57 gallon oceanic Illuminata build

OrthoVet05 · Sep 30, 2017

Hey guys! After a few solid, patient months, I finally found the tank I have been wanting. Luckily I was able to pick up LeggmanTn15 old tank and his solid custom sand. The buy came with the tank, stand, 300 eshoppes sump, and all plumbing.

I want to share my experiences and progression of being a first time reef amateur with a solid group of people on R2R.

My first thoughts are figuring out what size pump for the sump. I was thinking the Jebao DCT-8000 (2113 gph). Just have to check the dimensions to make sure it fits. This tank is in good shape overall!

deedubz · Sep 30, 2017

Awesome. Should be a good reefkeeping icebreaker. Definitely post your progress

CastAway · Sep 30, 2017

Congrats!

Seems like a lot of turn over with that gph. What is the overflow rated for?

OrthoVet05 · Oct 5, 2017

I went with a Jebao 6000. Where would I find that out CastAway?

Dsnakes · Oct 5, 2017

Going to be a good build! As for the overflow volume, there may be a label on the back with specs. The other way would be to do some measurements and calculate it, I'm sure there's a formula for it. I don't math very well though

so I am no help for that

CastAway · Oct 5, 2017

My Google search came up with 600-700gph for an Oceanic Illuminata 57. But, I'm not sure if the overflow was after market.

You can always plumb a by-pass into your sump to accommodate any excess.

Palyzoa · Oct 8, 2017

Nice start! What lighting and other equipment are you thinking about going with?

OrthoVet05 · Oct 8, 2017

Still looking for a skimmer, but was going to go with Chinese black boxes for lighting, approximately 60 pounds of Caribsea South Seas base rock, massive CUC ( 57 hermits/57 snails). That is all I have currently on the to-do list for now. Also, was going to start 2-way dosing once I get my rock in and everything set up.

Palyzoa · Oct 8, 2017

I hear good things about the black boxes. As for clean up crew, that might be over kill! They will be competing for food a constant food source which will cause die off and ammonia spikes! Its all about finding a happy balance

OrthoVet05 · Oct 9, 2017

Thanks Palyzoa, I have heard the ballpark of at least one crab/snail per gallon of overall water volume. I at least want to get that and then see how that works. I have heard of people doubling the amount but I guess it depends on the system, since it will be a young tank, I probably will be fine.

seaplane · Oct 9, 2017

I'm so glad you bought that tank. I came close to getting it but just couldn't bare the thought of changing to another tank.
If you are looking at "black box" lights check out sbreeflights. I have a 16 inch on my 29g Biocube and couldn't be happier. good bang for the buck. Also, SCA has budget friendly skimmers that do a respectable job. Happy reefing.

Reefrookie220 · Oct 9, 2017

seaplane said:
I'm so glad you bought that tank. I came close to getting it but just couldn't bare the thought of changing to another tank.
If you are looking at "black box" lights check out sbreeflights. I have a 16 inch on my 29g Biocube and couldn't be happier. good bang for the buck. Also, SCA has budget friendly skimmers that do a respectable job. Happy reefing.

Spot on advice! I like the marsaqua, but sbs are nice! The sca 302 skimmer would work now as well as for the inevitable upgrade.

Palyzoa · Oct 9, 2017

OrthoVet05 said:
Thanks Palyzoa, I have heard the ballpark of at least one crab/snail per gallon of overall water volume. I at least want to get that and then see how that works. I have heard of people doubling the amount but I guess it depends on the system, since it will be a young tank, I probably will be fine.

I've heard similar in the past, just wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential issues with a young tank. While Im on the subject, make sure you have an adequate amount of empty shells in the tank. Hermits like to kill snails for their shells as they grow.

OrthoVet05 · Oct 9, 2017

dwwataz said:
Awesome. Should be a good reefkeeping icebreaker. Definitely post your progress

I will keep you all updated. It has been a slow month as I have been trying to get my water station fixed up.

