Newbie to sw

[Edmonton newbie]

bout time one of you piped in here steve lol kimmi go see steve and if you watch the posts on here we have meets just about every month and you should really drag the hubby out for a breakfast and or lunch with the reef crew next meeting

[marlincoral]

if you have patience get everyting you need on canreef it is alot cheaper and when you go to pick stuff up you can look at their tank and get ideas. My wife and I just started back up in the hobby and we just got rock a little while ago and paid $3.00/lb the stores want $8.00/lb and it is not half as good as a reefer that is selling rock.We just upgraded out lights from t5 to halide we paid $275.00 for the light the same light at an unnamed store was $895.00 on boxing day.If there is something you want just post it and wait someone will respond. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the hobby

[sully08]

I spent a good part of 2011 changing my 220g from fresh to salt. I had lots of fun doing it and got some great ideas from can-reef members. I had my tank drilled and I use about 480w of T5 H/O lighting to answer your questions. I have some pics. posted in one of my postings from June. Take a look if you like and feel free to ask any questions.

[Kimmi7]

Ok so I have a question about powerheads. How many do you guys use? I see there are some made for bigger aquariums and they arent badly priced. I was thinking tho that having two one on each end would be good to help with feeding corals better then having one going one way. Correct me if I am wrong. Also I will be having everything under the tank and am honestly thinking of a 120 gallon, 48x24x24. So I am unsure how big of a return pump I would need.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Kimmi7

well looks like I will be putting this on hold till I find a new tank. Mine looks like tempered glass and dont want to try to see if it isnt by drilling.

Perhaps not, unless you really wish to spend money on a newer, larger tank. IME, tank ends up being least of cost in the hobby in the long run, but every little saving helps, so up to you.

If your 77 is a Hagen, according to the FAQs on their web page, none of their tanks use tempered glass. A way to confirm tempered is to use two polarized filters, one from outside of pane (polarized sunglasses) looking at a polarized LCD screen (like a notebook or even phone) with a white screen. Rotate the screen & if pattern appears on white LCD screen, glass is tempered.

http://faq.hagencrm.com/details.asp?kbfaqid=21880&en

My 77 is a Hagen (company sticker on trim, no center brace) & the width is 16 & 1/8th inches, glass thickness is 3/8 inches. I plan to drill it & use as a sump/refuge when I upgrade display tank some time in future. I've already drilled a used 65 gallon for a sump as well (confirmed non tempered sides with polarized trick), not that difficult, especially when it's empty & sitting around doing nothing. Bottom of the 65 is tempered, & a sticker there says that. I also confirmed this with polarized filter method.

[Kimmi7]

Thanks for that info! guess I will use it still

[sully08]

Originally Posted by Kimmi7

Ok so I have a question about powerheads. How many do you guys use? I see there are some made for bigger aquariums and they arent badly priced. I was thinking tho that having two one on each end would be good to help with feeding corals better then having one going one way. Correct me if I am wrong. Also I will be having everything under the tank and am honestly thinking of a 120 gallon, 48x24x24. So I am unsure how big of a return pump I would need.

I flow about 6000-6500 gallons an hour around my 220g. My return pump is 1500, my closed loop is 2000 and 2 tunze's, one at each end of the tank, for a total of 2700 between both. I find that this is more than enough for me. I have adjusted the flow direction many times to get it perfect to eliminate dead spots. I have talked to some people that would come close to doubling the flow that I have. I don't know how they do it without blowing sand all over the tank. I have found the best way is to bounce flows off of each other and off the glass also helps. My 2 cents

[Kimmi7]

So i am thinking a 20 gallon sump is as big as i want to go. I would go bigger but I need places to store my other items as my puppy chews anything and everything lol. So heres the question of the day. The tank I am wanting to use is a 20 gallon tall. So I am thinking intake, refugium, return pump. All seperated by 2 baffles from intake to refugium, then two more to the return pump.


As for equipment I am thinking, a bubble magus skimmer, hydro koralia power heads and mag drive pump.

Powerheads will be at least 750gph each, pump 1800gph. That should give me at flow rate of close to 20x's in a 77gal. Should this be enough to keep a reef tank and not just a fish tank. Also I am not sure I want to buy a RO/DI unit yet so I am wondering if I use prime and let the water sit for awhile in a holding barrel, would that be ok? Just we need a new window in our livingroom before a RO/DI unit.

[sully08]

It seems that the majority of the people that I have talked to go with the RO/DI unit. It removes alot of the organic material from the water that can cause undesirable algae later on. I got a good one from J&L (100gal an hour) beside my regular water changes (20% every 3 weeks) I make about 20 gallons a week of RO/DI water because of evaporation. I still get a little algae, but its controlable.

[Kimmi7]

Ya my front window gets done first. Then it's a ro/di unit.