got my 90G today, have a few questions

[pufferpoison]

ok I got my 90G undrilled tank today and have added about 20G of RO/DI water to it, should be full tomorrow some time. I just keep coming back to this refugium/sump thing and can't seem to shake it. No i am not going to drill the tank, does anybody on here run a tank w/out a sump / refugium? here's the equipment i am using

2 x 250W stealth heaters
125G coralife super skimmer
refractometer
maxijet 1200
Seio 800
magnum 350 Cannister
turbo twist uv sterilizer 18W
Tek 6x54W t5 lights
30LBS LALO LR
20LBS Figi LR
20LBS Live Sand
30LBS ARAGALIVE sand
*need more sand, found post on home depots southdown play sand but my homedepot doesn't carry it, only brown colored play sand. (any suggestions? helppppppppppppppp)
typhoon 3 RO/DI
Coralife timer

plan on getting some more powerheads but right now my water turnover is about 18 times per hour (seio 800gph / coralife 125gph / magnum 350gph / maxijet 295gph)

I plan on doing a yellow tang, few clowns, few anenomes, few lps, few sps down the road.

i've asked this before but why is a refugium / sump so important and is it totally nessesary? is it just more water? logic being "solution to pollution is dilition?"

Could someone show me a good DIY plan for hang on ref? or something along the lines??

thanks in advance.

[six.line]

The biggest problem I see with the canister filters is that they can become phosphate factories. A little bit ago I picked up a 55gallon and a 20gallon from a guy who owned a building that research was conducted in. Long story short, one of the research companies working with saltwater snails had defaulted, packed up, and left.

When I came to inpsect the tanks and find out if I really wanted to buy them, he asked me if I could use any of the other equipment. I pointed to the canister filters and said that although they did a fine job of filtering the water, they were nitrate and phosphate factories, and that I preferred to use a sump instead. He started to chuckle and I asked why he was laughing. He pointed to a Sam's club size of "Phosphate remover" pellets on the shelf. I smiled and said: "See?"

Your sump and refugium does increase your total water volume, and does help with pollution, but isn't purporting to be a solution to pollution. With your sump you can house a refugium in it, grow macro algae and pods, or have quite a bit of sand in order to help with de-nitrification and house beneficial algae that competes with other less desirable forms. Plus the more water volume you have, the less likely things change (temperature, salinity, etc...) A sudden swing of even 3 or 4 degrees in temperature can kill expensive fish or inverts, like my brother in law's anemone. :)

Then there's the aesthetic benefits of putting the nasty-looking protein skimmer in the sump away from the display tanks.

Will you be fine without one? Probably. It's really up to you. I think it's better to get one, though.

HTH :D

[pufferpoison]

ok since i'm new at this, how does having a cannister filter make phosphate if i'm using RO/DI water and do regular water changes? i'm very religious with water changes as i have a 55G FW, 20GFW,29G BW and a 10G QT tank and do weekly 50% water changes on all of them. I believe you, just would like to know the mechanics of it :)

[graveyardworm]

The filter canisters tend to be "nitrate factories" because thats as far as they take the nitrogen cycle. A DSB has the ability to go one step further by turning thr nitrate into nitrogen gas where it then is able to leave the tank. There's nothing wrong with canister filters other than alittle more maintenance keeping them clean. They also provide a good place to use carbon or phosphate remover. Which may come in handy without a sump. As far as a phophate factory, phosphate is added not created in your tank. The way it gets in is by feeding your fish.

I ran my 90 gal without a sump for a couple years with no problems, I had about the same turnover as you describe.

There's nothing wrong with the home depot play sand as long as you're comfortable with the color, not quite as white as aragonite. Dont bother with the packaged live sand. Live rock will provide all you need.

It sounds like you have a decent setup to start. You could do without the sterilizer just my opinion.

[PatMayo]

I had my 46 gallon bowfront set up for 5 months with a crushed coral substrate. I used a magnum 350 power filter and an Aqua C remora skimmer.

I had zero nitrates. Low bio load, changed the foam filter in the magnum 350 weekly when I did the weekly water change.

As a footnote, I don't think you have the lights necessary to take care of the "few anenomes" you say you want to get. Additionally I would wait several month before you even think of getting them.

Regards,

Pat

[pufferpoison]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7035607#post7035607 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PatMayo


As a footnote, I don't think you have the lights necessary to take care of the "few anenomes" you say you want to get. Additionally I would wait several month before you even think of getting them.

