Getting Back to Marine

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sombreroisland

New Member
Hi guys,

I'm from the Philippines and registered just today! The idea of nano keeping intrigued me and wanted to ask for help.

I've had a 280g salt water tank 5 years ago and kept it strictly fish. I got out of the hobby after a year or 2 after I set up my 280g. I just couldn't keep up with the maintenance. I ended up turning my 280g into a frontosa (cichlid) tank.

I'm really rusty now and pretty much got lost in all of the technical details of reef keeping..hope you can bear with me.

Again, my interest on keeping reef is now going to be strictly nano! haha...I currently have 3 spare tanks. A 10g, a 20g and a 35g. I also have your basic iron cast stands for all of these 3 tanks as well so there's not going to be a problem with putting a sump at the bottom if ever. This time around though, I want to do it right!

Which tank would you recommend for me to use and what kind of filtration should I use? I'm somehow leaning towards using my 20g as I was totally in awe with some of the tanks here in the forum...especially uichiha's (sp?) 18g. But the 35g seems to be a waste if I don't use it...I was thinking if I could set it up with a trickle filter at the back and it could be spacious enough to add the refugium in it as well...

any thoughts on this?

Thanks

sombreroisland
 
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ExiledInfidel666

New Member
20g high or long, what demensions do you have on the tank because they shallower it is the cheaper it will be to light if your going by fluorescents, MH should work on anything though, what are you planning on keeping exactly, if the 20g is a 20g long id say shoot for that and convert the 35 into a big fuge, this way you have lots of water volume to play with and can get away with 1 more fish, 2 more stable conditions and 3 more filtering and food production in mean of pods, throw a skimmer, heater and emperor 280 on the fuge stick a 250w MH on the 20g with a few power heads and youl have one hell of a nano tank and will be able to put just about anything in there you want to
 
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sombreroisland

New Member
Thanks exiled for the quick reply...

To be honest, I'm not to familiar with the type of corals too...but I think I'm leaning on some zoans...brain corals...and a clam. I understand that soft corals require less light but will strong light be detrimental to them? I am also assuming that for soft corals, water circulation should not be too strong as well?

My spare 20g tank is a long glass tank...but was thinking of actually purchasing a nicer looking high bowed acrylic tank...any thoughts on this if I should invest on this?

I'm actually having a problem with the fuge as I don't like for it to look ugly...

Will the 250w MH be for both the 20g and the fuge or is that separate lighting? I was thinking of using a 150W MH over both the fuge and the tank..but then again I was hoping I would use the 10g for the fuge...
Furthermore, what kind of color temperature should I get? would 10k be ok? With no actinic? or a 20k?


I know that the bigger water volume the better so your inputs actually made me think twice about using the 35 over the 10g as the fuge...

As for fish, I'm not really too keen on getting any if ever...just a set of cleaning crew. I just feel bad that marine fish breeding is no easy task and would feel that just buying a fish knowing that I wouldn't be able to reproduce them. I've been there, getting the most beautiful fishes of the ocean...any kind of angelfish, butterflies, tangs that I could get my hands on but I ended up feeling bad...

what do you think?

sombreroisland
 
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ExiledInfidel666

New Member
sps need very strong water and high light, zoa's can deal with anything really, the clam will need a MH with a 20l just put the mh almost all the way to one side, youl have highlight and low light and you can also have room for high and low flow areas where you can put corals that need what they need, put gorgionians in the low light low flow and SPS and clam in high light high flow, well clam is morerate but still you can adjust that just fine, leathers can have low to med light but really could deal with anything but you cant blast them with flow otherwise theil just blow to bits
 
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sombreroisland

New Member
Thanks exiled,

sure was helpful...I'm now leaning towards your suggested 35g fuge. Maybe stick to a 150MH...

How big a powerhead would you suggest for a 20g? I was planning of putting in 2 powerheads in the tank on timers...They will alternate water flow every 4-6 hours maybe just to be able to keep the water movement different from time to time.


sombreroislan
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
For flow the general rule of thumb is 10x the water volume. So in a 20 gallon tank you'll want a pwerhead that is rated around 200 gph. I'd suggest two maxi-jet 600's. Maxi-jets are great powerheads and those particular pumps work well on the wavetimers. I'm running two 1200's on a wavetimer in my 30 gallon.
 
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ExiledInfidel666

New Member
hey im not to great with power heads like exactly the needs so yea SM is who you should talk too, hey SM when I get my 30cube I was goign to do 4 aqua ball 1212's 2 on each side, they are 172 gph ach so thats 344 from each side if I calculated right. 688gph total on a alternator redsea wave master pro to be exact, this all good right?, I like the aqua balls because you can point them in any direction easly
 
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sombreroisland

New Member
SM / Exiled,

I was more curious about the fact that I've read a lot of posts saying flow will depend on the type of corals...Will following the 10x rule be enough for any type of coral?

thanks

sombrero
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
Sombrero, each coral has specific needs as far as flow goes, but keep in mind that depending where you place the PH's in the tank, you will create high flow areas and lower flow areas as the water swirls in and around the LR. It's always a good idea to aim a PH behind the rockwirk so you won't end up with a dead spot where detritus can accumulate. I like the min-jet's for that, or even the micro-jet because of it's small profile.

EIF, I'm not familiar with that particular brand of PH. Do you have a link for those so I can check out the flow info? I do know that the Red Sea company recommends using the maxi-jet PH's with their wavemaster pro. The motor in the maxi-jets can withstand the constant current interuption of the wave timer swithcing the PHs on and off.
 
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ExiledInfidel666

New Member
of cousre they recomend it, its their product, they make more money that way, maybe they are good for that but thats not the huge reason theyd say that, im sure plenty other power heads can withstand the on/off just fine heres the link though
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... 2004+22788

the ball slides around in the socket, this way you can get any direction flow you want and the two top ones will be pointed at the acros when I get them
 
Sugar Magnolia

Sugar Magnolia

New Member
Actually EIF, it's the Red Sea people that recommend the maxi-jet brand, not the Aquarium Systems Company that makes the maxi-jets.

Those little aquaballs are neat looking. Very small profile on them. So you are going to stick four of them in the cube?
 
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incysor

New Member
sombreroisland said:
Just a question...during the 6week cycling...do we need to light up the tank?

thanks

sombreroisland
Click to expand...
No. If you leave the lights off, you'll have much less nuisance algae blooms. There are no benefits to having the lights on during the cycle whatsoever.
 
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incysor

New Member
sombreroisland said:
thanks incysor!

I just wanted to make sure...just a question...are you the same incysor at seahorse.org?

thanks

sombreroisland
Click to expand...
Nope. I've registered at lots of boards that I'm not really very active on. I double-checked to see if I was registered there, and they don't have an 'incysor' registered.

Brian
 
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sombreroisland

New Member
ExiledInfidel666 Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 3:25 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

you posted that already, think you messed up a little
Click to expand...
Yup, sorry about that, think I did...

incysor Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

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sombreroisland wrote:
thanks incysor!

I just wanted to make sure...just a question...are you the same incysor at seahorse.org?

thanks

sombreroisland


Nope. I've registered at lots of boards that I'm not really very active on. I double-checked to see if I was registered there, and they don't have an 'incysor' registered.

Brian
Click to expand...
My bad...It seemed that I saw your nick their and I couldn't find it again...Sorry...It is about 2AM in the morning from where I am when i posted....


thanks,

sombreroisland
 
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incysor

New Member
No sweat. I'm on RC, Nano-reef.com, reefs.org, tonmo.com, maast.org, and here. My scrn name is incysor on all of them, so it'd be pretty easy to come across a post by me somplace other than here.

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