Migrating From Fish to Reef - Advise

[Quigley]

My wife and I have kept a 28g salt water fish tank for the past couple years. We are wanting to migrate to a reef tank and need some advise.

Our tank is 30 long x 18 high x 12 deep. We have about 2 inces of sand and 50 lbs of live rock. Also, heater, power head, and 2 stage filter (carbon and filtration). And, basic hood with basic light.

Is it possiible, is it prudent, and what would it take, to convert this tank to a reef tank?

Thanks for your help,

Randy & Deanne

 

[balogh03]

to understand what all you need...what kind of corals do you plan on keeping? that will determine the lighting and how much you want to spend. but for starters, you could look into getting a sump.

hope you find your answers and WELCOME TO RF!!!!!!!!!!

-augustus

 

[returnofsid]

If you were to trade out your standard lighting for Compact Flourescents and add a Protien Skimmer, you'd be able to keep just about any Soft Coral and most LPS Corals. If your live rock is piled up you might even be able to get away with an SPS or two up high (close to the lights). In fact, there's usually Compact Flourescent set-ups for sale here on Reef Frontier. That's where I got my used ones and they work great!!! The USA Satelight unites are great, as are the Coralife fixtures. Also, look for a good used Remora HOB skimmer. You can also easily convert an Aquaclear HOB power filter into a mini-refugium. Let me know if you're interested in the Aquaclear modification and I'll find the link.

 

[LakeEd]

Randy & Deanne,

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

Like Augustus mentioned, your largest change in your current setup would be your lighting... and that does depend a lot of what type of a reef (Softie, LPS, SPS) you wanted to try. A good skimmer sill be a bonus with any of those as well.

PC lights do work well for Softie and most LPS as mentioned above. The new T-5 lighting I've heard works very nicely on smaller tanks like yours as well, and packs enough "punch" to do SPS under.

Also, what is your water quality like currently? Since your tank has been up and running for a couple years, I would assume your Ammonia & Nitrite levels would be zero, which is good. What is your Nitrate level currently? I think that is the major difference between fish only, and a reef... is that the corals won't tolerate as high of Nitrate level as fish can. The next "Tests" you would want to know about would be your pH, Specific Gravity... and depending on which type of corals, Calcium & Alkalinity.

It sounds like a lot, but once you've checked things and find how they interact... it goes very easy... so don't fret! Ask questions here, people are very friendly and willing to help any way we can!

 

[morgan]

i have a tank with the same dimensions it might be 14'' and not 12'' but other then that the same i run 4 fluros which is nice i have mainly disc's and a couple leathers it looks nice
my friend is currently in the processe of seeting up his own marine reef (guess who put that idea in his head) his tank is also the same and what he is using 1 150w mh 20,000k radium bulb he installed it in the middle of his hood and it looks awesome prefect light spread he will also install 1 3 foot fluro bulb for antinic.
they both tanks look good im a bit worried about keeping sum corals and am not sure if i have enough light for leather corals but i do have anenomes in there and they are all living

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!! Hope you enjoy it here So far I think the others already asked all the important questions that will get the ball rolling so as soon as we get some feedback on them, we'll know which direction to point you in

Good luck!

Oh...BTW, which 2 stage filtration do you have?

 

[balogh03]

i have a tank with the same dimensions

sailfin tang in a 28gal?

dont let ron see:shock:

 

[returnofsid]

Yikes, that Sailfin Tang will soon need a 100 gal tank!!

 

[Quigley]

Thanks everyone for your help! What a great group!

We are working to understand all the acronyms, and what each of the components are that make up a reef tank (my job).

We don't yet know enough about corals to know which ones we would want to grow; softies, LPS, or SPS (wife's job). We both are fascinated by sea animals such as anemones.

With our existing salt water fish tank we've not been testing water quality, only salinity. Sounds like we need to purchase a test kit and start testing. Would you please recommend a good water quality test kit?

In thinking about the cost of adding all the needed parts to our existing tank I am wondering about buying a used setup (tank & all/most all components) and leaving our existing tank alone. If we buy, our target would be something in the 50g to 80g range. Any thoughts on buying used?

We appreciate your help, and value your feedback.
Thank You
Randy & Deanne

 

[Krish]

I am wondering about buying a used setup (tank & all/most all components) and leaving our existing tank alone. If we buy, our target would be something in the 50g to 80g range. Any thoughts on buying used?

Oh yeah definately! They usually have some really good buys/deals in the equipment for sale forum here which you should check out. Sometimes you can't beat the deals and will have everything you'd need to get up and running. As for test kits, the best is Salifert hands down. There have been numerous polls on which is the best test kits or which ones people prefer and Salifert always comes out on top. Some kits you will need to keep on hand are ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, ph, calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity which are the most important ones. Sounds like a lot, but some of them you won't really need anymore after a certain point in time (eg like once your tank has cycled, you may never check ammonia or nitrite again unless you have some serious issues you can't explain in your tank and you just want to check these levels to be safe etc.) Salifert is going to cost a bit more than other test kits, but it's a small price to pay for proper/accurate readings

 

[ReefferMan]

I agree with all of the above suggestions, I would get some t-5's or small 150 metal halide, you will want to get a skimmer for sure but no one mentioned an ro/di setup, its best to start with 0 nitrate water rather then with nitrates. A smaller tank will be nice for water changes, about 2 gallons a week will keep your water clean without a skimmer. I have had success with power compacts for anenomes, and softies. Best of luck! Its more like an habit then hobbie...... happy Reefin'

 

[krisfal]

I would have to second Krish on the Salifert test kits. I thought I was having problems with low ph testing with a cheap test kit. This weekend I bought a Salifert ph test and the ph problem is gone. There is enough to do in this hobby without fighting problems that don't exist.

 

[Quigley]

Thanks to Everyone for all the Help!

We found a used fish/reef setup For Sale close to home and picked it up this weekend.

I've a couple of question.

1- How do you correctly ballance the upper tank and lower refug tank water flow? After setting it up and re-filling both tanks to within about 1", turning off the return pump caused an overflow in the lower tank. Removing several gallons helped but I'm not sure how it should work. Is there a proceedure or schematic of how this all should be setup and adjusted?

2- When you mix up saltwater for a tank change, what is the shelf life of the mixed saltwater?

Thank You for the Help!

Sincerely,
Randy & Deanne Graves

 

[returnofsid]

Both of my systems were purchased used here on RF forum. There's always a lot of great deals on full set-ups here. Keep your eyes open.

 

[Krish]

Congrats on the new purchase!!!

1- How do you correctly ballance the upper tank and lower refug tank water flow? After setting it up and re-filling both tanks to within about 1", turning off the return pump caused an overflow in the lower tank. Removing several gallons helped but I'm not sure how it should work. Is there a proceedure or schematic of how this all should be setup and adjusted?

Here's a link to an animation of how it should all work together. It shows where the water levels should be set and explains the whole process

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

2- When you mix up saltwater for a tank change, what is the shelf life of the mixed saltwater?

Once you mix a batch of saltwater, the water is "good" for as long as you need it to be IMO (if that makes any sense ) You'd just need to keep a powerhead going in the container with the new saltwater to keep things circulating and depending on how long you let it sit, you may have to add in more fresh water (not salt water) as some of the water may evaporate so you'd need to refill it to keep the spacific gravity/salinity the same. If you are wondering how long the package of salt mix itself is good for once the package is opened, let's just put it this way...Once the bag is sealed back up, chances are you will use all that salt before it has a chance to go bad