OrthoVet05 · Oct 9, 2017

Is that Sca a decent skimmer? It looks like the SCA 301 is a only rated for 65 gallons... which I feel like you need to go bigger in this case. The 302 for 180 gallons? I know the sizes of skimmers and their tank size rating is a bit arbitrary, but a skimmer is one of the foundational pieces of a tank I feel like to keep good water quality, which is what my build is focusing around and skimping on a skimmer should be avoided.

Daniel Waters · Oct 10, 2017

I think a return pump rated for 2,000 gph will be way too much, unless you have dual 1" drains. I'm not sure what the drain rate is on a 1" drain with durso pipe set up. I was thinking it's like 600 gph but don't quote me on that. You will have some loss due to the head height on the return, but not enough to warrant the original pump you mentioned.

As far as clean up crew, I've always thought that 1 snail / crab per gallon is ridiculous. Let your tank cycle, let the algae grow, and then introduce a variety of snails and / or hermit crabs. I would start with 10 to 15. Monitor it for a few weeks. Add more if needed. You'll eventually reach a nice equilibrium where your clean up crew seems to be keeping up with all the algae. If you add too much, they will just be competing with each other for food and starving. Of course, if you add herbivorous fish like a foxface or some blennies, they may help control some algae growth.

Daniel Waters · Oct 10, 2017

OrthoVet05 said:
Is that Sca a decent skimmer? It looks like the SCA 301 is a only rated for 65 gallons... which I feel like you need to go bigger in this case. The 302 for 180 gallons? I know the sizes of skimmers and their tank size rating is a bit arbitrary, but a skimmer is one of the foundational pieces of a tank I feel like to keep good water quality, which is what my build is focusing around and skimping on a skimmer should be avoided.

I can't comment on that specific skimmer, but I was just going to say I would not upsize your skimmer too much. Bigger is not necessarily better. If your skimmer is way oversized, it will have a hard time maintaining a constant foam. With that being said, I think BRS does a pretty good job with breaking down recommended aquarium sizes for skimmers they sell based on light, medium, or heavy bioloads. That's somewhat subjective, but I think a pretty good reference. And, fwiw, I think skimmers are great to use on a reef tank.

OrthoVet05 · Oct 10, 2017

Daniel Waters said:
I think a return pump rated for 2,000 gph will be way too much, unless you have dual 1" drains. I'm not sure what the drain rate is on a 1" drain with durso pipe set up. I was thinking it's like 600 gph but don't quote me on that. You will have some loss due to the head height on the return, but not enough to warrant the original pump you mentioned.

As far as clean up crew, I've always thought that 1 snail / crab per gallon is ridiculous. Let your tank cycle, let the algae grow, and then introduce a variety of snails and / or hermit crabs. I would start with 10 to 15. Monitor it for a few weeks. Add more if needed. You'll eventually reach a nice equilibrium where your clean up crew seems to be keeping up with all the algae. If you add too much, they will just be competing with each other for food and starving. Of course, if you add herbivorous fish like a foxface or some blennies, they may help control some algae growth.

Thanks Daniel. After measuring for that original pump, it was too big for my sump, so I went with the 6000 with an approximate 1500 gph flow rate which seems a bit more sane. I was thinking tonight that I should start off smaller with the clean up crew and then see how much algae I am actually going to be dealing with and titrate my snails/crabs to that so I totally agree. IT would be pointless to dump a bunch of organisms in the tank that is brand new with no algae or nutrients to feed off of. Thanks for the advice.

Palyzoa · Oct 10, 2017

You could also look at installing a ball/gate valve on the output side of the return pump. This would allow you to dial in the flow right where you want it.

OrthoVet05 · Oct 10, 2017

Palyzoa said:
You could also look at installing a ball/gate valve on the output side of the return pump. This would allow you to dial in the flow right where you want it.

It does come with a controller which I believe I can dial it down to 30% original power, but I'm sure a ball/gate valve would be a lot more accurate for fine tuning.