My new 29 Gallon Nano Reef build thread

[Nathans_Dad]

Hello all, new to the forum.

This is my first attempt at a return to saltwater reefing after a minimally successful fish only set up some 15 years ago. Hopefully, I'm a little older and wiser and the technology is better now so I am thinking things will be better this time around. So, on to the tank!

This is a 29 gallon bowfront tank, 24 x 15 (at the tip of the bow) x 19. It was set up as my first freshwater tank some 3 years ago. It was idle in the garage for the last 18 months while I played with my 65 gallon fresh tank. I decided to take the plunge back into marine and thought this would be a decent way to get my feet wet.

Current equipment:

Lighting is a Current USA Outer Orbit 24" fixture with one 150w metal halide, 4 T5 HO actinics and 12 Moonlight LEDs (6 white and 6 blue). All are set up on timers, not exactly sure how long to run each one just yet. Currently I have the LEDS coming on 1 hours before the actinics, actinics 1 hour before the halide and the halide runs for 6 hours. Then it reverses at night. Eventually the halide will run longer but I am just cycling the tank at this point and might shut the lights off altogether to avoid an algae bloom. I got the fixture used for $140, which I thought was a decent deal.

Filtration is going to be a AquaC Remora protein skimmer which should arrive tomorrow.

I modded my AC70 into a mini-refugium and plan to grow Chaeto there.

Power heads will be two Koralia Evolution 750 gph models. I also have a 150 gph Top fin one I can throw in there if needed.

Usual thermostat heater set at 78 degrees.

I put down a 3 1/2 inch layer of aragonite sand (not live) and then put in 40 lbs of live rock I purchased from a woman who was breaking down her 150 gallon setup. Got the rock for $2.50 a pound. I have some questions about the rock because she had already sold 1/2 of the rock when I got there so I'm sure someone else picked the stuff that was on top of the reef and I got the base rock. As such there is not too much coralline on there, there's some but not a huge amount. Also there were a lot of white stringy things on the rock when I bought it, I'm assuming this is dead algae or something similar. I scrubbed the rock in fresh saltwater before putting it in the tank to get some of the dead stuff off. Pics are below:

Obviously this isn't aquascaped yet, I plan to scrub the rock several times over the coming week.


This is a shot of a representative rock. Lots of white tubes and strings all over it. Nothing seems to be moving though so I assume it's dead.


Close up of a rock with same stuff.


How aggressive should I be scrubbing this rock? I want to get the dead stuff off but don't want to get rid of anything beneficial either.

Plans are to cycle the tank and hopefully order my clean up crew in a week or two depending on parameters.

Stocking plan is mostly corals, maybe an anemone down the road once I have a better idea of what I'm doing. Fish will be pretty minimal, two percula clowns, a dwarf angel and some fire fish or gobies. Maybe a six line wrasse. Nothing major, mostly corals.

So, as this is my first reef tank, any and all advice is certainly welcome!! Thanks!