New to saltwater

[Camel413]

Hello, I am new to salt water tanks and I have been wanting one for years. I have had freshwater tanks for the past 5 years but have always wanted a reef setup. I started researching saltwater setups about 2 years ago while I was renting a place and decided that I didnt want to set up a tank at that time. Well now I have bought a house and have been researching it again. I have been on this forum for about 3 month lurking around.

My wife and I eventually want a 240 gallon tank (96 x 24 x 25). I dont want to start with that tank at first though. I do have a 70 gal that I thought about starting with but just today I have decided to start off with a 29.

My plan is to build my own stand so that I can use a 29 gal tank for my sump to maximize my volume of water, with my display tank also being a 29 gal. I am planning on making my own over flow similar to the coast to coast design but instead of going all the way to edge is will be about 2" from the ends of the tank on both sides. I will run duel returns beside the overflow, one on each end. Here is a REALY bad sketch of what I am talking about:

top veiw
[R] is supposed to be the return pipe
[____OF______] is supposed to be the c2c overflow
ignore the ...... I had to add those to keep my spacing correct, the forum kept taking out my spaces

__________________________________
l [R] [______over_flow__________] [R] l
l [R]...........................................[R] l
l.....................................................l
l.....................................................l
l_________________________________l



My first question is: is it ok (safe) to use food coloring with fresh water when first setting up the tank to see how my water is flowing through the tank with this setup?

[bertoni]

I'd empty the tank after using any food coloring, and then wipe the tank surfaces. I don't know what's in all the various types available.

[Sisterlimonpot]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>
Ironically enough I got your little sketch. I made a C2C just like you described, it worked awesome and had great surface skimming.

I agree with bertoni, to clean the tank after doing it. Being a fresh water guy, I'm sure that you have a few air pumps laying around, why not experiment with bubbles in the flow??? That way you can watch the flow and not contaminate the water....

[Camel413]

I am glad to hear that my design should work. I did plan on a through cleaning after testing. I was just thinking if I am going through the hassle of filling the tank up with freshwater to test for leaks, ect, I might as well see if there was a way to test for flow through out the tank. I also plan on using 2 of the korliea nano sized power heads to help out also.

This is going to be a slow build process but thats ok because that give me time to do more research. I have a list of all the equipment that I am going to get and I plan on purchasing almost everything I need except the lights at once. I dont have the extra money for the lights and quite frankly havent decided on how I am going to go on that aspect. I figured once I got all the other equipment in and set up I would start my live rock cycling and that would give me the time to get my lights up and running before adding anything else to the tank.

Thanks for the responses so far.

[Camel413]

Ok new question I just thought of last night that I have never seen asked before. I know that you are supposed to have 1-2 pounds of lr per gallon of water. Is that figure from the display tank or total amount of water. A hypothetical and unrealistic example:

10 gallon dt
40 sump

Would you need 10-20 pounds live rock or 50-100 pounds live rock?

[jong11]

Live rock serves as a biological filter, so the more live rock the better from what I understand. Some people put live rock in their sump and/or refuge. But the 1-2 lbs is typically for your dt.

[bertoni]

The amount of live rock depends on the load that's put into the tank. There are too many variables to make anything but a rough guess, but 1-2 lbs per gallon of occupied tank space would be my rule. Unless you're adding fish to the sump, I would ignore the volume there.

[bertoni]

The amount of live rock depends on the load that's put into the tank. There are too many variables to make anything but a rough guess, but 1-2 lbs per gallon of occupied tank space would be my rule. Unless you're adding fish to the sump, I would ignore the volume there.

[Chiefsurfer]

^^^+1. Theoretically you can have like 10 lbs of live-rock, but your filtration would be low, and therefore would have to keep a low dioload. If you plan to have like 1 fish and a lot of corals, you can go with quite a bit less LR.

[Boundless]

Welcome ! Keep up with your water changes since it is a small system.

[Camel413]

I just wanted to give an update on my plans. Shortly after making my other post I tried to drill a 29 gallon tank for my overflows, well it shattered on me. I was drilling the back glass and after about 1 minute of drilling it shattered in tiny pieces. I took it the rest of the way apart to use the other panels for my sump. When I tried cutting them they shattered. Apparently the entire aquarium was tempered. I wasnt expecting this as I though that 29s was rarely tempered. It wasnt a huge loss as I got this aquarium out of the trash for free.

I finally located another 29 and have successfully drilled my overflowes and constructed my c2c overflow. My stand is almost finished and I am about 75% done with my hood.

I am on the look out for a 20 long for my sump so I can begin my plumbing.

My question is are the return lines supposed to be the same size as the overflow lines, smaller, bigger?

[Chiefsurfer]

they can be the same size, but are commonly SLIGHTLY under-sized. The reason is because the pump flow should not exceed the overflow, so by restricting it a bit, you are not really doing any harm.

[Camel413]

Another update on my tank. I am finally moving along at a much better pace. Remember I started this project on January 1st. Currently I have my tank setup with the sump plumbed. I got my rodi unit and filled my tank with water about 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I added my salt and sand. Last week I added 25 pounds of dry rock and just today I got 10 pounds of fully cured live rock from lfs (@ $9.00 a pound, wow).

Here are a few pics, they are not very good as I could not seem to get the lighting in the room and flash to work with me. The front tank shot looks bad. It is no where near that green looking. Right now since all I am doing is cycling my rock I only have a one bulb freshwater light on it. My reef light is back ordered and should be here in 2 weeks.

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[mihamlet]

Good idea with the food coloring, but I myself would be cautious. Nice tank!