Multi tank setup

[nyquist]

Preface: I've had a few FW tanks over the years growing up, and its about time for me to delve into the saltwater realm. I'm still early in the planning stage, probably will not purchase anything for at least a few more months, time I will be spending working on a few DIY projects and exercising my electrical engineering skills and researching aquariums and my desired species :) I'm not particularly interested in large or predatory fish, I would like to see some beautiful, colorful, biologically diverse setup with peaceful inhabitants. So, my goal is this:

Primary tank 50-90 gallons with:

• Live rock
• Pair of clowns
• -With compatible anemone
• Small set (3-5?) of chromis or anthias or something small and schoolish
• Soft corals
• Eventually some LPS
• Possibly SPS down the road

Secondary tank/refugium 30-50 gallons with:

• Large solo crustacean Or some shrimp Or starfish
• Live rock
• Mangroves for looks
• Possibly other plant life or macro algae for looks

Sump with:

• Protein skimmer
• Chaeto or other macro algae
• Pump

My masterpiece illustrating the aprx setup:

As (I tried to) illustrated in the image, the primary tank will overflow into the secondary/refugium tank, which will overflow into the sump, which will pump water back into the main tank And here they are, my Questions; I asked some of these elsewhere but to no avail, so I figured I would ask here:



1) I have a few microcontrollers and a plethora of electronics and electronics experience and want to use those for some DIY stuffs; do many people have luck with setting up automatically monitored temp, pH and salinity probes? (was thinking about other monitors as well, but it looks like reliable, long lasting electronic probes for NH3/NH4, Calcium etc are expensive or unreliable or both)
2) For a quarantine tank, should I stock it with something living so it has a constant bioload? (I guess this depends on filtration method, so does purely mechanical or chemical filtration work for something like a quarantine tank?)
3) Is back-and-forth wave motion any better or even different than turbulent flow from several well positioned pumps or powerheads?
4) For nocturnal monitoring I would like to be able to look at my tanks without disrupting them, is red light less invasive for most ocean or reef dwelling animals?
5) I realize different corals and anemones have different lighting requirements, should I stick to vertical tank positioning of multiple smaller fixtures spaced laterally to do this job?
6) There any problems or concerns with the setup or anything I have left out or oversights on my part? And thanks in advance for any input :)

 

[RockStacker]

Just some comments to help you with your planning:

Primary tank 50-90 gallons with:

• Live rock - always good
• Pair of clowns - if they are indeed a mated pair, that is good.
• -With compatible anemone - fun for the clowns and hobbyist, but not absolutely needed.
• Small set (3-5?) of chromis or anthias or something small and schoolish - anthias cost about 5x the cost of chromis, but in my opinion are much more beautiful.
• Soft corals
• Eventually some LPS
• Possibly SPS down the road

The last three is where it gets iffy. Certain soft corals produce toxins that do not affect other soft corals but irritate LPS, and sometimes lethal to some SPS.
Also, some LPS do not like to have neighbors and most SPS will lose a battle with an LPS.
So if you plan to have mixed coral types, do plan ahead and choose the species carefully and plan their locations to minimize aggression.




Secondary tank/refugium 30-50 gallons with:

• Large solo crustacean Or some shrimp Or starfish - depending on the detritus production on the main tank, you might want to increase the number of scavengers to break down large detritus to help the smaller critters (I am assuming you want 'pods in the refugium).
• Live rock - good
• Mangroves for looks
• Possibly other plant life or macro algae for looks

I have heard that magroves process a lot of nutrients - which makes them desirable if you have the space - but might not leave enough nutrients for any other macro-algae. But there is no real way of knowing this until you have your setup running.

Sump with:

• Protein skimmer
• Chaeto or other macro algae
• Pump

 

[chuck78]

How are you going to EVENLY move water from 1 tank to the next? Moving water equally with 3 tanks can be tricky because of the varying loss of pump pressure due to gravity. Are the tanks all going to be the same heightfrom the ground? I only ask b/c it would suck for you to come home & see 1 tank overflowed, one ok, then the other with almost no water in it :shock:. It looks like a fun project, but I figured I'd add my :twocents: :D

 

[little_fish]

Hello and Welcome!

We also dont recommend keeping nems until the tank is about a year old, they are one of the more challenging critters to keep and do much better in an established tank. Plus there is no guarantee that the clowns will even be hosted by nem.

Also mangroves can take quite a while to become established and start removing nutrients. They also require a lot vertical room and light, so you will need to set up the second tank for them with their own dedicated light source. There are much easier to take care of macros and more beneficial, i personally would put those in your fuge instead.

