New to Saltwater: tank design stage

[Ratfish]

First Post:

Background:
I am new to salt water. When I was in high school I had three 20gal fresh water tanks in my bedroom, quite the ambiance. Its been a long time since I had an aquarium of any kind so when the time came a reef tank had the appeal I wanted. As I continue to do my research (I've been looking at this site for about a month before I made an account), I realize how daunting starting a reef tank is. Obviously the difficultly didn't deter me so I guess I'm in it for the long haul.

What I got now (equipment):
I recently acquired a 90 gal aqueon tank (internal flow) with cabinet
Current 48" hood lamp with 2 halides and 2 dual tubes 150w (not sure on lume rating of bulbs?, 2 months use on halides)
Octopus hurricane external skimmer
40 gal sump (three baffle sections)
2 karellia circulation pumps
an aqueon return pump
mr1 next reef media reactor... (plan on cycling tank, test, then decide what media to supplement based on needs)

Questions I have as newbie:
I want a RO/DI filter, not sure what would be a good buy? Melev's? Bulk Aquarium's? something on amazon? I would like something that would be easy to replace filters, and is a reliable product.

I have an external hurricane octopus... I am wondering how to set this thing up? Youtube is a little lacking in tutorials on this one. Main head scratcher is going to find a fitting that with fit snug on the return tube.

Next question is about my sump. Not sure if it is custom or manufactured. The issue is all the baffles are the same height. What I want to figure out is what should I modify. I've looked at melevsreef and got a few ideas. My best engineering idea is to either drill a line of hole, about 1/2 inch or less in diameter, cascading each baffle (my attempt at simulating the melev's teeth technique). Alternatively I could bore out a single hole fitted with bulk head fitting and pvc tube with valve... however more complex with more hardware. Anyone have a better ideas?

Last for now is on live rock. It is quite and investment. For my tank I am almost more concerned about what type of rock than how live is it. So here is my plan: get about 20-30 pounds really high quality live rock and patch work it into some not so live rock, but some choice pieces of porous dead rock, so the organisms have a chance to seed them. That may make my 90 gal need to cycle longer, but eh, I want to do it right, and set it up the way I want to.

Goals:
So that's where things stand as of now. Need to get water source, then get live rock and cycle tank. Simple right! Well not so simple, I really want to get this tank going right so I am still in planning and design stages... immediate step is to plumb this thing!

 

[Dmcbride]

I am no help on the plumbing and such, but when I was setting mine up I looked at live rock a lot. There are many grades of live rock and you might be able to use some base rock that is live, just not pretty and have some higher quality like Fiji or something, also with so many people breaking down tanks keep an eye on craigslist and forums as someone may have live rock they want to get rid of in a hurry and cheaper.

 

[Krish]

Weclome to RF!! :welcome:

Sounds like you are off to a pretty good start! What are your long term plans for the tank? The reason I ask was because of the lighting you have. Is that dual 150w halides? If so, at 24 inches deep, the dual 150w metal halides won't penetrate all that deep so if you are going with corals (specifically any high light demanding corals) you will have to place them really high in the tank so that they can receive the lighting that they need. Usually when you see people using tanks that deep that are going with corals and running halides, they usually shoot for dual 250's to penetrate the water so keep that in mind.

Then there is the flow...Which model Koralia's do you have? Let us know...Also, knowing what type of setup as asked previously will help us better know if your flow would be sufficient or not (be sure to mention if using a sand bed). Flow is very important in a saltwater tank as opposed to freshwater. Usually in freshwater, all you have is a power filter breaking the surface of the water which is usually sufficient, but not with saltwater tanks. Flow is very important for a number of reasons such as keeping waste and detritus in suspension to be either filtered out or used up by corals. Any waste/detritus that is allowed to sit in the tank and accumilate will degrade water quality and so you have to be sure to catch all areas of your tank including your rocks. You will often here the term "turkey basting your rocks". This is a method people use to blow off waste/detritus that has settled on the rocks due to limited flow in the tank, so people would use a turkey baster and blow off the rocks which will release the waste into the water column where it can be filtered out. Also, corals can't really move around to get their food like fish do so it has to be brought to them so then again, this is why flow is important so let us know. Depending on your goals, anywhere I'd say from about 50x turnover rate and up should do the trick. I've run a bit over 100x turnover rate before just to make sure I hadd adequet coverage and flow however this was on a bare bottom tank. When you get into the higher flow ranges, sandstorms become a problem which is why I asked about a sand bed.

Where your skimmer is concerned, one thing you will have to find out is if there is a required operating height for it to function properly. I had an Aqua EV 120 that could be used internally or externally, but it had to be elevated to where the gate valve was above the water level so I'd look into that. If Mark (skimmy) doesn't chime in here, maybe start a thread dedicated specifically to your skimmer questions and concerns in the skimmer forum where he'd probably pick up on it. He is our resident skimmer guru here and would probably be the best person to help with that.

