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Old 12-10-2004, 07:59 PM
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Okay i have decided that before next christmas i would like to start up a 33 gallon reef. Exept i plan on doing it 100 percent right and not cut any corners plus take all the advise you people can give me here is what i have decided on. Feel free to make comment.

33 gallon tank
pc lights (2 55 watt 50/50)
35 - 40 lbs of LR
3 inch sand bed
10 gallon fuge
not sure on what type of skimmer yet
not sure how powerful or what type or how many powerheads i should get.
For salt i will use wither IO or Kent

FISH
2 ocellaris clowns
firefish
2 neon gobies or a midas blenny or hectors goby

Cleanup crew
10 Red Scarlet Hermit Crab
10 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emeral Crab
5 astrea snails
5 bumble bee snails
5 cerith snails
10 Mergarita snails
10 Nassarius Snails
1 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
1 Lettuce Nudibranch (Jl said they are esy to keep still iffy though)
3-5 Hawaiian fetheur duster
bubble anemone (green)

Corals
assorted mushrooms (ricordea and furry forsure)
toad stool
hammer
Leather (not sure what type)
Colt
GSP
Clove Polyps
Zoo's (assorted colours)
  #2  
Old 12-10-2004, 08:06 PM
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Everything sounds pretty good to me. I would go with no less than two Maxi jet 1200 power heads for flow, that would work really nice. Will your fuge be mounted under the tank, like a sump? The only thing I think might be off is the depth of your sand bed. 3 inches is certainly fine but a bit overkill IMO. Have fun!
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THE BARQUARIUM:
55 gallon cube - 50 lbs LR - ASM G3 skimmer - 30 Gallon sump - 22 Gallon refugium / frag tank - 4x 24 watt HO T5's - Mag 9.5 return - Pin Point PH monitor - 400 watt XM 20K MH in Lumenarc reflector - Dual stage GFO/NO3 media reactor - 6 stage RODI auto top up -Wavemaster Pro running 3 Koralia 2's.

Fully stocked with fish, corals and usually some fine scotch
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  #3  
Old 12-10-2004, 08:48 PM
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Hey Ryan,

I have a 33g & I think if I had to do it all over again, I would upgrade immediately to a 66g. You very quickly run out of space in a 33 since you have a footprint of only 3 sq. feet. If you stick with the 33g, check out the difference in lighting & price between a 96w & 2*55w. I'm very happy with my 96w, but I found the 65w not bright enough, especially 50:50s by Corallife. 55w would be even dimmer. Go to the LFS & have them plug it in for you so you can do a side-by-side comparison.

Also, as suggested in another posting, start smaller with the clean-up crew & add more as you need since your tank may not have enough algae & detritus to support everything & some then starve to death & pollute your tank.

Larger water volume also makes for a more forgiving setup. Just my $.02.

Regardless, have fun with the setup.

Anthony
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Old 12-10-2004, 10:49 PM
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Ryan,

If you're going to do it right the first time, my suggestions would be:

1. Get MH lighting. Don't bother with PC because (as Seahorse) said, if you upgrade the size of your tank, your PC light may not be long enough and will need to be replaced. MH can be used, and if not enough you can add another one. For now, I would get 1MH 250W fixture going for corals (especially if you want to keep some SPS, I know you will eventually want to!).

2. Get a good skimmer. If you have a sump, even better because you can get an in-sump model. I run a Remora Pro on mine, and it's a huge eyesore although it's probably one of the best HOB skimmer on the market right now. Also, the pump is unsightly in my tank and would look even worse in a 33G. DON'T GET A PRIZM or SEACLONE!!!

3. Go with Tunze streams. You can probably put one 6060 in your tank if you mount it high enough. When you get a bigger tank, you can always add more.

All of the above is what I eventually upgraded or want to upgrade to. I spent so much money cheaping out or buying something that would only accomodate what I had then, and not what I might want in the future. I would have saved so much $$$$$

If only I could do it all over again......
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Old 12-11-2004, 01:48 AM
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Danny
The fuge will be like a big AC it will hang on the back and flow into the tank. A pump will suck water from the tank into the fuge. Okay so instead of 3 inches go to what maybe 1.5 or 2 inches of sand bed?

Seahorse_Fanatic
I only hane room for a 33 gallon this is why i am doing it this small. (Damb discus lol). I have both PC and MH here but i thought a MH on a 33 was over doing it. But if not i will build a canopy for it then. As for the cleanup crew this weas my plan to add it slowly it was just what i was goign to end up with. sorry for the confusion.

Dirtyreefer
Ya like i said i had both lights and i thought the PC were over doing it. I have a 150 sitting here but if i am using a halide i will get some marine glow flouresent fixtures. No i am sorry to say with this tank i do not want SPS. too much care involved. (Damb discus take up enough of my time) Also i will drill the tank then and use a sump what Insump model should i buy. Maybe a red Sea Dez had one for sale i wonder if he still has it? Tunze streams? What r they like a wave maker or a giant power head?? I would like to stick with mare smaller power heads because i have timers i can use that will work with my computer so i can ave random motions.

