[lilfishy]

Hello everyone,my name is Hannah.

I am an extreme newbie to the saltwater world, I have recently made up my mind about setting up a marine aquarium. Today I purchased a 55 Gal aquarium w/stand and hood, 40lbs arag alive, 40lbs regular fine aragonite, Fluval 404 canister filter, heater, Red Sea marine master test kit and a Aqua C Remora w/mag 3 skimmer. I did a little research and I hope I purchased the right equipment. I have the tank up and running now with tap water,Fluval,Skimmer, heater, and a couple of cocktail shrimp.

I have also been reading a lot about sumps/refugiums and I was wondering if it is wise to go that route also? The thing is, I really have no idea how to set one up and I am worried how to get the water into the sump and back into my tank without flooding one or the other, or in case their is a power outage how to make sure both my inlet and outlet will both work once the power comes back on? If anyone can help me out in this area it would be greatly appreciated, as of this moment, I wouldnt know the first thing to buy.

Also, if anyone recognizes any of the equipment I have listed above as "no good" or if I am missing something, please let me know as I would like to get this right the first time and avoid the hard way if possible.

Again, hello to everyone and hope to make good fish friends!

Hannah

[Reefland]

Hi lilfishy, Welcome to Reefland!

I think you made a good choice on the skimmer, the AquaC skimmers are great HOT skimmers. Everything else....well let's see.

What kind of tank are you planning on doing, a Fish-Only tank or are you looking to grow corals as well? Also are you using a deep live sand bed or is the 80 lbs of sand all you intend to use?

[lilfishy]

Hello Reefland,

Thank you, I am glad to be a part of this forum. I am planning on turning this into a reef tank, so far I have about 3" of sand, I am not sure if this is enough for a DSB? Having said this, do I have the right equipment for a reef, or should I be adding to it?

[Reefland]

Ok, since your going for a reef and looking for a deep sand bed, I can give a bit more information.

To have a functional deep live sand bed, I would suggest a minimum of 4". You can slowly add to your current bed to reach this depth. 4" or deeper will provide the best depth to assist with denitrification. For a reef tank, I think you should add the inch.

On equipment, ditch the Fluval, you simply do not need it and without vigorous maintenance, it could cause problems. Most people don't both with this form of mechanical filtration since they can collect detritus and lead to excessive nitrates. For Fish-Only systems that can handle a higher level of nitrates they might be ok but for a reef, it's just counter-productive in my opinion.

Lastly, definitely research a sump/refugium combination. Sumps are great for adding water to your total volume (more stability) and for placing equipment to keep the clutter out of your display. If you can get a refugium in the sump, this is even better if you were to grow macroalgae in it for addition nutrient export. Since your tank is not drilled, you can add a sump with an external overflow box (Lifereef recommended) and a smaller standard size aqaurium with some baffles glued into it for a sump/refugium combo.

[lilfishy]

Hello Scott,

I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner but my computer broke . Anyway, since my last post, I have built the sand bed to 4 inches and have added 40lbs Keys LR from liverocks.com. As for the Sump/Refug, I have done a lot of reading and definitely want to go that route. The problem is I want to build my own and I have no clear idea how to do it, what pumps to buy or overflow box. Is their any way you can help me with the design? Also the remora skimmer is pulling almost a full collection cup of skimmate every 2 hours or so when it is all the way down. The skimmate is almost clear with a very small ammount of yellow tint to it. When I raise it all the way up it collects the exact same skimmate but over a longer period. Is the skimmate supposed to be "almost" clear?

Well Scott, I appreciate the info you have given me so far and I hope you can continue to help me.

Hannah

[orion25]

Skimmate should be a thick, green substance. It will also smell horrible! If your LR was cured you will not be producing much. After you add some fish and corals you should see some of the green "junk".

I believe what you are pulling out right now is just satlwater. Go with the setting that takes days to fill the cup. I do not have that skimmer so I cannot help more.

Since you have a 55g you could do what I did and use a 10g aquarium as a sump. This is the only common size I found that would fit. You could use another one as a Ref. or you could use Lexan to partition the first one off into multiple chambers. The only issue is I had to put the 10g in the stand before I put the 55g on it. Maybe your stand is different though. They also sell 5g aquariums.

[lilfishy]

Hello Orion,

Thank you for your info! I do have a few questions though, I am in need of a very good overflow box, something I dont have to worry will flood my house if the power goes out and will start by itself in case it went out and I was not home. Also a return pump, I am not sure how many GPH pump I need, so please help on this also. And when it comes to partioning the tank, I wouldnt have any idea where to glue the baffles or what size they should be. I have been reading quite a bit, but I have not seen a good picture.

So I am asking if you could please offer me some info on reliable overflow box, a good pump for my size tank and a little help on the sump design, I would extremely appreciate it.

Thank you,

Hannah

[Poseidon]

Good Morning Hannah, welcome to the site.

There have been a few threads recently discussing sumps, particularly by a member named NoSump... LOL. To give a brief recap, LifeReef and CPR make excellent overflows. I use the CPR as it is less intrusive in the main display, however it does require the use of a powerhead with venturi to restart it in the event of a power outage. I have not had any problems with mine and last year we had several outages due to one reason or another.

For your return pump, I would recomend an internal pump. Specifically a MAG drive. Perhaps a MAG 9 would be sufficient.

And lastly the baffles are very simple, put them wherever you want. THere is no right or wrong, they are intended to keep microbubbles from reaching the return pump. I have (from left to right) an over then under, then empty space for my heater and skimmer pump, and of course my macro algae, then another under and over. This creates a final chamber that in the event my overflow does not restart only a small volume of water can be pumped back into the main display. This would be hard to do with a 10 gallon sump though, depending on your stand maybe a 29 gallon tank would fit??? The other important step is to make sure the sumps water volume is only 50% of its capacity, that way if the power fails the sump can hold the additional volume that will siphon down to it. Try not to make it harder then it is, because it really is simple, just hard to picture sometimes.

Make sure to use the "search" function there are some pictures recently posted that should give you a clear idea...