I've Caught The Bug, Help!

[rayc]

:) hi all,
just about to take the plunge, wondered if anyone could let me know if i'm heading in the right direction.

i am going for a mixed reef tank, 48 by 18 by 18 with a sump for the eco system.

i would like plenty of flow so a powerful return pump and a few powerheads would be used. any idea's on best type?

lighting would be the arcadia luminaire t5 system. what would be the best tubes to use?

i have been told that a skimmer and any kind of bottom medium is a no-no for this system. what do you think?

i've got so many questions! :o

i am just about to get the glasswork done, anyone know of any good aquarium/cabinet makers in the south east?

if anyone is running a similar system a diagram would be great.

i think thats it,any help would be greatly appreciated, i am a complete newbie!!!! :wacko:

cheers
ray

[bunglehaze]

hi ray, welcome to ultimatereef!

I cant help you much on the eco-system front as I have no experience but i will have a pop at the rest for you

If you are wanting a good return pump I can highly recommend the eheim hobby pumps and the aquamedic-oceanrunner range, for a powerful one I would say the ocean runner or6500 is a cracker for shifting water effortlessly, if that is too mush then perhaps the eheim 1060 or 1262?

For in tank circulation it depends on the type of tank you are setting up - ie an sps coral reef, softies tank or fish only. I am tempted to get a tunze stream or two for my new setup simply because they shift Huuge volumes of water at a low velocity and use up little leccy! The other preffered method on this subject is to use closed loops - use the search on the board for more info or check out si- garratts excellent reef-eden site ( you can find the link on members sites section).

I have no experience of T5 lighting but I would say that you will probably be best off aiming for 10000k tubes and actinic or the new arcadia blue's as a supplement, you will get a good visual colour and it is great for corals.

AFAIK it is not recommended for you to use a skimmer with an ecosystem tank but I would be tempted to have one linked up just in case, the reason for this is it takes the ecosystem about 3 months to kick in properly so its best to hav it just be on the safe side.

hope that helps you a little, good luck and remember read loads on this board - take advice and have patience

cheers
leigh :D

[rayc]

thanks leigh & daz.

loads of helpful info.

think i'm nearly there.......

[druid5303]

I personally would use an Ocean runner 3500 because you need plenty of flow in the tank but not as much for the sump return.
Druid

[rayc]

hi all,
soon to get the tank and sump made and been thinking about how to get the water from one to the other.

what is best? a weir, an overflow box or just a drilled hole?
the tank is going in the lounge so has got to be as quiet as possible.

also should the return go straight into the tank or into a powerhead of some kind? (having a tunze stream for movement leigh).

thanks
ray

[bunglehaze]

Hi ray, really its a matter of preference and I personally prefer a drilled hole with small overflow weir to regulate how much water is allowed to the sump. when it gravity feeds to the sump you will need a return pump such as the ehaim 1060 to pump it directly back to the tank.

glad to hear you are getting a stream (lucky sod)

cheers
leigh :D

[BEVS OASIS]

:unsure: if your a new bee why are you going straight in at the deep end and opting for an eco system

[rayc]

its the natural way, healthier creatures, less maintenance. (so i've read)

[Frogfone]

Hi Ray

Got to agree with reaper on this one Ecosystem is not the system i would recommed for a newcomer. The best thing to do is setup your system in such a way that you can switch over to Ecosystem in the future . I.e. a big sump with a large main compartment.

The best analogy I can think of is tight rope walking. the skimmer is your safety net you don't want to take it away till you have walked the rope abit.

Skimmers are a no-no as they export nutriants that the algae needs. substrate is fine as long as it's not deep enough to act as a denitrification process and compete with the algae.

If you do decide to go ahead check out the American boards as they are way ahead of us on this one.

i.e.

www.reefaquariumguide.com
www.reefs.org
www.reefcentral.com


just search under ecosystem and you get shed loads.





Roddy

[ziggy]

Hi Ray,

Welcome :)

Just a quickie because I'm on my way out, but I would look to see if you can go wider and higher if poss, will give you more volume and also at 4ft long 18x18 can look very narrow and cause you trouble with aquascaping too.

[ziggy]

Hi Ray,

Welcome :)

Just a quickie because I'm on my way out, but I would look to see if you can go wider and higher if poss, will give you more volume and also at 4ft long 18x18 can look very narrow and cause you trouble with aquascaping too.

[rayc]

hi all, ;)

appreciate your advice.

definately going bigger on the tank ziggy, probably 48 x 24 x 20 cant go much bigger cause of space.

i know what you and reaper mean roddy, a bigger safety margin would be good, i'm bound to make a few mistakes

thinking about going the berlin route, lots of rock and a good skimmer but still use a sump so i could change later if i like.
what would you suggest as a mechanical filter in the sump?

what type of skimmer would you recommend for this size tank and is it possible to over-skim the tank?

cheers

ray

[tuan]

Skimmer - IMHO you can't go wrong with something like a Deltec APF600 for this size tank, or even an 850 if you stretch. And yes, you can over-skim, but very unlikely for this set up.

If you design your sump to be used in eco-system style now, then why not have a deep sand bed in there to provide lots of filtration. Its easy to set up and allow you to reduce the amount of living rock required.

Also do remember that lots of living rock is not necessarily as good as less rock but arranged in open structure with lots of flow. Dont go mad and buy tons of rock then have to squash them all into a solid wall!

You should not need any mechanical filter. Make provision for the use of filter floss but in general, most of the time you will not need to use floss. The skimmer should do the work and remove waste for you.

[rayc]

cheers tuan,

must admit i definately prefer the idea of less rock, dont really want to build a reef wall.
more like a sea-mount type thing in the middle of the tank, giving the fish plenty of room.
as long as theres enough rock for filtration.
if i have a sump i may as well have some type of dsb but i'm not really sure how they work.
i know that it should be full of critters.
whats the best material to use and how do you get it populated?

thanks
ray ;)

[tuan]

There are plenty of threads on DSB - well worth doing a search or two.

Briefly though, the sand you want should be as fine as possible, aragonite-based or silica sand can be used though there's a slight advantage with using aragonite sand.
Here's a short list of Aragonite (or sand based on crushed coral skeletons)
- caribsea aragamax or aragamud
- Natures Ocean sand
- Longcliffe P52 aragonite
Also, silica sand such as BD Trading should work too. Children's play pit sand are also used by some and have the advantaged that it tends to be cleaner than just sand from builder's yard.

You then seed the sandbed with grunge from LR tanks from your LFS, or beg/steal/borrow/buy cupfulls of sand from as many people as you can to increase diversity. As long as you feed the sand bed the worms/critters population should build up and make a healthy & functional deep sand bed.

[Frogfone]

Hi Ray

Can't go wrong with the Turbofloater 1000 multi IMHO. It will be more than adaquate for any 4' tank. The advantage is it can be a hang-on or sit-in type which means you could just stick it back on the side if you needed to once you go Eco ( I know i'm keeping mine for this reason).

I'm with tuan go the DSB route the setup is almost identical to MM. in fact a lot of the US guys just use DSB with laterite mixed through it instead of MM as they recon thats what it is.

I'm putting 65kg in my 4' x 2' x 2' for aquascaping which i recon should be more than sufficent for filtration on top of the calerpa/mud.

Roddy