Hi I Just Got A 75 Gal Bowed With Stand And The Aquarium Store
Set Me Up With These Products To Start My Tank
1- Cora Life Protien Skimmer (125 Gal)
2- Sump (125 Gal) W/bio Balls
3- Max 5 Return Pump (500 Gph)
4- Over Flow Box
Also Added A Pen/plax 1000 Bio Canister To The Tank
My Question Is This A Good Set Up For A Reef Tank
Have Not Added Light Fixture Thinking Of A T5 At 360 Watts

First and foremost, welcome aboard! Of course, new folks who come and begin to list the beginnings of their reef, make us ol' salty folk want to start of with..

What do you want to do? Soft coral? Stonies? Fish only? The answer to these questions starts us off on the right path. You don't mention your lighting. This info is needed to help you here too.

First thing you'll hear from all of us is "ditch the bio balls". In a typica reef set up, they do nothing but promote aerobic engines and therefore "nitrates". Better to use live rock and other methods to create anerobic systems to chew nitrates, not produce them.

The canister.. same ol story. Yeah, you can use it for carbon, phosphate sponge kind of media, but don't use filter media and other stuff that can become fish poop traps and cause water quality issues.

Ask away, look at other member tank profiles, and get ready for a long, fun, and salty ride.

Dave

Oh... and.. "brothers in salt we may be, but on Super Bowl weekend...yer gonna be the enemy" ;) Go Pats!!

All in good fun.

Dave

Hello Dungnmatr and :welcome: to TR and our wonderful hobby.

Does the sump hold 125 gallons of water? If so the skimmer although a fine brand is too small for 200 gallons of water. I would not recommend using bio-balls or the bio-cannister. Those products are fine for a fish only (FO) system but not for a reef tank. These products are great at converting ammonia (comes from fish waste) to nitrite to nitrate but they can not convert nitrate to nitrogen gas. Fish are relatively tolerant of nitrate but corals are not. Instead of the cannister filter I would use that money for a couple of powerheads. You are going to want them to provide flow inside of your tank. I like these koralia (http://www.theculturedreef.com/koralia.htm) pumps. They push plenty of water and are reasonably priced. I have 2 Koralia 2 pumps in my 54 gallon tank.

The best filtration for a reef tank is no filter at all. Instead use a deep sand bed (DSB) and 1-1.5# of live rock (LR) per gallon. You can go here aragonite (http://www.theculturedreef.com/aragonite.htm) and find more information on DSBs. I would avoid the live sand in a sealed plastic bag. How lively would you be after lying on a shelf in a plastic bag? Just let your LR colonize the sand. Better yet get a fellow reefer or two to give you a cup of sand from their tank. You will get the bacteria and lots of cool micro critters to help get your sandbed colonized. You can save money on your rock by using mostly base rock like this Dry Rock (http://www.marcorocks.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=14) and only a little LR. the LR will seed the base rock and it will become live.

^^^ what they said ^^^

GO GIANTS !!

I used ta like ya Roberto ;)

Sorry...you can't stop the Pats this year...it's destiny....

D

blah blah blah ... thats all i heard.

back to the normal topic now ........ sorry about the mini highjack of your thread.

thanks for the info sump is for 125 gallon but i have 75 gallon also skimmer is for 125 gal,cleaning waste like crazy ,have 2 power heads (1)koralia #4 2100gph and maxiflo 1200, plus canister has only phostrate filter and bio filters in it no charcoal also sump has a mag #5 sump return pump 500gps, tank still cycling but all but nitrate levels are fine, nitrate is 15 ppm's but no nitrite ,ph is 8.2-8.3 no ammonia. took all bio balls and let the cat play with them. when will tank finish cycling have live sand and rock (26 lbs of cured rock) and 3 " of sand

DUNGNMATR, welcome to TR.

As you've already learned, you've come to the right place. Now that you found us, bring your questions up before you purchase something. You'll save money and make informed decisions as opposed to getting advice from your LFS. Which, if you haven't learned already, isn't the best place to get advice.