Just a note: I do not hate discus if this is what u were thinking lol I love my discus. They are my life. Dont take the "damb Discus" wrong.
  #6  
Old 12-11-2004, 05:44 AM
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Yeah, you don't want some Tunze in your 33G. They put out massive amounts of water and are huge (imagine 2 Hagen 802 powerheads stuck together). Also, a 4ft tank is usually the minimum recommended on the Tunze as they don't achieve their nice wide pattern of flow before then.

I would also do away with some of the rock and perhaps cut it down to 25 pounds or so. The reason being that every time you purchase a coral, it is usually on a piece of rock. So, if you start out with your tank already packed with rock, then when you add coral you'll usually have to either remove some excess rock anyway or reduce the water volume in your tank and replace it with rock. Of course it all depends on the look you like though...the massive rock walls or the rock "piles" with a lot of open swimming space.

If you are going to drill the tank and run a sump, then for a return pump I would use a Mag 5 or 7 or even a 9.5 and get a SCWD wavemaker. This way you can almost do away with powerheads in your tank (with proper plumbing setup) which will give you more room in the tank for whatever.

Also, if you never plan on keeping SPS or clams, then your 2x55/65W PC lamps would do fine for your 33. I'm not sure why you would use 2 50/50 bulbs instead of 1 actinic and 1 10000K which would allow you to do the dusk/dawn thing.

Don't skimp on your skimmer, but don't break the bank trying to get one with all the bells and whistles. There are many very effective and cheap DIY skimmers such as the EAP (Easy As Pie) EuroReef knock-off which perform surprisingly well. I know a few local reefer who are running/have run them with much success.

Most importantly is to take it slow and take advice given to you from more experienced reefers. I know there is/was tension between other board members and yourself, but you just need to know when to keep your mouth shut and your ears open.

That's all for now!
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Old 12-11-2004, 06:09 AM
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Yeah, I vote for 1 10,000k & 1 actinic. The 50:50 from coral life are not-really up to snuff in the lower wattages.

Good luck on this project.

If you only have 3 feet to play with, maybe a 50g that's 3 long & 16-18 wide would be better. Just a thought. Once I put in some good sized LR in my 33g, there was barely any clearance in the front of the tank since its only 12 inches wide.
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Old 12-11-2004, 06:11 AM
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Good advice from everyone. To help you out further, here's how my tank is setup.

I currently have a 30 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump. I have an unknown amount of LR+base rock, but I'd say its around 30-40 pounds worth plus another 5-10 pounds worth in my sump/refuguium. I have no sand bed (except for a little bit of sand that "hitchhiked" on my rocks). My refugium consists of baserock and is packed with chaetomorpha macro algae. I've stuck some of the algae in between my baffles as a kind of organic filter floss.
My return pump is a Mag9.5 plumbed through a SCWD. Attached to the SCWD's outputs are Ocean Motion Revolutions for additonal random flow patterns. In addition to my return pump, I have two medium sized Maxi-jets. I forget their model number, and they are of an older model... but I think they produce around 200-250 gph of flow each. I'd guess I have a turnover rate of around 30-40x an hour. Keeps the bottom of my tank quite clean .
Lighting consists of 2x175watt 10000k Ushio MH bulbs, powered by two M57 ballasts I got from Bartle and Gibson for 63 bucks each. I'm also using one 95watt VHO super actinic powered on a workhorse 7 ballast I picked up from another local lighting supply store. Reflector is a 36" reflector + socket combo I got from J&L.
My skimmer is a bakpak2r that I picked up used from a local reefer. I'm thinking about eventually building my own beckett skimmer when I have some time.
Top off is handled by a pair (at least it used to be a pair) of float switches connected to a relay. Plugged into the relay is a small mini-jet (606 I think) pump. RO water is pumped from a 5 gallon tank through and through my kalk reactor.
Live stock includes a pair of ocellaris clowns and an algae blenny. Cleanup crew consists of 2 astrea snails and perhaps two cerith snails... though I haven't seen the cerith snails in weeks. I hope to add another 6 astrea, 6 trochus, 1 cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermints in the very near future.
Corals consist of a few mushrooms, some zoos, pulsing xenia, colts, an orange monti cap and a green-ish digitata. Initially I wanted to go softies only, but after seeing a monti cap in person, I knew I wanted one... the digitata was an accidental frag that I decided to keep. I hope to eventually get my hands on a frogspawn frag (if I'm ever quick enough ), or maybe a BTA. I haven't made up my mind yet... which ever comes first

I used to run PC lights over my tank (192 watts), and it was doing fine. However, I noticed quite a difference in my soft corals (I didn't have hard ones yet) after I switched over to MH lights. If you can, I would suggest going with MH lights which will save you any trouble if you decide to change your mind with regard to the higher light demanding corals. If I went MH from the beginning, I would have saved myself quite a bit of dough, which I would have put into a bigger/badder skimmer.

HTH
-Richer
  #9  
Old 12-11-2004, 06:14 AM
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Ugh, Rich, do you have a condensed version? I don't want to read that essay of yours
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Old 12-11-2004, 06:21 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newguy
Ugh, Rich, do you have a condensed version? I don't want to read that essay of yours
I think I can help you harvey...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richer
If I went MH from the beginning, I would have saved myself quite a bit of dough, which I would have put into a bigger/badder skimmer.
nuff said.
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