45 reef start up

Planefanatic

Reefing newb
Hey all. I have my 45 gallon cycling right now. I was wondering if using my wet dry would be ok for a reef tank. Also what is a refugeum (sorry horrible spelling)? Do I need one or not. For lighting I was going to do t5 lights, two day light two act with blue moon lights. I want a mixed reef. I was going to stay with soft corals. Any suggestions for equipment and such? I have a skimmer and sterilizer, also a reactor.
 
what type of wet dry? They can work ok but they can also become nitrate factories, so if you use it, you will need to stay on top of cleaning the bio-balls or other media regularly. A refugium is a place for you to grow macroalgae and produce pods or other live food for the tank. The macro will help remove nutrients from the water as it grows and if you place your fuge light on an opposite schedule from the DT, it can help stabilize your tanks PH by keeping the photosynthesis process going throughout your tanks "lights-out" period. It also increases the overall water volume of your tank which can help stabilize parameters. Additionally, some people have a deep sand bed in their fuge. You'll want to do some reading on the benefits and pitfalls with a DSB if it something you are interested in. The only negative thing about having a fuge, is the space it will take and the cost of setting it up. Well worth it though if you have the space for it! How many watts, or what type of t5 fixture are you planning to get? The t5's should be fine for softies. I'd suggest you spend a bit reading up on the sterilizer as they are not typically run 24/7. It can be a great tool, but you just need to make sure you understand how to use it properly. Not sure what type of reactor you have, but you wont need it right away, and may not need it at all if you are just keeping softies. Otherwise, the two biggest things that you haven't addressed are flow, and live rock(LR). LR will be the most important filtration you have. You need 1-2lbs per gallon. I assume that you already have some since you said you are cycling? For flow, you will want somewhere around 10-15x your tank volume for softies, more if you start keeping LPS and more even yet for SPS. Just make sure that you have sufficient water movement.
 
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I'm still little surprise that people still use trickles here in 2010.They were great back in the day when fish only was popular and you needed the extra surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow.Who really set up saltwater with dead coral decorations anymore.If your plan is to put over one pound of live per gallon than ditch the bioballss altogether.Live rock will do the same as bioballs without becoming a nitrate factory.If there is anyway to convert it to a refugium or a semi refugium then thats what I would do.
 
Thank You all!!!!! That cleared up a lot of questions. I do have some live rock in the tank now and i am slowly buying more each time i am getting paid. The 45 use to be a fish only, but i want to dip into corals now. The wet/dry is a trickle filter with bio balls and a small area to put equiptment into, maybe i should get a new filter. The lights i am looking at are made by AquaticLife, they are: AquaticLife T5 HO 36" 4X39 watt w/ 4 lunar lights. As for the UV Sterilizer it is a Coralife Tubo twist 3x, i had it on my fish only and it ran all the time. So i guess i dont understand how long they are supposed to run, therefore How long should it? For flow i have a return that pumps 500gph but for the distance the pump is pumping its probably at 400gph. I was thinking of putting in powerheads at the bottem of the tank to create some up flow to the top of the tank. I was looking into getting two powerheads for that. As for the reactor it is a .Poly-Reactor multi media reactor that i used when i wanted to pull phosphates out of my 110 (i was going to start my 110 as a reef but decided to do it in my 45).
 
So i was looking at lights some more and i think i want to go with 6-t5 lights other than 4-t5 lights. The only thing is my tank is 12 inches wide and the light fixture is 12 inches wide. Does that mean the extra two bulbs will be shining right on the rim of my tank or not? anybody know. I was looking into the nova extreme pro fixture 6X39 watts but i am not sure if it has the moon lights, Any idea??
 
The Nova pros do not come with lunar lights.I'm not sure why they don't,really.Some of the light will hit the rims since your tank is pretty narrow.The Pros do have individual reflectors so more light penetrates the water column.I'm not familar with the Aqualife,if it has IRs or not.
 
Thats the way I would go. Even though it will hit the rim some you will have better light. The shroud is up to you kinda depends on how it looks to you.
 
Yeah,I know I'm late on this thread.:D
I ran a trickle filter up until about a week ago.Then I converted it to accommodate my new skimmer.
Trickles are great filters.AS LONG AS THEY ARE MAINTAINED.You'll have to give them a good cleaning and rinse the filter media out at least once a week.Other wise you'll have water quality problems.
I'd go with the Nova Pros to.
 
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