Looking for some general guidance on new reef tank.

[DangerDave]

Hello

This will be my second thread here on R2R ;Happy. My new tank should be built and ready for pick up from Coast to Coast at the end of the month. I've been doing lots of reading, but I'm still unsure of how I'm going to set and run the tank. So I would like to ask for your opinions on how you would do things, and what you would use to do it. Please any response is appreciated. I'm hoping the responses will help me formulate my plan... Regardless of what I get, I want to start putting things together when the tank gets here.

So far, I have decided that it's going to be a mixed reef, with a few community type fish. I will be starting with what I've read to be hardy corals. I will be going slooooow in respect to any stocking. I have so many things I still need to decide on what to use, or how to do it.

This is what I have already..

• C2C tank 60x24x25.5 - low iron glass front panel, black for the side and back, all gass is 1/2" thick. Overflow will be an 18x5x12 skupper with 2 1.5" drains. Returns are two 1" returns.
• Stand is in my garage. My father (a retired contractor) and I built it for my last tank out of 4x4s and 2x8's. It sits in my garage, built into the framing of the house, with a cutout to my family room. It will fit this tank perfectly.
• RODI filter
• chiller - 1/2 HP used from a friend

This is what I'm planning on hardware so far, I'm sure I'm missing plenty.

• Lights - radions maybe, how many? I'm thinking 2 or 3
• sump - I retired my home made one, think i am getting either the skims UP39 or one of the trigger
• skimmer - bubble magnus curve 5 or 7
• controller - apex wifi with DOS for top off and for (maybe) daily water changes
• power heads - Gyres -x2, maybe icecap to connect to apex and maybe 2 regular powerheads to create more flow
• rock - 100lbs? I was thinking liferock to start clean, but I'm not sold on this
• I don't know if I want algae in my sump. I did a home made algae scrubber for the last 5 years in my current tank (set up as a full salt estuary) , it was really cool but it got old taking it apart and scraping every couple days
• Heaters - I have a couple large heaters from my last tank, will replace if needed

Everything else is up in the air, as is the hardware choices aside from the tank. Do I use triton? Should I use a reactor for algae, refugium in sump, or skip altogether? I'm sure I have more questions, but I overwhelmed myself at work writing this

Dave (the dangerous kind)

PS thanks in advance for any responses!!!

 

[mckinleyw]

WOW nice planning. Everything looks pretty cool as the equipment goes. You need to figure out how much time you will have for maintenance, ie water changes and other such things. these things will lead to the "method" you want to use. most of it is personal preference. good luck and cant wait to see the build thread

 

[bif24701]

Radions are great might need 3 for best results, but 2 Kessil AP700s would be better and 2 spread better than 2 Radions.

I would get a recirculating or ext skimmer. They can still be placed in a sump. Ext skimmers have more volume for water/air mixing, better control of water level, and generally perform better.

Reconsider adding a fuge just for chaeto. With all the high power LED grow lights available now it has turned chaeto into a REAL export method. About 10% size of display with at 10x display flow and the export is real!

I always prefer Pukani to other dry rock, it's just better IMHO.

Apex is great!

Look at the RO Varios-6 for return pump, its APEX ready.

I like Tunze controllable powerheads more than the gyre. Simply because with the APEX you can create any flow pattern, program, feed mode, or whatever you want through the Fusion (APEX). I have gyre flow in my 180 with a couple Tunze 6105s, and I would recommend at least two for your tank.

 

[shaggydoo]

Looks like you have a good plan. I am a big proponent of a refugium, and I vote you should have one with as much macro as you can fit. A lot of your equipment (radeons and gyre especially) are things I've heard great reviews about and when I start a bigger tank, I plan on using the gyre especially.

I've started a couple tanks using 80% dead rock and seeding with rock from other hobbyists tanks. I find this is the best way to avoid a lot of die off (using uncured LR) and you can also avoid a lot of pests by only choosing LR from tanks you know are maintained well.

Best of luck on the build

 

[DangerDave]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses!

For the lighting, are the Kessils as good, they only seem to have single LEDs, the radions seem to have a bunch? I dont' know what makes each better.

For the Rock, what do you guys think of man made rock like liferock?

Dave (the dangerous kind)

 

[XNavyDiver]

If you're going the Apex route for the controller, you might as well get a couple of WAVs for the powerheads along with the gyres. The control and variability afforded by the Apex is really almost unparalleled. Flow shouldn't be a problem. They're silent and powerful. 60 inches might be too long for just 2 Radions (shadowing), it depends on how far off the water you're going to mount them, but 3 sounds more adequate. That's just a guess though.

