready tank in that it had a built in overflow and had a sump. That is where the good news ends. It appears to use bio balls as its principle filtration source, no carbon that I could see, no skimmer and a cheap LED light. It is acrylic and is fully covered (which means no jumpers, that's a good thing). The live stock is as follows:

Maroon/Cinnamon Clown (not sure exactly what it is)
Paddlefin Wrasse
4 blue damsels
Oriental Sweetlips
Koran Angel

I want to eventually transform this tank into a reef tank with some LPS corals. However, it will take a while. I've been thinking how I want to do this and what i should do first. My plan is to first add a skimmer to the sump and remove the bio balls and add live rock rubble. Then, remove the fake rock and add a nice live rock aquascape. Finally, I will add a decent light. It will have to be LED due to the hood and heat concerns. I see a lot of progress has been made as far as LEDs go in the past several years.

If anybody has any thoughts or ideas, please let me know. I will periodically update this thread as progress is made. Below are some pics of the sump and tank as it is now.

 

Best of luck, most of those fish will need a bigger home when the time comes.

I never liked cleaning curved tanks

 

Yea, not only do the angel and sweetlips get quite large, they aren't reef safe. I will probably find them bigger homes when the time comes.

 

Look like you have some nice plain for this tank

I remember you from when I first started on this thread welcome back

 

Thanks newreef, I remember you as well. Nice to see some people are still hanging around.

 

Ok, quick update. I bought 70lbs of Fiji rock and a bubble Magnus cone skimmer from bulk reef supply. Plan is to add the rock, then when things settle down, I'll remove the bio balls and add the skimmer. Then just need an upgraded light and some power heads and will be good to go.

 

Nice plans, I'd like to add that if you can have a section and grow as much Chaeto MacroAlgae as possible under simple CFL bulbs- I think it will help overall a bunch, and long term too

 

One thing about these cylinder tanks is it leaves you with NO room in bottom of cabinet.. So you're limited in space!

I have a 36 gallon corner bow front tank and had to be creative in my space.

I was told by members here to add rubble live rock in my wet/dry which I haven't done yet just like you're planning to do. They also told me to do it little by little, and not remove all the bio balls all in one shot. They recommended me pull a little at a time and replace it with rubble a little at a time?

Maybe, the 3reef veterans here can give their advice. The reason is I want to make sure since you already have an established tank like I do.

 

Correct, you want to give the beneficial bacteria a chance to establish itself on the liverock before you remove it from the bioballs. I would do 1/8th removal every week or so.

 

Once the live rock is established, I'll slowly take out the bio balls. Keep in mind it's a fish only tank right now, so fluctuations aren't a major concern.