60 Gal Rimless New Tank - Advice Welcome!

[Jeff Hendrick]

Greetings everyone -

I had a small saltwater tank about 10 years ago - and its evident that ALOT has changed since then technology wise! My prime focus for this tank is being mostly corals with a few fish.

I would love advice on any of these questions from veterans/experienced saltwater hobbyists.

This tank is nearly a month old - upon my last water test and visit to LFS - they were convinced that I had cycled quicker then usual - due to large amount of sand and LR. I just added to the two coral frags, and pair of tank raised clowns my wife picked :) There is an album attached to my profile of the rest of the equipment.

Here are some questions I have :

1. The ecodrift powerhead 8.1 can only be run on the lowest settings : 20% and W1 setting - higher levels seem too intense. The LFS said thats the only powerhead I would need. Any thoughts on placement? Its currently set in corner about 1/3 depth of the tank, towards the surface - I've been told how important surface agitation is. I do own an additional powerhead that LFS thought I could place at half depth toward rock - I do not know if this is overkill. Should I run weaker one at night? - and do ecodrift during the day?

2. Lighting - I have controllers for both the PRIME and Kessil - any thoughts on light intensity, color, duration with only Green Star and Zoa?
I am only running the prime right now, as Kessil is overkill with no SPS/LPS.
Any thoughts on Coral frag placement? I have them both in the bottom 3rd depth.

3. Refugium - I have a large brown algae bloom on the walls and sand surface. I know this was from the initial start up - I did not use RO to begin :(. Do I try and remove or let it dissipate? The refugium does not have high agitation, but I don't know how to change that with the design of the R-100.

4. I find my hermits on top of my corals alot - prohibits them from opening.. is this normal? I thought hermits were reef safe.

5. Thoughts on other beginner corals?

6. My LFS advised not to do a water change for 3 months to let everything establish.. I am working on a DIY auto top off - is there a preferred way to ADD new RO water when topping off?

7. At what point do I begin looking at a DOSER or reactor?

8. My salinity is at 1.024, and temp ranges between 77-79. Are these good for this setup?








Here's my build
Hardware:
60 Marineland Rimless Cube
(Built in Corner Overflow)
Aqua Medic Ecodrift 8.1 Wavemaker with Controller
Hydor Koralia Powerhead 600 GPH
AI Prime LED
Kessil E Series 360W LED
SICCE SyncraSilent 4.0 Return Pump
Eshopps R -100 Refugium 3rd Gen
Eshopps S120 Snow Cone Protein Skimmer
Eshopps Curve Refugium Light LED

Live:
60 lbs Real Reef Live rock
10 lbs Assorted
60 lbs Live sand

Livestock:
1 Extreme Snowflake Oscellaris
1 Black Oscellaris
Assorted Snails and Hermits

Coral:
1 Frag Green Star Polyp
1 Frag Assorted Zoa

[thegrun]

1. Your placement sounds about right, as does your pump speed. With corals I would crank it up to 50% and slow it down at night.
2. You don't need a lot of light with those corals. Be careful with the GSP, it will spread and take over your rockwork. If you are going to keep it it is best placed on a rock "island" surrounded by sand so you can trim off pieces as it tries to expand off the rock.
3. It sounds like a diatom bloom, increased flow will help, but it's almost inevitable in a new tank.
4. It's normal for hermits, a lot of us don't keep them for that reason. They do not harm the zoas, but they do keep them closed.
5. Here is a good website describing easy corals, but be careful, many of the easy corals can spread to a point of becoming a plague. http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/coralcare/ig/15-Easy-Corals/
6. I would start making weekly water changes right from the start, don't wait for problems to start and then try to correct it after the damage is done. Your diatom issue alone screams out for a water change. Add the top off water daily to your sump.
7. Add dosers or reactors when testing indicates that weekly water changes are not keeping up with the demand of the corals or your nutrient levels are rising.
8. Your salinity should be at 1.026, top off daily with saltwater to slowly raise it to the proper level. Temperatures between 75 and 82 are fine.

A few side notes:
Try to limit your questions to one or two per post, you will get more and quicker answers. It's fine to start multiple threads.
You should consider a screen top for your aquarium, nearly all fish are potential jumpers and you are going to start loosing fish.

[Jeff Hendrick]

Thegrun - thanks for the response.

Good info - thank you for taking the time to go through my many questions. I will keep it short in the future.

I will begin water changes - any thoughts on gal amount for a weekly?

Apparently there were multiple creatures in the macro algae that I bought for the regium - I have seen a lot of what I've read is positive but there are aptasia in there too. Is this ok to have in the Refugium compartment of the sump?

Thanks in advance.

[thegrun]

Do you know your true water volume (total amount of water in the system not counting rock, sand and equipment) of your system? It's an important number to know when figuring out dosing or medications. Regardless, 5-8 gallons weekly should be fine, if you see your nitrates rising then change out a little more. Unless there is a compelling reason to do so I think it's best to keep the water changes at or below 15% so you don't shock your livestock with a big change in water chemistry. I would try to remove the aiptasia, it can spread to the display tank.

[Chicagoreef2016]

I have the same tank and sump, I have two Jebao PP8s and I have been tinkering non-stop with where to place them. If both are going they blow the crap out of my frogspawn, which are placed midway up my tank on opposite sides. Currently I have one PP8 positioned towards the back by the overflow about 6inches below the water level pointed towards one of the sides slightly towards the surface, this seems to give me plenty of flow, when combined with my jebao 5000 return pump (set at 3 out of 10) I can visually see decent flow. That being said I am new to this, so may try and you said putting my other PP8 towards the bottom pointing directly at my rock work to blunt the flow, while still creating movement. If that is too much I might just increase my return pump one or two levels to keep things mixing up nicely.

So far I have been doing 5 gallon changes weekly.

[Chicagoreef2016]

Here is an image of my tank.

[offdapeggs]

I have been looking at this also thanks for posting