58 gallon megaflow - first tank

Hi all, this will have to do as my introduction for now.

My name is Doug, I've just scratched an itch I've had for about 10 years now. I picked up my first reef tank set up today, and want to share what I've done so far and see if anyone here has advice going forward.

In my childhood /early adult years (I'm 30 now) I had several successful freshwater tanks, mostly cichlids/discus, and a few nice community tanks over the course of about 10 years. I started school, and had to put them away and now I'm graduated, and wanted to return to the hobby. I'm amazed by the progress this industry has made in both technology and environmental. So I made the leap yesterday, started crunching numbers and refining my multi-year long vision of what I want.

Forgive me if I don't have all the terminology down, I'd say 90% of this is new territory for me.

So the tank is a 58 gallon Oceanic Megaflow tank. I went with this because it's large enough to be stable, and not so large that if I have a major screw up in getting started I won't be out $1000 in livestock.
After considering the design of over-the-back or drilled tanks, I decided the drilled was the way to go in part because of a stronger bottom sheet, and in part because I got a decent deal at the LFS (South West Reef Company, in Albuquerque, NM).

I'll be setting up a 20g long tank I already had underneath as a sump/refugium, for a total capacity of around 68-70 gallons - whatever the rocks and sand displace (I estimate around 15-20 gallons)

The system will be pumped with an Eheim 1260.

I am using RO/DI water (running it now.... 100gpd system)

I'll be starting with about 20# of base rock and 30# of live rock, and plan to add another 10-15# very slowly as I find good unique specimens... I'm curious as to how fast I can add live rock to an established tank once I get going, if anyone can point me to that post

I have a 4" sand bed with crushed gravel on the bottom about 1" or so... I think it looks great deep like this, and excited that it helps the tank.

Anyways.. I think this kinda sums up my first post, and I'll leave it open to anyone willing to advise me or offer encouragement.

I'll post pics of the set up and early stages when I have a chance.

Thanks all, and thanks for having me.

-Doug

 

hello
welcome to 3reef

get some pics and start up a build thread in the show off your tanks section

 

Welcome

Hello and welcome.

Well after it's up and running 5lb rock per 2 weeks sounds slow to me.

Just take things slow think about it before you do it,,,,,,,then think some more about it. yeah you can move faster but if something happened it happens fast. Move slow it will react slow. IMO

Again welcome to 3reef and SW reefs,
Mike

 

welcome to 3reef!!

 

Well I am about two months ahead of you, I too finally scratched the itch! I am having so much fun with my reef tank, but my bank account had deminished and my headaches have increased! Here is a bit of advise, "Slow is smooth, Smooth is fast!"
Read, learn and ask questions but you will still waste money on stuff you don't need. All is all a reef is very rewarding, you are in the right place. We look forward to seeing your progress.

DKH

 

thanks all. I got a build posted, not much to post on it yet.

So next question is about my sump/refugium design.

I've cobbled this idea together from designs I've seen here and other forums, and would like opinions on if it will work, and if so what kind of flow rates I would want in terms of diversion to the refugium.

This will be build in a 20G long aquarium under the display tank.

for clarification: The bubble/intake tower will occupy 4" in a corner, not the entire end....

Thanks again!
-Doug

 

welcome to 3 reef

 

Looks great so far! I would either cut out "fingers" at the top of the piece coming from the fuge to the return, or attach some eggcrate material to disperse the water a bit. Keep us informed! We love pics here.
And welcome!!

 

well doug, welcome to 3reef and let me start out by saying this is a fantastic site. i only wish i would have joined before re-setting my 75 gal. up. if ever you have a question about anything you will get an answer here. Packleader is a fountain of information so dont be surprised if he answers about every thread you enter. i have vowed not to do anything with my tank until i make a thread about it first and use others experiences to my advantage. welcome and look forward to seeing those pics.

 

So far so good. Cycle has started, and a bit of life has popped out from the rock... I hope most of it makes it.

I found a rock that had what looked like a mass of very dark green algae of some sort, and when I looked close it was teeming with copepods, thousands of them... amazing how things not even as exciting as Sea monkies made me sit in front of my tank for an hour or more just watching them flitter about. Also spotted a feather duster / tube worm, and something that looks like a bird feather style for cleaning feather duster, dark grey, a few white spots on the hairs, about 6-8mm total length... I hope it develops instead of getting caught in the die off.

I ordered a Sunlight Supply 2 x 150 HQI ballast, LumenMax relfectors, and am going with 14000 K of whatever better/best brand the LFS has in stock (suggestions? I'm gonna hit the lighting section before I decide, but anything anyone says here is much appreciated)

This waiting game is tough. I look at my friends tank (Nano-Cubist here) and it takes all I've got to not just hit some LFS and get a few hermits or snails. Tuesday will be 1 full week that the tank's had water in it, and if all the water tests ok I'll be able to add my cleanup crew then.

Anyways, here's some pics.... I named my ball'o'macro Chester Cheato. I guess I also have ONE fish already, the ultra-rare and impossible to buy at any LFS, the Neon Orange Paperfish. The other pics are just general tank pics.

thanks for looking, helping, and encouraging!

-Doug