The sump, sounds kinda awkward . I've never seen a sump with all of the baffles the same height!! That's crazy!! If you don't have much invested in it and have a few bucks to spare, maybe starting from scratch may be a better idea than trying to alter this one or if the baffles are easily removeable, remove them all and start with all new baffles. You will have to come up with an idea of what you want out of your sump in order to know how to set up the baffles. Some people incorporate refugiums and then some don't use them at all so you will have to figure out which option you think suits your needs best and then we can better direct you from there. I've had both a 2 chamber sump seperated by a bubble trap and a /4 chamber sump. Both served different purposes and did their jobs so many ways to go about it.

Lastly on the rock, maybe take a peek at one of our sponsors here Marco Rocks. They sell some really nice dead rock seeing you wanted a bit of dead rock and what you want to do is just fine by seeding it with a bit of liverock to get a jump start. Nothing wrong with that. Only disadvantage to liverock is you could get some bad hitch hikers, but other than that, it's usually teaming with some really good beneficial bacteria and other life forms so liverock is good as well. I started up all of my tanks with all liverock so not a problem.

Just a few things I thought I'd throw out for you! Good luck with the build and keep tossing out the questions and concerns.

 

[Ratfish]

I must say I am a little surprised by the lighting. I do have 2 metal halides in the unit: 150w, 10k. with 130w dual antics... moon lights. Surprised mostly with it not being enough light. perhaps I will look into placement of corals later on. I still don't see me placing my first hard coral at least four-five months after established day... start with fish and softies first I guess.

Yeah the sump was a little strange..... I still think I can modify it. I'm crafty like that I suppose. If it doesn't work... start from scratch I guess.

I will have sand. about 2 inches. I want a mandarin eventually... that's why I plan on a refugium of some kind.

But thanks for the info. I'm just trying to figure out what will get me where I want to go. I'll write more when I have time....

 

[jrgilles]

Welcome aboard! Sounds like you are off to a good start.

As to your questions:
For good RO/DI info, I usually contact thefilterguys.biz. If you email them a guy named Jim will get back to you and probably set up a phone call. Very knowledgeble and won't try to sell you something you don't need. They also have good prices if you decide to go with them. There is also a sponser on this site (fire and ice or something) that sells RO/DI) Anyway, jim can talk you through all your questions, and will be happy to do so.

As for the skimmer, I don't know much about them. Most of the skimmers have a certain depth they want to operate at (such as 9" deep) and this often requires building a little stand for them to sit on in the sump, depending on your setup. I made one out of a square piece of plexiglass with 4 pieces of scrap PVC pipe from my plumbing glued on and acting as legs.

On the sump, is there any way to knock out one of the baffles and raise it up a few inches? What are the baffles made out of? Are they different hights on the bottom to force the current to go around them? Maybe you could just cut a piece of plexiglass that is the depth of the sump and 2 inches tall and glue it into place on the middle (or whichever) baffle you want to raise. Should perform the function you want then. If it isn't totally water tight, it really makes no difference, as it is all 'in sump'

Unfortunately, kris is correct about the lights, depending what you want to grow. You have a lot of light and it will be good for some corals, but you aren't going to get the penetration to the bottom of the tank that you may want. You can deal with this by how you place your corals. At some point, maybe you will run across a good deal on some 250's that you can add in or mod into the fixture or whatever.

For live rock, getting some live and some dead sounds good. You can usually get very good deals from people taking down their tanks. Just make sure you go there and spend a bit of time giving the rocks a detailed examination. Look for any sort of small anemonies (google majano and aptasia). You don't want to see these. Try to establish the rock as (mostly) pest free. If they have a lot of corals that are doing well, that is a good sign that there are no zoanthid eating spiders or other such pest.

Are you in the seattle area?

rob

 

[TJL]

Hey Ratfish, a BIG :welcome: to Reef Frontiers and as others have already stated looks as though your off to a good start. I'm sure someone nearby would be willing to pay you a visit and go over all your equipment and setup plans with you. Great way to meet a fellow reefer and possibly gain a mentor for the long-haul ??? Keep us posted and feel free to ask any questions important to you.


Cheers, Todd

 

[NC2WA]

Ratfish,

Welcome to RF !!!

you do have a nice setup for your first saltwater tank.

Part of this hobby which I still love is reading and research. If I may suggest the following book to add to your library collection:

Amazon.com: The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists (Microcosm/T.F.H. Professional) (9781890087999): Robert M. Fenner, Matthew L. Wittenrich, Scott W. Michael: Books

The first half of the book talks about water chemistry, tank setup and aquascaping, medications and parasites, and the second half of the book is devoted to all of the fish species and which ones to purchase and more importantly which ones to avoid.

IMO, highly worth the purchase. After 15yrs in this hobby, I still refer to this book from time to time for reference.

Kirk

 

[Ratfish]

I have a minor issue I need advice on (hoping its not a major issue but could very well be...). My basement, where my aquarium is going, only has 15amp circuits. Can or should I run my system with all its lights and pumps on a circuit designed mostly for lights? If not I may need to hire and electrician to route a new 20amp circuit in my basement... Argh. This may push getting everything set up back even further. Guess I will have plenty of time for research!

If anyone runs their tanks on 15amps please let me know, or anything thoughts or suggestions.... Thanks again all.