new set up

[sandslinger]

Thanks for welcoming me,,,
Oh no the seaclone is garbage eh! I ordered it from e bay..no turning back now. I have another one I just thought it was old school and im trying not to cut any corners, I built my own sump/refugium after 3 months of research, It appears to be working great. Diatoms have started.
Let me explain my set up.
I have a 40 tall, below is the 20 long with a sump area,2 sets of baffles and a fuge area, in the fuge the water movement is about half of the water movement in the sump, i acomplished this by drilling holes thru the devider until the rate seemed ok.the fuge is lite 24/7 by 1 acidic and 1 10k flourecent tube 30" fits right on top. The 40 has a overflow box with a syphon u pipe and a 2" hose feeding the sump, I have a rio 2100 pumping the water back up to the 40.
I also have a closed loop system for water movement made from 1/2 pvc and its run by a mag drive #7 the water movement is excellent, the heater is in the sump area and appears to be doing good, holding it at 79.8 and I left it there because I believe once the light is enclosed it will heat up a little.I already have a 30 gallon with a 24 hour coralife hood, with the moon light acidics and such... I plan on taking that hood appart and mounting the fixtures to get the acidics on the 40 gallon to go along with the 250 watt halide mouted up there, ill drop it down as you said ( thanks) eventually all my livestock will be transfered over to the 40 from my old 30. some sun polyps, xenia, a sea sponge is growing on one of the rocks, two clowns,not allot of life because ive been working on this new tank. Im going to replace the rio 2100 today it is old and making allot of noise, im going to get another mag drive I think they are very quiet.
The two rocks in the fuge are growing some sort of algae green round leaves, it was on the rocks when i bought them and they love the light.
Would water from my already stable tank help this tank cycle.?
What kind of skimmer should i look at?
in the sump area should I have some live rock rubble in there also?

I apreciate all your guys help. I love my reef and cant seem to learn enough....

 

[wrightme43]

Sounds like you are doing very well. Is the algae halmidia, looks like light green coins growing in a line, or maybe racemosa calupera, looks like little wine glasses. On skimmers if you have room a remora, or urchin would work great for you size tank. I have many of the redsea prizm and prizm pro deluxe, they work but not well and need frequent adjustment, and they have a tendency to overflow. If you have room a asm g-1 skimmer from www.vividaquariums.com would work great. Yes water from your set up tank will help. Moveing small amounts of rock and sand from it will help to. Have you tested your levels? AM, NI, NA, Phos, CA, Alk, and Mg. If so post them and lets everybody have a look. I think you are well on your way. Steve

 

[NaH2O]

Sounds good! I agree on bringing water over to help, unless the tank has been running for awhile, otherwise I would do just the rock from the established set-up. How long has the tank been running, and what are your current parameters? By adding rubble to the fuge area, you will create a nice place for 'pods to propagate in. I also like Aqua-C Skimmers, ASM are nice knock-off Euro-reefs. I personally like having a good skimmer on a tank. What else are you thinking about keeping in the tank?

 

[sandslinger]

i would like to keep a variety of softies and maybe some sps, The tank has been up for two weeks, I set up a 12 gal nano last night so I took about 5 gallons out of this set up and replaced with fresh mixed water after it was heated and mixed of course.
I also added 1-6 lb live rock to the 40 last night, saw it at the lfs and couldnt resist.
All the perametrs appeared to be great, nothig read high at all. Im going to check again today to see if the water change effected it. I am also adding an auto top off today moving the halide 250 closer to the surface, its at 20" right now Im going to bring it down to 10". Right now the way the sump is there is a large area other then the fuge should I have live rock in there also? The fuge is showing all the signs of cycling but there is no algae up top is that normal? The seaclone I have on order I guess I will try to use until I can afford a nice one. I spent 60 on it and they sell for 130 at the local fs,