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jlessary
08/15/2013, 07:40 AM
For starters a little about me. I am fairly new to the hobby I have had freshwater with a lot of success (IMO) and I have tried a Saltwater tank before but it was a Nano style (15 gal) and I wasn't ready and over treated little problems. I have been doing a lot of research over the last 2 weeks and have finally gotten to a point where I am starting to purchase items. I am looking for someone who can look over what I am looking to purchase and tell me if I am on the right track or not. I have also listed what my wife and I want to have in the tank (a large selection we are planning on picking from) for more of an idea of what the tank will be used for. I think I have done pretty good research and have a pretty good start going just looking for what I missed.

Equipment

- 250 liter (~ 66 gal) Glass overflow style tank (90cm x 45cm x 60cm)
- ~31 gal sump 3 chamber
- Coralife Super skimmer with Pump
- Hydor 740 Universal Pump - 740 GPH - Original Seltz L40
- Coralife Lunar Aqualight High Output T5 Quad Lamp Fixture
- Hydor Koralia Magnum Circulation Pump
- Hydor Smart Wave Circulation Pump Controller, up to 100w per channel
- Hagen Living Sea Hydrometer-Thermometer C and F, Large, 12-Inch
- Fluval E Electronic Heater
- Cooler (not sure of the specs was sold to me by the fish store. The part I could read said up to 700gal I believe)
- salinity Refractometer, Aquarium & Seawater - Dual Scale (1.0 to 1.070 S.G.) by Agriculture Solutions
- API Reef Master Test Kit
- API Saltwater Master Test Kit

Substrate

- Approx. 31 kg (~70 lbs) live rock (divided between sump and DT)
- Natures Ocean Live Aragonite Reef Sand (enough for about 3 inch bed)
- First fill of water will mostly come straight from the ocean

Fish/Coral

This is a compromise between me wanting a reef tank and my wife wanting a FOWLR setup. I plan on starting out with the fish then SLOWLY adding the coral. I am looking at maybe 8 - 10 fish MAX with an anemone (for Nemo of course) and maybe 2 corals. This is what I am looking at (not all but at least part of this list looking for suggestions):

Fish and Inverts

- 2 Ocellaris Clownfish (Have to have)
- 1 Lemonpeel Angelfish
- 5 Blue Reef Chromis or Blue/Green Reef Chromis
- 2-3 Orange Stripe Prawn Goby
- 1 Scarlet Fin Soldier
- Bubble tip anemone
- Tank cleaning crew (I haven't researched this one fully yet)

Coral

- Candy Cane Coral (Caulastrea furcata)
- Trumpet Coral (Caulastrea curvata)
- Lemon Tree Coral (Stereonepthya sp.)
- Duncanopsammia Coral (Duncanopsammia axifuga)
- Button Polyp, Maui Wowie (Palythoa sp.)
- Jasmine Polyp (Knopia sp.)

If I am missing something specific please let me know I am just now gathering the materials to get the tank set up so I am at the very least 2 months away from putting anything living into the tank. I appreciate all the help I can get while I am doing my research and learning more about this Oo soo addictive hobby.

Sugar Magnolia
08/15/2013, 08:07 AM
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

It looks like you are on the right track. The only suggestions I would have would be to skip the lemonpeel angelfish; they are notorious for nibbling on corals. Then the soldierfish, those are nocturnal (hence the large eyes) so you likely won't see much of it during the day.

jlessary
08/15/2013, 08:21 AM
Thanks for the welcome I have joined about 3 forums in the last week posting questions and trying to figure out which one is the "best" and quickest to get answers from. My main concern is not overstocking the tank. I would love to have some Tangs but I know this tank is too small. : ( Maybe in the next tank. I'll take another look at the lemonpeel that one was the wife's choice... hard to argue...

acabgd
08/15/2013, 08:30 AM
If I were you I would buy some other test kits (Salifert, Red Sea...) just to be sure. Also if you plan on taking NSW bear in mind where to get it, during high tide and no rain/precipitation in previous days.
You would also need a skimmer and buckets/hoses for mixing/adding all the water, but that's the obvious one.

thegrun
08/15/2013, 08:30 AM
Things I would change:
Coralife skimmers have a very bad reputation; IMHO you are better off spending more money and get a quality skimmer.
I would get a controller like Neptune Lite or Reef Keeper Lite rather than the Hydor Smart Wave Circulation Pump Controller. For about the same amount of money you will be able to control heaters, lights and pumps instead of just the pumps.
If you get a controller it will come with a thermometer, although having a second lab grade thermometer is a good idea.
Get two heaters rated at half your desired wattage rather than one at full wattage.
Use dry sand, not live. You'll get more sand for your money. Go with either a 1" to 2" sand bed or at least 4". 3" is no man's land, not deep enough to get the advantages of a deep sand bed, but too deep for a shallow sand bed. It will just catch a lot of detritus and cause issues down the road.
Your bio-load is going to be very high with that many fish in a small tank, you will likely need to make very frequent water changes. I'm not sure you could keep that many fish and get the water quality good enough to also keep an anemone.
The angel is likely to get very aggressive in such a small tank and they are prone to pick at corals.
5 chromis are also very likely to kill each other off in anything under a 120 gallon tank.

jlessary
08/15/2013, 08:40 AM
grun, Thanks for the info I wasn't 100% on the deep sand bed I don't think another inch will hurt this tank it's a deep tank. As for the fish if I understand you correct I would be better off without the angel and stick to only one of each type?

I know a lot of forums say don't get an anemone till you have experience under your belt but that is one pair with this clown fish I can't get my wife to budge on. I figured adding it in first would help it acclimate and then I can monitor levels and if they start getting too high I can stop adding things.

Also the LFS says they can sell a "matched/hosted pair" anemone and clown already together... any thoughts on this?

thegrun
08/15/2013, 09:16 AM
For the fish I would only go with a single Chromis. If you can find a mated pair of clownfish they are fine together, but they will be more aggressive as a pair. In a 66 gallon tank that is likely going to be fine as there is enough room in the tank for other fish to keep away from the area the clown’s claim as their own. I would strongly recommend waiting at least three months after the initial cycle before adding the anemone, preferably 6 months. Anemones require near perfect stable water parameters, a new tank's chemistry tends to swing all over the place for the first few months and as someone new to saltwater tanks, your ability to stabilize the tank will be severely challenged. We all understand the desire to have all the livestock we want right away, but patience is one of the most important traits to acquire in this hobby.

jlessary
08/15/2013, 04:51 PM
grun, thanks again for the advice. I live in Okinawa, Japan and will be visiting the states in December so I am planning on getting the tank set up and running but not adding anything untill we get back to Okinawa in January.