Reef advice/opinions

[Makled24]

Hello all. This is my first post on the site and my first reef tank. It is a 50 gallon sump-less breeder. I have a Hydor Koralia 850 running on the right side and am adding a 650 to the left side tomorrow to increase the flow. I also have an Aquaclear 110 HOB filter. For lighting I run Aquatic life T5s. There is about 25 pounds of rock in the tank along with 2 corals, 4 fish, and 3 cleanup crew members.

After 2 months in the hobby my tank has been running pretty smoothly. My current concerns would be how to make my water changes/top off more accurate and if I should add more rock. I prefer the simplistic look, but have thought about adding a piece as a bridge in the middle gap for more filtration. I am also looking for some direction on what to do next in regards to adding coral. All thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated. Look forward to being more active around here!

[Makled24]

Anyone?

[thegrun]

Is there a question, or are we supposed to just give out random advice? If so my advice would be to ask a question!

[WatDatThing]

My advice is she ain't worth it.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

[Tripod1404]

Dont put fish in the tank before the water.

[JUNBUG361]

Live rocks or sand

[Darthv247]

Don't eat yellow snow.

[Ron Reefman]

OK, enough making fun of the newbie.

To the OP (Original Poster), please try again. Most of us, even some of the people teasing you or making fun of you here, would really help if they knew what kind of help you want.

[mcgyvr]

this is another post where they linked to something external,etc.. and this board "jails" those posts until the moderators get around to unlocking it..

I'd guess the "anyone" was an attempt at a bump even though we haven't even seen the first post show up yet..

I wish they would just turn that function off...

[JUNBUG361]

[billdogg]

Well. Now that there is text and a couple pictures maybe I can take a stab at this for you!

A good rule of thumb for rock is ~1 pound/gallon although depending on the density/porosity of the rock that amount can be greater or less. It will also depend on what look you are going for. I like what you have, but I would be tempted to add another piece or two as well.

If you are planning on stony corals, you will want to up your total circulation quite a bit. For LPS you should aim for something in the 30-40x range, for SPS, 80x is not unreasonable. In my 120DT, I'm someplace north of 80x and I'm thinking of adding a little more just to make sure there is adequate flow.

Topoffs can be made quite precise using a ATO, but with no sump there won't be much room for error. Even with a sump, I prefer to manually add as needed for evaporation. As for water changes, as you do more they will become easier to manage. After nearly 30 years for me, Sometimes I don't even bother to check the specific gravity of the make up water - I know how much salt to add to my barrel - 1 x 50g bag + 2 x 12oz jif jars full gives me 1.025. Every time.

hth

[heathlindner25]

I have noticed the top of your water has no movement

[billdogg]

I just saw that too. Good catch! You need to angle the power heads up to agitate the surface. That is where, especially in your case, most of the oxygenation occurs

[JUNBUG361]

Add 1 more power head

[ca1ore]

I always figure that people who stuff their tanks full of live rock must have little confidence in their ability to grow corals . Start with less rock .... takes more time then for the thing to get overgrown.

[Makled24]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

this is another post where they linked to something external,etc.. and this board "jails" those posts until the moderators get around to unlocking it..

I'd guess the "anyone" was an attempt at a bump even though we haven't even seen the first post show up yet..

I wish they would just turn that function off...

Yes lol now I understand all the trolling. Thought my OP with pics and a couple paragraphs wasn't enough 😕

[Makled24]

Originally Posted by billdogg

Well. Now that there is text and a couple pictures maybe I can take a stab at this for you!

A good rule of thumb for rock is ~1 pound/gallon although depending on the density/porosity of the rock that amount can be greater or less. It will also depend on what look you are going for. I like what you have, but I would be tempted to add another piece or two as well.

If you are planning on stony corals, you will want to up your total circulation quite a bit. For LPS you should aim for something in the 30-40x range, for SPS, 80x is not unreasonable. In my 120DT, I'm someplace north of 80x and I'm thinking of adding a little more just to make sure there is adequate flow.

Topoffs can be made quite precise using a ATO, but with no sump there won't be much room for error. Even with a sump, I prefer to manually add as needed for evaporation. As for water changes, as you do more they will become easier to manage. After nearly 30 years for me, Sometimes I don't even bother to check the specific gravity of the make up water - I know how much salt to add to my barrel - 1 x 50g bag + 2 x 12oz jif jars full gives me 1.025. Every time.

hth

Yeah I guess my attempt to bump was taken as my OP. I think I'm going to add some more rock just to help the system out. I've also added a powerhead to the left side and aimed the right one upwards. As for water changes I've marked off a few buckets so I know exactly how much water I'm taking out. Top offs would be my least accurate thing as basically I just eyeball and add the same amount of water each day. I use the waterfall on my filter as some type of a guide.

I plan on adding about 10 snails this weekend, is that a good idea? I don't really have any algae issues and even feel as if I'm struggling to see coralline growth. I haven't cleaned the back of the tank and only see some white fuzzy algae growing.

[Makled24]

Originally Posted by heathlindner25

I have noticed the top of your water has no movement

Thought my filter would create enough, but I have adjusted my powerhead for more movement. Thanks.

[Miles_Glasser]

Beautiful tank. Get some GSP, pulsing xenia and glove polyps. They'll grow really fast and your tank will be awesome

[MrDemonicAngel]

what are you running inside your Aquaclear? you have enough space in there to put in a bunch of Siporax so you dont have to add more rock into your display.

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by Miles_Glasser

Beautiful tank. Get anything other than GSP, pulsing xenia and glove polyps. They'll grow really fast and your tank will be overrun with weeds

FTFY

(jm.02 btw - some people like that stuff)

[Marco333]

Nice tank! I have a similar setup as well that I started in February of this year. Only thing I would recommend is a protein skimmer. I purchased the Eshopps Hang On Protein Skimmer PSK-75H and it has been great removing stuff so far.

[nursedude]

Personally, one of the greater PITB I had with prior reefs was top off water. I live in the very dry SW, and I lose 1/2-3/4 gallon a day on 66 gallon more on the larger tanks I owed. My best investment an auto top off (ATO) with a 10 gallon storage container. This is expensive and may seem like a luxury but for me is a now a necessity. I like my Tunze unit with the redundancy built in you may find one less expensive. Plus the ATO will keep you salinity rock solid.

As far as corals, it may be decision time do you want a mixed reef or a softy tank (more research to ensue based on what you choose). Soft corals could include easy leathers, mushrooms, polyps. Green star polyps are a crowd favorite. I would get a piece of rubble and sequester it on that, they can be invasive once growing . Hardy LPS corals would be an option as well, frogspawn, bubble coral, brain coral. These of course require stable Mg, Alk, and Ca with low organic nutrients. The more you add the more nutrients you create so go slow.

Not sure if you have fish stores near by, but if you decide to add more rock go big, find a beautiful piece of live rock with tons of life. I did this with a prior aquarium added rock slowly and had found some amazing pieces. Some may already have coral as well. Wish you much success.

[nursedude]

Oh and WELCOME! (Where are my manners)

[Miles_Glasser]

Originally Posted by billdogg

FTFY



(jm.02 btw - some people like that stuff)

It doesn't grow THAAAAT fast.