My proposed set-up of 75 reef/30 refugium

[polo]

I made my first post a couple of months ago and didn't have a clue as to what it would take to have and maintain a marine aquarium. I still don't know very much, but I have learned a little. What follows is a list of the items that I am thinking about for my 75 gallon reef/30 gallon refugium. I would like as much input as ya'll can give. If you feel the need to flame me, go for it. The first part lists some species I would like to have to start out with. I know not to start with ALL of these, but these are on the top of my list of choices. At some point in time I will go to SPS and clams, but not to start with. Next is the tank spec's (more or less). Last, is a drawing of my system. Thanks again for everyones help so far, I know I'll be needing it in the future. :( Sorry the link to my drawing doesn't work. :(

Clean-up crew:
Hermits (scarlet reef, blue leg, etc.)
Turbo snails
Coral banded shrimp
Scarlet cleaner shrimp
Brittle or serpent star

Corals:
Green Star Polyps
Xenia sp.
Mushrooms
Organ pipe coral
Yellow Polyps
Colt coral
Sinularia sp.
Fox coral
Torch coral
Open brain
Silver gorgonian
Encrusting Briarium

Fish:
Maroon clown
Blackcap basslet
Yellow watchman goby
Royal Gramma
Purple Tang
Engineer goby
Sailfin Tang
6 Line Wrasse

Equipment:
Retro-fit lighting from http://www.coralreefecosystems.com mounted in a DIY hood (making it myself): 48" (2) 250W 10000K MH/ (4) 110W VHO, 2 actinic and 2 daylight, with dual 4" fans

Mag 12 return pump or Mag 18 if 12 won't handle double overflow/return.

3 Maxijet 1200 powerheads on a Natural Wave wavemaker.

2 EboJager 150W heaters

AquaFX Barracuda 4 stage, 100 gpd RO/DI unit

NURCE model E auto topoff system

Live rock and live sand:
90 lbs Fiji live rock and 50 lbs live sand from http://www.themarinecenter.com

100 lbs "Fine Grade" oolitic sand from http://www.esvco.com

I know I will also need test kits, thermometer, hydrometer, piping and tubing for the plumbing, food for the animals (once I decide for sure what I want),etc.

Below is a link to the drawing of my system. I don't plan on using a skimmer, just the live rock, live sand (or mud), and macro-algae. The drawing doesn't show the auto topoff system of the RO/DI unit.
http://y42.photos.yahoo.com/bc/prendtricht/lst?.dir=/My+Photos&.view=t

Thanks again for any input that you have. :rollface:

[Edited by polo on 05-21-2001 at 11:11 PM]

[jgadbois]

Hey polo,

Not an expert but I'll offer my 2 cents worth.

Didn't see a skimmer on your equipment list. Hope that is an oversight.

If it's available Southdown tropical play sand is a much better value. I got 200lbs. for less than $20. I ordered a detrivore kit fom http://www.ipsf.com instead of getting live sand. My sand bed has quite a bit of life in it now.

Unless the NURCE was specifically to dose kalk, I would think about plumbing the water filter to the sump. I located my RO/DI unit near my tank and use a float switch to top off.

The stars are predators on the sandbed fauna so if you are looking to setup a DSB forget the stars. Add some Nassarius snails to keep the sandbed stirred and to help remove detritus. Also, many reefers are setting up tanks without hermits as they sometimes prey on snails. I personally really like Trochus snails as grazers. I also have Stombus snails which have reproduced in my tank.

Depending on how much you are willing to spend you may want to consider 250 watt HQI instead of MH. I have one and it throws out a lot of nice colored light. Also has a PAR second only to 400 watt Iwasakis.

You might want to reconsider two tangs in that small of a tank.

Last piece of advice - forget the hydrometer. Get a refractometer.

Good luck.

[SandM]

Hey this is a friendly board!! No flames unless you buy something and then ask "how do I take care of XXX"

Had to laugh at jgadbois' line of "You might want to reconsider 2 tangs in a tank THAT SMALL. I bet you dont think it's small.

Anyway here's my advice on you set-up

Skip the the blue leg crabs - mine really liked to eat the snails. Had no trouble with the scarlets and I only have 6 of them in my 75.

The coral banded shrimp can get to be a pest of corals of other inverts. Really like my pair of "skunk" cleaners.

Add some narrisus snails and a cucumber for sandbed cleaning. Serpent stars get big and can be aggressive.

Maroon clowns are know to have attitudes. Are you looking at an anenome down the road?

NO engineer goby. These guys will dig like you wont beleive and your nicely land-scaped rock will be like the walls of Jerico. You WILL thank me later on this advice.

Corals - nice selection

Lighting looks good

Mag 18 will be overkill IMO. Dont forget that you are going with a refugium/marco algea filter and the flow through there will be way to much.

I doubt you will need the heaters. I havent used for one several years. Currently live in the Florida panhandle but used to live in North Carolina and didnt need one there either. I bet you use more A/C then heat in your house.

RO/DI units is one of your most valuable peices of equipment. 100GPD is overkill. If they have a 4 stage with less GPD go for it and save the cash.

Thoughts on the sand and rock. Current feeling is that a good sandbed is more important then lots of rock. You will need about #180 lbs of sand to get a good 4 inchs. I would get 10lbs of the live sand, and detrivore kit for IPSF, and some southdown sand. You wont be able to get it locally but Reefland and PremiumAquatics have been stocking it. It will cost you about $.50 a lb through these sources but it's still about 1/2 price of others. My tank has a mix a everything to include crushed coral. The secret is diversity in the sand bed so get small amount of live sand from various sources, local shop, buddys tank etc. Fiji rock is nice stuff. It is very "light" so 90# will really fill up your tank. You will probably end up with the "fruit stand" look trying to get all that rock stuffed in your tank. I'd start of with around 60# and then add from there. If you mail order it - get a 44lbs box of uncured for premium and add a couple large "show peices" (bigger then 11lbs) to the order. Your rock will cure right along with the tank cycling process.

That's my $.02. By the way you link to Yahoo doesnt work. It says that it is a "restricted" site so I assume that it is protected by your password.

Scott

[skipm]

First off on your fish selection I'm not sure if the basslet and royal gramma are a good match, they probably won't get along. I'm not sure if I would want to try and run a reef tank w/o a skimmer as a new reefer. Going back to livestock on the coral banded shrimp if you add this then only add one, if they are nt a mated pair then they will fight until one is no more. When you said something to the effect of a Mag handling two overflows the return pump will handlethe overflows because the water that comes from the tnk is the same as the amount of water that is returned to the tank. The problem lies in how much water the overflows can handle. Another snail
that you may consider to stir your sand is the Cerith Snails, I would also use some smaller snails like the Margaritas that can get into some areas that the large turbos can't. If your sump is going to be acrylic or if you have someone who is willing to drill glass then I would skip the Nurce and use a float valve attatched to a gravity fed top-off tank, there is alot less that can go wrong with this set-up, I have been using this system for about 4 years with no problems. On the coral list keep in mind that a torch can put out some rather long feeder tentacles and sting its neighbors so it will need some space. I appolgize for jumping around so much and being so long winded. Good luck and feel free to ask as many questions as necessary until you feel comfortable. Skip

[polo]

Thanks to you all! Ya'll have brought some things up that I hadn't thought about and made me re-think some others. Like I said in my post, this was just to get an idea of where I was at. I am still several months away from spending any money, so there is plenty of time for changes to my plan. If anyone else has any advice, please fire away.