 

[DangerDave]

I can mount them very close, they will be out of sight in the garage, there will be an all glass cover to keep dust and such out....

 

[shaggydoo]

I can't be positive, but the LR I bought on Amazon looked man made for my most recent 60g tank. My last 120g mixed reef used dead rock that used to be in the ocean or someone's tank, and it had been left to dry/die for various reasons before I used it. I 100% prefer the dead rock used in my last tank.

The Amazon (again not 100% but appeared to me to be man-made after research around the web) rock was very porous but it was also extremely brittle and caused quite a bit of cloudiness for the first month. It also has continued to resist any coraline growth. Coraline is just now (after almost 9 months) beginning to put spots on the rock. The coraline is growing like mad on my glass and I'm constantly scraping it off as I keep my Ca/Alk/Mg fairly high. Just some personal observations on different sources of rock.

 

[XNavyDiver]

I can mount them very close, they will be out of sight in the garage, there will be an all glass cover to keep dust and such out....

If mounted close to the water line (like 9 inches or so), then go with three Radions. LEDs are "narrow" source of light, think laser. So mounting them higher off the water line allows for more space for the light to spread out over your reef. Closer, and you will get more shadowing of the corals (Im assuming you're going to have corals?) Radions are very powerful and you'll more than likely only be running them less than 100%.

 

[DangerDave]

Yes, definitely corals once I feel the tank is stable. I don't have to mount them close, but I can if that is better. I was a bit worried about the water depth and the lights.

 

[XNavyDiver]

Yes, definitely corals once I feel the tank is stable. I don't have to mount them close, but I can if that is better. I was a bit worried about the water depth and the lights.

I don't think you'll have to worry about the water depth with Radions. You'll get the PAR values for any type of SPS you want to keep, even if you mount them 3 feet above the water line. Mounting them higher will allow you better light dispersion throughout the tank with less shadowing effect.
To give you an example, I have 2 gen4's mounted only nine inches above the waterline of my tank, which is only 36" long. If I had only one Radion mounted dead center of the tank at that height, there would be too much shadowing of the light on the outer perimeter of the tank.

 

[DangerDave]

Makes sense, thank you.

 

[DangerDave]

Do you think I would still need 3 if I went with the Radion Gen 4 XR30w Pro?

 

[XNavyDiver]

Do you think I would still need 3 if I went with the Radion Gen 4 XR30w Pro?

If it were me, I would go with 3 with a tank that long, I'd also mount them 18-24 inches off the water. There are some here that would might even say 4! That many Radions is a significant financial commitment, to say the least.

 

[DangerDave]

It sure is. I'm trying to get through this build without my wife getting too ticked at me, probably not possible. Are there any other lights I should consider that are on par with the Radions? I don't understand how the Kessil is, it looks like it has one led, the radion has many...

 

[DangerDave]

So I picked up the rock today. My original plan was to cure the rock in the tank, but since I have four weeks till the tank gets here, I may get a large bin and get it started.

It’s been outside for some time, I was thinking i could power wash it first to clean it up a bit.

Dave (the dangerous kind)

 

[DangerDave]

Also got these, not sure how I could use them though .

 

[Reafer]

If using dry rock I wold suggest using something like Bio-Spira, I have used it on a few tanks and it really kick starts the cycle.

 

[bif24701]

If it were me, I would go with 3 with a tank that long, I'd also mount them 18-24 inches off the water. There are some here that would might even say 4! That many Radions is a significant financial commitment, to say the least.

2 Kessil AP700s and your done. The Kessil have more LEDs that the Radions. Kessil LEDs are pack in a dense matrix so the light give the best shimmer and color mix with out disco effect. Kessil manufactures their own LEDs to their own needs and standards. Radion and all other LED fixture makers use the same off the shelf LEDs that anyone can buy.

 

[bif24701]

If it were me, I would go with 3 with a tank that long, I'd also mount them 18-24 inches off the water. There are some here that would might even say 4! That many Radions is a significant financial commitment, to say the least.

2 Kessil AP700s and your done. The Kessil have more LEDs that the Radions. Kessil LEDs are pack in a dense matrix so the light give the best shimmer and color mix with out disco effect. Kessil manufactures their own LEDs to their own needs and standards. Radion and all other LED fixture makers use the same off the shelf LEDs that anyone can buy.