IMHO, you will need more LR, like about 100 lbs. LR is the main source of your biological filtration along with your sand bed. I'd like to see you go to at least another inch of sand for elimination of the Nitrate that's building up. Here is a link to an informative little book on DSB (deep sand beds) Sand Bed Secrets (http://www.theculturedreef.com/aragonite.htm) by Dr. Rom Shimek, who studies DSBs, the inhabitants and how they function in marine aquariums. It's on my web site, click on the book's thumbnail picture.

The tank may have finished cycling at this time BUT, will cycle again when you add more LR. That cycle will be shorter than the original.

A cat playing with bio balls, clever. The best use of bio balls ever!!!

Dick

besides my lfs is there a good site for LIVE SAND not the bag type (although your link to the sand dr. was excellent he did mention my bag type as good (argonite from the cribb) any suggestions.
also do I have to put cured rock in now? wish my foot doctor told me about you guys before i bought all the items i'm learning I don't need. will ask before I buy
thanks walter

I have found getting LS from a collector a real crap shoot. You are looking for the sugar fine white Aragonite sand and most on line dealers will say, "yeah, that's what we got". Then it comes in and is something different than what you expected. It may be white but it definitely isn't fine. I'm sorry not to be able to recommend a dealer/collector to buy from. I can say, stay away from the Gulf Coast dealers. Aim for the dealers/collectors in the FL Keys. You're not likely to get Caribbean LS but, the stuff from the Keys is more to what your looking for. At least that's what I've heard. When I get my coral farm in operation I'm probably taking a trip to the Keys to look for fine white LS. Then I'll probably have the real Aragonite sand from the Bahamas that I culture into LS for sale. Problem is it isn't cheap and it cost's a bunch to ship because of the weight. The good thing is you don't really need too much.

Dick

Dick
Now That I've Taken All The Bio Balls Out And Given Them To The Cat
Can I Use The Space Below The Area To Create A Refugium System
Or Will The Water That Comes In Be To Fastmoving For This Area
Can I Place Lr There And Some Ls ?

The quick answer is, probably yes, but, I'd like to see a picture of the sump to answer more accurately. Here's a picture of how I converted a wet/dry to a sump/refugium on my 135...

http://www.theculturedreef.com/135%20Rock-12.jpg

The bio balls are packed in a box. When your cat destroys/losses her bbs let me know I'll send you mine.

In the "dry" chamber I put LR and under that chamber I put Puka shell for pod production condo's. Lots of live stuff in there. I put 3 or 4 containers of Walt Smith's Fiji Mud on the bottom, aragonite sand in the middle and WS' Fiji Gold calcium on top as an experiment for the sump. Can't say it helped or not. Would I do it again? Probably the Fiji mud, yes. Because the critters that convert Nitrate to Nitrogen gas work best in "mud" according to Dr. Skimek's book.

So to answer your question as best I can; personally, based on not seeing a picture of your filter, I would lay down some aragonite sand and put as much LR in the "dry" area as it would hold.

Dick

Wow Your Wet/dry/refugium Is Fantastic Mine Is Only For A 125 Tank By Aquapro Clear
But The Design Is Similar Except Smaller I Don't Have The Room Between The Lr You Have And The Mud ,the Blue Filter Is Right After The Area You Lr Is ,then I Have A Large Area Where My Pump And Skimmer Are. I Could Back Up My Skimmer By Installing Flex Tube Instead Of The Hard Tube That Came With It And Then Section Off The Remaining Tank After The Blue Pad Filter With Plexiglass And Add The Ls With The Mud. I'll Try To Photo The Filter Area

OK, Bobby may complain again about my dirty sump/fuge but this picture http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/CarmieJo/DSC_8281.jpg does show how I have mine set up. :) I have the water flowing down onto the drip plate. This is probably a faster than optimal flow rate but it seems to work for me.