My first reef tank, suggestions??

[Pharoz]

I've just setup my first reef tank and was wondering if there was anything I was missing.

It's a 16g bow-front all-glass( I know it's a little small, but I'm just experimenting now!) and has a 55 W 7100K actinic blue and a 55 W 7100K daylight bulb. I believe I have enough lighting for a mini reef tank. Also, right now, there's 16-lbs of crushed corals and I'm planning on adding live sand later, but I don't know how much...

For filtration, there is a 10g sump I've made with three compartments, one for bio-balls, another for live rocks(and to act as a rufugium), and the third to house the return pump. I'm planning to add a skimmer in a week or so since the tank is still cycling.

I know I'm missing something, so any suggestions would be very helpful! Thanks!

Also, I've found this site to be very useful, and I think I will be coming here for awhile. Right now, I'm very much overwhelm with the information I got from here! The pictures here and the reef tanks at my LFS where I work is very fascinating and mesmerizing to me, especially with all the organism swimming around which is what attracted me to this aspect of aquarium hobby.

[dattack]

Right now your lighting is fine. Just make sure you have a small fan installed for the nanoreef.
Consider not using the crush coral and add sand instead, either south down sand or caribbea sea at your LFS. Check the "for newbie thread" at the top of the page and it will explain all the requirements needed.
You can ask questions in the nanoreef section of reefcentral or try www.nano-reef.com.

[stan]

geez you remind me of when i first started out.
lighting sounds fine but you should use sand instead of crushed coral cause food will get trapped in between the crush coral and turn into a nitrate trap. next take your bio balls and give them to the kids on your street to play with but save one for the cat to bat around the house. [major nitrate trap]. other then that keep a good amount of circulation going and youll do fine. next year when you get your bigger tank youll know what to do.
happy reefin,
stan

[DgenR8]

Hey, Pharoz,
[welcome]
We're glad to have you around!
I agree with everything said above, especially about those Bio Balls. Start without them, that way you won't have to remove them one by one later!
And... DSB (Deep Sand Bed) is far superior to Crushed Coral. In a nono, you might be too cramped for space to have a 4" DSB, a shallower one will not function as nitrate remover. Keep the fish load very low or nitrates will make you nuts!!:hmm4:

[Pharoz]

Hey, thanks for replying. I've decided to change the substrate I'm using to bio-active live aragonite. It's almost as fine as sand. I've heard that with sand, though, that it's a pain in the butt to clean as oppose to the coarser stuff. Is this true?

I'm also gonna ditch the bio-balls as it seems to cause more problems than I thought. I'm curious, when is using bio-balls a good idea? Is it mainly for fish-only tanks or something?? Currently, I've got about 13 lbs of live rock that will help with the filtration of the tank.

One last question(aaahhhh!!), what is the optimum temperature for a reef tank? I'm guessing it's somewhere around 76-78 F. I may be wrong.

[Q-ball]

Hiya...with the right sand, and a good population of worms, bugs, etc in the sandbed, there's nothing for you to do but sit back & watch them do all the work. I never touch my sandbed.
The only time I think I'd use bioballs anymore would be a fo tank, but even then, fish from the ocean/reefs tend to look more at home in a tank with liverock, and again if you have enough liverock so you don't need the bioballs. So, I guess the real answer is, you don't:)
As for temp, you'll hear everything from 77-83. I personally keep mine at 81-83, have for over a year now, and no problems. Dr Ron recommends 81 (I think, or around 80-82, something like that) as a natural temp for our critters.
HTH & Good luck!

Q!!!