Regards,

Pat


OUCH, I've been reading on here for some time now and that's why i went with the tek light 6x54W system, was because the discussions on here led me to believe that that light would be enough to grow anything i wanted. So now after i spend $450 w/ bulbs, it's not going to be enough to have some anenome's?????

:(

[graveyardworm]

I dont think you'll have any problems keeping an anemone under that lighting. You should however wait before purchasing one this will give your tank time to stabilize and mature, and time for you to develop good husbandry skills.

[Pete1399]

Sounds like you have some good equipment. If you already bought the skimmer then ignor this but I would suggest a CSS 220 for a 90g reef tank. I also think you would like to have a sump even just to keep all the equipment out of your display tank.

[pufferpoison]

as far as waiting goes, i'm in no hurry and have waited for the 90g to go on sale for like 2 1/2 months, i'm very patient and have quite a few other tanks to keep me busy. I'm gonna wait for the live rock to fully cure in the tank and then slowly (like about a month from now) add one thing at a time.

[pufferpoison]

bump

[bandit_66]

As a footnote, I don't think you have the lights necessary to take care of the "few anenomes" you say you want to get. Additionally I would wait several month before you even think of getting them.

This guy is wrong, that is more than enough light to have most any anenomes. There is nothing wrong with the T5 Tek lights and since you have 6 of them you should be more than fine. The depth of you tank is 24'' right? I have seen some really, really nice sps tanks using the Tek T5 lights.

[graveyardworm]

You should try to develop a stocking list far in advance of adding your first critter. So you'll have time to figure out how compatable everything is and decide on which to add first and so on.

[ChunksInClemson]

Pufferpoison-50% water changes weekly? Sounds like that might be a little much. Try 10-20% weekly. If you do 50% weekly, your good bacteria is not having enough time to build up.

[pufferpoison]

ok i have read reall good things about RBTA's. have heard good things about carpet anenomes. don't know yet. will take suggestions :)

[pufferpoison]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7040093#post7040093 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChunksInClemson
Pufferpoison-50% water changes weekly? Sounds like that might be a little much. Try 10-20% weekly. If you do 50% weekly, your good bacteria is not having enough time to build up.

these are on established FW and BW tanks. since they are established, and the Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira are not free swimmers, but colonizers, I don't have any problems there. Now that is FW and BW, I would imagine that they are the same for SW, but having a newly setup tank will make a difference, and i plan on doing a lot less water changes with my SW setup.

[ChunksInClemson]

Yeah, SW is its own thing, not like anything else. I would do a 20% weekly until your tank stops cycling. After that, 20% every two weeks.

[ZOKU]

Without a sump... where is all of this equipment? Hanging on the back of the tank? What about the UV sterilizer? *shrug* The sump certainly isn't necessary, per se... but it does allow the ability to hide the equipment. If you like things the way they are, that's what is important. :)

[pufferpoison]

not using uv sterilizer yet, might run in to clear up tank once in a while or on my fw tanks. Kinda wish i didn't buy it but ..............

P.S. anybody looking for a new "used" turbo twist? LOL

[ChunksInClemson]

Im bout to put one on my tank to help with some of this diatoms.

[graveyardworm]

Diatoms and other micro algae are usually present for a reason, excess nutrients. You can use the sterilizer to kill water borne micro algae, but the sterilizer does not discriminate and will kill anything that passes through it including beneficial pods and any other zoo and phytoplankton. To reduce and eliminate algae you need relatively nutrient free water and a good cleanup crew.

[ChunksInClemson]

Yeah, well, I am gonna start using RO water for water changes from now on so it should go away slowly. Should I turn the lights off completely for now since I only have about 5 lbs. of LR in there? The UV sterilizer will not have any effect on diatoms?

[PatMayo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7039925#post7039925 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bandit_66
This guy is wrong, that is more than enough light to have most any anenomes. There is nothing wrong with the T5 Tek lights and since you have 6 of them you should be more than fine. The depth of you tank is 24'' right? I have seen some really, really nice sps tanks using the Tek T5 lights.

Could be that I am wrong. I can however say that most tanks that have "longterm" anemone success typcailly have MH lights on the tanks. I don't know for certain why this is. Could it be because of light shift changes between MH and T5 as they age?

I don't know for certain. I just hope that your critters like the set up you have and you have great success with the light set up that you have. I guess time will be the critical factor.

I hope you share your success with us.

Regards,

Pat