Looking for advice on setting up a reef tank

Xine wrote:Wow - thanks so much for the lengthy and informative replies to my post Deadsled and Pkc.

Based on your replies I am pretty sure that I would like to go for a sump set up. Yes I have heard of the siphon issue with sumps and its interesting to see there is a pretty simple fix for it. That's pretty clever actually. Would be pretty sad to come home to 100's of litres of salt water everywhere and dead fish!

As i said above, its a very easy 2 minute solution. I'll get a pic one day of it though and you can see what i mean.

We are thinking we would like to go for a 6 ft tank. My previous freshwater set up was in a 4 ft tank and while I loved it I always felt like it needed to be just a little bit bigger. I like the idea of collecting my own fish too - too bad that it's not allowed on scuba here but oh well - have to give the fish a fighting chance hey?Do you guys ever let them back go if they get too big or just because you feel like it would be nice to let them go? Would they survive I wonder? Are you allowed to collect live rock on scuba?

Live rock is a no no, and i personally have let a few fish back that i decided i didn't want. Just catching them in the tank is the pain in the ass part..

Well - what do we want? We basically want a piece of the ocean at home (something like you would see diving) and have seen some great set ups in the fish stores around Brisbane. They seem to have corals, fish and anemones and things all together - is that a realistic thing for people to be able to have at home? I guess it that was too difficult we could start with a fish and live rock with some inverts. I really hope to have a tank that has some night life as well - love my night dives and seeing the changing activity between night and day. So maybe some things that come out at night would be cool but not a deal breaker.

Of course its possible to have fish, inverts, corals and anemones all in the same tank. There's only two lights that are currently in widespread use, T5 and MH (Metal Halide). Halides are more expensive and really only needed if you have SPS (Small Polyp Stony) corals. Otherwise, HO (High Output) T5 are fine.

You can also buy moonlights, or DIY a set of LED moonlights. Whatever takes your fancy really.

When you say that you need to drill through the aquarium glass, do you mean through the bottom or the side?

Yes, will show you how i did my weir / bulkhead ect at the end of the post.

I don't know much about those lights that you mention though I did have an idea that corals needed different lights to fish. How do they work? (switch between colours? Is it on a timer or something?

All T5 lights have at least blue and white (yellow really) bulbs. Low output lights you can switch between the blue, the yellow ("afternoon" i guess..) or the blue and yellow which creates the daytime white light. High output T5 have the same bulbs (mind you, different wattage) but at least on the light i have, i can't switch between.

Fish don't really need lights at all, but lights make the tank look nice. Soft corals will be fine with T5 but may do better under MH, each corals requirements are different really.

Switching between the colours is just the on/off switches on the side of the light fixture. On the HO, there's one on/off switch for the whole bank of lights, and on the LO theres two switches, one for the two outside bulbs (the yellows) and one for the middle (blue).

Well, I have so many questions I think I am going to have to go to the meet up in Feb! Hope to see you there.

Xine wrote:Thanks again guys and it really helps to see those pictures. PKC - are Deadsleds pictures what you are describing? I am sorry, I am not up with all the terminology yet - is that a scallop chute and is the pipe the column exit in Deadsleds pics? Aw... PKC - The angler fish are awfully ugly for sure but quite amazing little critters haha.

The column is infact where the water drains out. It is set at that length though so the water level in the weir is just under the main tanks water level, so that the water rushes down the pipe and helps keep a bit of water movement in the top of the weir.

Deadsled, why do you have a weir? Could you not just have the pipe with the combs on top of that (or some kind of "fish barrier" - always wondered what the comb was for!) What is the advantage to drilling the hole in the bottom of the tank in this manner? Is it a 'neatness" factor? I am thinking that having things hanging over the side of the tank may not look so nice. I guess you can hide the weir with clever placement of your live rock etc.

I have the weir because it stops the fish getting in (most of them anyway..) and if you had the pipe with the combs directly ontop (which i can't imagine how you'd do that anyway..) the algae growth you eventually get would block it all up and then your tank would overflow because you'd have more water pumping up, than running down. I also get a LOT of pods breeding in the weir and because there is no fish in there, it became an unplanned refugium.

You can drill the hole anywhere you like really, when i upgrade my system and add a 6ft tank, the hole in the 6ft will be on the side and i'll have the same bulkhead, but i'll have another type of grate on the inside.

The hole is there to reduce the amount of return pumps required, and its hard to have one pump pulling water, and another pushing.. and to have them equal. Its easier to just have one side overflow, and then pump back up. I also have a valve off the side of my return pump that i use to equalize the water level in the sump. Its very simple, despite looking complicated.

As far as hiding the weir goes, it gets algae growth on the inside and out, so it eventually blends in and most don't even notice it when they look at the tank the first time round. I do have half of it hidden with live rock, although the rock wassn't there to hide it, just how i wanted the rocks to sit.

Thanks for explaining the lights and it's good to know that it's not too impossible to have corals and fish together. I think that would be our ideal set up in the end - hopefully with an anemone if we can. I am happy to take it step by step though and from what I have heard bigger tanks are somewhat easier to maintain than smaller ones. (same with freshwater I guess)

Corals and fish in the same tank is not hard to do at all, you just have to manage what type of fish you get as some angels for example, will eat certain corals. Also, you have to be careful with anemones as they will eat your fish if they can get a hold of them.

Interesting that you bent your own acrylic. Do you prefer glass or acrylic for a tank 6 ft long? Is glass better? I like the curved ends of the acrylic tanks but I am worried that they might be easily scratched when cleaning.

Acrylic and glass have their own uses in my opinion. I'd never have an acrylic tank because they scratch too easily, and i've never been a fan of curved tanks. I'd always stay with glass tanks.

I like the acrylic for weir's, and sump baffles because i can drill holes in them easily. I wouldn't be able to have 100 or so 12mm holes drilled into a sheet of glass because it'd crack too easily. In saying that, if i could drill glass the same way, i'd use that because its stiffer than the 5mm thick acrylic my local hardware store has.

With lighting I suppose you would have to work out what kinds of creatures you would like to keep then work out the lighting afterwards. It looks like it may be pretty straightforward if you think it through.

Yes and no. If your just going to have fish, T5 will do fine. If you want fish and soft corals, T5 will also be fine. If you want SPS, MH is the way to go. Keep in mind, no one recommends SPS in a newly setup tank anyway because the tank isn't mature enough for it, unless you're very experienced in keeping SPS.

You can also always have T5 at first, and then upgrade to MH and sell the T5 lights at a later date.