need advice for new tank

[EvilVOG]

My last tanks were pretty much a disaster beginning to end. That being said i have two five year old Ocelleris clowns that deserve a better home, so I finally broke down and custom ordered a Red Sea Reefer 250, with the skimmer, lights, and the new wave pumps. Basically what i'm asking for is some setup advice so I don't ruin this tank. Plan is mostly to keep my clowns, maybe some other fish, BTA's, a ricordea garden and maybe some other soft corals later on if i can manage to keep the others.

Plan right now is:
80lbs of Carib sea ocean direct
Dry rock as I can't get safe live rock local
Algae barn refugarium starter kit
maybe a reef mature or other starter kit
probably a new heater
I'll need a return pump
I have a BRS RODI setup but no UV atm, so i probably need that too.

So based on ally that, any changes, tips or suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Barks]

I think the most important thing right now is get a tds meter and make sure you fill that tank with zero tds water
Choose your salt depending on what alk you wish to run at.
Get it cycling and leave it alone.
Stability is the key dont assume anything. Make sure..
Good luck

 

[SPR1968]

Get the RODI system set up and start making your water so your off to a good start and then consider how your going to cycle the tank

Personally I use bacteria in a bottle, in my case ATM Colony. Add colony, fish in and feed lightly. Cycle done and then you can proceed.

Consider how your going to control nutrient levels now and in the future, in particular have plans in place to control phosphate and keep it locked down. I use rhowaphos in a reactor and if you can lock it down very low (0.03ppm) you will avoid many of the problems of unwanted issues. In my new system I’ve had 1kg of rhowaphos (its a big tank) in place since day one

Consider the equipment required for each part of the tank and then read as much as you can on each aspect ‘before you get it wet’ so your ready to implement things as the tank develops

Take a read of this and anything else your unsure of just ask

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is nowhere near simple. This task is going to take patience, a...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Radman73]

+1 on the TDS meter to know you have clean water for your salt. No need to get UV at this point.

For biodiversity, consider ordering a small amount of ocean collected live sand from one of the many vendors in FL. It's a cheap way to add bacteria biodiversity early when the rock is too expensive.

 

[EvilVOG]

thanks for all the tips so far, i have been browsing the supreme setup guide and other pinned topics.

Have a TDS meter built into my RODI, i've been using it for the other tank for at least a couple years.

Will check out reactors while at work today.

 

[EvilVOG]

T - 36hours... here's where i'm at:
Did order the 80lbs of Caribsea ocean direct - too much?
Algae Barn Med. Refugarium starter kit - undecided how i'm going to set that up.
2 Little fishes Phosban 150 reactor - possible solution to above?
Octopus Varios - 6 return pump
50lbs ARC Reef stacker + coraline algae
300w heater
45 gallons of RODI saltwater and counting

Am I missing anything? Any cleanup crew advice, maybe where to get good safe stock?

 

[Nano man]

80lbs is too much to start off with in a 65. Unless you want a deep sand bed. I would do 50-60lb with a 1-2 inch layer of sand.

Don’t think you need a refugium starter kit just yet!

That pump is fine and a good choice with adjustability!

The dry rock option seems fine.

300 watt heater is overkill, it would work just fine but 2 150 watt eheim jager connected to an apex is what I would go with. Incase the heater goes out on you the backup would kick in.

Don’t worry about the cuc just yet.

Now, how do you plan to cycle it?
Would you like suggestions on that?

 

[Tastee]

If you haven’t got one already I suggest a good quality Nitrate and Phosphate test kit. I use the Red Sea Pro kits but the Salifert kits are popular as are the Hanna checkers. I’ll be filling my RSR 525 XL with water in the next 1-2 weeks and will be keeping a close eye on both parameters. I don’t want 0 levels but do want to know what they are and if I am unhappy with either one will start dosing Lanthanum Chloride or NoPoX before they get out of control and start to give me major Algae problems. My current RSR 250 runs around 6 ppm Nitrate and 0.10 ppm Phosphate and is happy so that’s going to be my reference to start with.

 

[EvilVOG]

the Refugarium kit comes with nitrifing bacteria, that's what I'm going to use to cycle. Will be testing the water once the kit arrives as I lost the color card that goes with my other test kit.

also after cleaning and inspecting my current tank, it's recovering really well and I think is much healthier than I was giving it credit for. Haven't seen any pests outside of the bristle worms and ball nems and I think the gha is on it's way out to. So much fresh coraline algae on the rocks. Here's after a clean and water change yesterday: