Equipment Reccomendations Please

I've just about got everything together to start up my new 29 gallon. I have the tank, built an oak stand and canopy. Tank is drilled for a glass holes overflow and 1/2" return on either side of tank. I have two Hydor Koralia 3's. I have a 10 gal sump, 2.5 gal refugium with a coralife 18 watt light, coralife 65 skimmer, mag 7 return pump, auto top off system, heater, 130watt cf lighting system with moon lights. Any other reccomendations as far as equipment. Do I need a calcium reactor or any other stuff? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

u have more gear there than i do lol and mine tank runs just fine
u dont need a calcium reactor if u can dose it yer self even though it gets annoying lol, u have everything u need IMO to make a good start on yer tank

 

your system sounds almost identical to mine.. except for the koralia 3's, thats a heck of a lot of flow..

 

Cool, thanks. I may send the koralia 3's back and exchange them for a couple of two's. Anybody know of anybody using an Aquaripure Denitrator?

 

I'm curious myself - does anyone run one of these??

 

You're only going to need a calcium reactor if you go exclusively with SPS corals. Even then, you might get away with two part instead. If you go mixed reef, or with the majority of corals being softies/LPS; I'd imagine that regular water changes with minimal supplementation (two part, from BRS for example) would suit you fine.

The two koralia 3's would probably work if positioned with care, but I'd think that 3 #2's or a #3 and a couple of #2's would be easier to incorporate without blowing stuff around too badly. Koralias are known for a diffuse flow, so you may be ok with what you have. If however, they're brand new, and can be exchanged with no penalty, I'd at least consider the two scenarios in the first sentence of this paragraph.

Looks like you're off to a good start! Have you begun to consider skimmers yet?

 

+1 on Reef Sparky - Im up to 5 SPS corals in my 70 and as yet have not had to make any additions aside from my 10% weekly water changes to maintain calcium or magnesium levels

I would add a Phosphate reactor to your system at set up time, rather than be advised to add one later, when you post about nuisance algaes

Steve

 

A good refractometer with calibration solution is well worth the expense. Also, unless you're keeping lots of SPS 2 Koralia 3's is a lot of flow, you might have trouble not blasting the coral with those especially in a cube (assuming it's a cube).

 

Calcium reactors are not only for all SPS tanks, LPS grow much quicker with the Ca reactor as well.

That said, in a small tank like that dosing 2 part is the way to go, unless you like a lot of gizmos, and you don't want to do weekly water tests.

 

I don't know if I agree with that, horkn. Of course, I can only speak from my personal experience. LPS may grow more quickly with calcium addition, but I think a calcium reactor on an LPS tank would be pretty hard to "dial down" to match the "demand," if you could call it that. From what I have read and understand to be true--as long as seawater levels of Ca are maintained, whether your calcium level is 440 or 550 it won't make corals grow faster (including SPS corals).

For example, with Coralife salt, my CA is over 420, so water changes alone keep my Ca levels where they need to be with no supplementation. I have a single SPS coral, a TINY birdsnest, that probably has next to no calcium uptake in the grand scheme in my case. My calcium levels don't decrease over the month or so it takes before my next water change.

I suppose there's a chance that in a tank with more coral than mine, calcium would get depleted--but it doesn't for me. In my particular case, a calcium reactor is not a reasonable addition.