Please help to decide what pieces to upgrade when.
 

Hi all!

I've made the plunge from fresh water to saltwater with the intent of building a reef w/fish tank. I bought a sweet starter unit that may not be so sweet when I look at all of the upgrades I need to make.

It was a 54 gallon bowfront corner unit with stand. It came with a Rena XP-2 canister filter with spray bar, a Red Sea Prizm HOB skimmer, a 9 watt Tetra pond UV clarifier, 2 1048 eheim return/draining pumps, three koralia powerhead and a jager heater. It also has a compact florescent hood unit (I think Coral life), with fan for actinics and whites.

My first upgrade of choice would be to go with a sump however I have cats, lots of them, and nothing mucks up the works like cat hair, plus with the corner stand, I really don't know where I would put it and the bottom is tempered glass, so it cannot be drilled . That leads me to think that upgrading to a larger canister filter would be a great idea but then that would limit me to the hob skimmer, would it not?

I've got some great liverock with lots of corraline algae that has been cycling for over a month and a half now. It came from a 7 year old mature system. However, I would love to invest in a RO system so I can use tap water as getting RO water is a pain due to where we live. My parameters are all in check but I can see my phosphates slowly creeping up with the growth of hair algae and cyano.

I really don't know where to begin as I read and read and read and I think I've got it narrowed down to replacing a component but then worry that I might be missing something.

Any system tweaks suggested? Additions? Deletions? Right now, this is as big as a tank as I can get as we have many, many other freshwater tanks resulting on a limited amount of real estate in our home for anything larger.

Please share your expertise and make suggestions. TIA!!!

I would get rid of the filter and invest in a better skimmer. :biggrin:

Thanks for your reply. So then no filter at all, just upgrade the skimmer?

Yes

SkimmerKing has one for sale a Deltec 500. He has it on here for a great price by the way.
You may wish to go bigger though it depends what you plan to keep. The bigger the bioload the bigger the skimmer.

What are your plans for the tank for fish? And what corals you wish to keep?

PM'd you.

My plans for the tank are mostly softies with lps, so nutrient rich waters. I'm not sure about fish yet as I want to strike the right nutrient balance with the corals first before I increase my bioload.

Is it possible to have a sump in a bowfront with the middle compartment shaped like this / \ ? I've been doing a lot of reading and for the tank I hope to run a sump would make more sense then a hob skimmer. Is there a way to cover the sump partially to protect from the cat hair, screening it possibly?

tank
 

if you can,drill the back of the tank for your overflow to your sump and use a herbie or bean animal.also look into the return-how are you going to bring the water back up.you also need water movement in the tank-whether it's powerheads or a wave box

you can also but HOB overflow boxes and as for the sump try to get one with a lid to keep cat hair out mine for my 75G has one that should keep cat hair out:mrgreen:

I've got 2 eheim pumps used for draining the tank that could be used for the return and 3 koralia powerheads for water movement due to the bow front.

Yeah, I was wondering what kind of overflow would work because I don't have a whole heck of a lot of room. Right now the Rena canister, eheim pumps and the tetra UV sterilizer fits in this cramped area (with the eheim pumps and the UV unit off the ground and attached to the sides).

/ \ Ideally, I could build a sump looking like this with a skimmer and the
l l l return hoses at the apex. And if I could fit the entire unit inside, there would be a smaller chance of getting cat hair in the water, but I still might screen it.

Your tank is small enough...I would go with the hang on. Then if you like Salt think of going with a tank that has a sump. I have 3 dogs and a cat hair is no biggy.

Yup sumpless, make sure you have as much rock as you can fit into the tank. the rock will make the sump un nessecary. rely on your power heads and skimmer to do the work. make sure you buy the very best skimmer you can afford. the pumps and lights should provide you with ample heat to keep it warm. im marine more cycled rock makes you more stable. always keep this fact in mind and youll be fine. I might get flamed for this but probably imo the best Hob skimmer is the little one made by instant ocean. that little guy hooked to a maxi 1200 really does a good job on the smaller systems.

I have minimal rock + sand in my 77 gal ~ 2 Power heads and a Aqua C Pro hang on skimmer and 7 fish.

hmmm minimal rock? how are you making that work with 7 fish?

It just does

I've got 55 lbs of cycled live rock and a good 3 inches of live sand but I have been thinking about putting more rock in my 20 gallon QT tank because it looks so overcrowded.

With the corner bowfront, there are only so many ways you can build the rock up and around because visibility is so high. Great for display, not so much for hiding places.

So then, if I get rid of my filter what happens with the spray bar. Can the output of the skimmer be retrofitted?

on the output of the skimmer you could retrofit it. make sure you arent restricting the output of the skimmer though, as it may reduce the effectiveness of your skimmer.

Yeah, I worry about that because skimmers can be so damn finicky and adding another variable to tweaking it might be too much. Has anyone had success in retrofitting the output on their skimmer?

You could also go skimmerless as well as sumpless

:shocked!: How? Isn't that sacrosanct?!?

Sumpless and skimmer less is perfectly fine just need to increase water changes.

Then I'd have to add a RO system because where I live, even the RO water tests high in phosphates.