And you can put the starfish right in to your main tank, and a serpent or brittle star is considered a good member of your CUC. The Formia or linka (sp?) stars are the pretty ones you see, but they shouldnt go into a new tank. They are very sensitive and will melt if there any problems. I would avoid any hard or knobby stars because they usually arent reef safe, and sand shifting stars just starve to death in our tanks after pulling out all the good stuff in your sand bed.

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree. Unless one of the tanks is gravity-fed from the other, you will have to combine the sump and refugium into one container.

Be sure to wait a while before adding an anemone as they are very challenging animals to keep and considered "expert only".

The people that I know that have tried to keep mangroves have been unsuccessful. I think you should stick with chaeto for the fuge.

You do not need to keep a quarantine tank stocked. Just set it up and use it as needed.

Many people like using wavemakers, although they are not necessary. For a smaller tank size (like yours) I don't think they are worth it. Powerheads work just fine.

Most people use a red light to check things out at night for the reason you said. Any sort of flashlight will work -- and if you get a light fixture with moonlights you may not even need to use a flashlight.

I'm not sure I understand your lighting question. You will buy one light for the whole tank. Then you will place your corals vertically according to how much light they require (lower light corals at the bottom, higher light corals at the top of the tank).

 

[nyquist]

Thanks a lot for the input!

The last three is where it gets iffy. Certain soft corals produce toxins that do not affect other soft corals but irritate LPS, and sometimes lethal to some SPS.
Also, some LPS do not like to have neighbors and most SPS will lose a battle with an LPS.
So if you plan to have mixed coral types, do plan ahead and choose the species carefully and plan their locations to minimize aggression.


I have heard that magroves process a lot of nutrients - which makes them desirable if you have the space - but might not leave enough nutrients for any other macro-algae. But there is no real way of knowing this until you have your setup running.

good to know, I will keep that in mind and probably end up narrowing my selection to only one or two archetypes of coral; will also do more research before actually buying anything to add to my tank :)

as for the mangroves, if they export most/all the nutrients, I could definitely live without the macro algae, just wanted a mid-sized nutrient export force

How are you going to EVENLY move water from 1 tank to the next? Moving water equally with 3 tanks can be tricky because of the varying loss of pump pressure due to gravity. Are the tanks all going to be the same heightfrom the ground? I only ask b/c it would suck for you to come home & see 1 tank overflowed, one ok, then the other with almost no water in it :shock:. It looks like a fun project, but I figured I'd add my :twocents: :D

So the plan was to have an overflow from the primary tank pour into the secondary/refugium tank which will be situated physically lower than the first tank. The second/refugium tank would then overflow into the sump, which would be physically lower than both tanks and pump water back into the primary tank; logistic wise it should work pretty well since I will only be relying on one pump, and due to the nature of overflows, in theory, I shouldn't have to worry about flooding or water backup

Hello and Welcome!

We also dont recommend keeping nems until the tank is about a year old, they are one of the more challenging critters to keep and do much better in an established tank. Plus there is no guarantee that the clowns will even be hosted by nem.

Also mangroves can take quite a while to become established and start removing nutrients. They also require a lot vertical room and light, so you will need to set up the second tank for them with their own dedicated light source. There are much easier to take care of macros and more beneficial, i personally would put those in your fuge instead.

And you can put the starfish right in to your main tank, and a serpent or brittle star is considered a good member of your CUC. The Formia or linka (sp?) stars are the pretty ones you see, but they shouldnt go into a new tank. They are very sensitive and will melt if there any problems. I would avoid any hard or knobby stars because they usually arent reef safe, and sand shifting stars just starve to death in our tanks after pulling out all the good stuff in your sand bed.

Great info. I am definitely going to take it slow, the last thing I want is to kill off the creatures I want so badly to keep alive! As far as space and lighting for the mangroves, I have plenty of both ;)

Most people use a red light to check things out at night for the reason you said. Any sort of flashlight will work -- and if you get a light fixture with moonlights you may not even need to use a flashlight.

I'm not sure I understand your lighting question. You will buy one light for the whole tank. Then you will place your corals vertically according to how much light they require (lower light corals at the bottom, higher light corals at the top of the tank).

Was thinking that I would end up using two smaller lighting fixtures over the main tank and could easily vary the height of one to provide more intense light to one side of the tank, wasn't sure if this would be necessary to achieve the correct flow+lighting combination for some critters






Thanks again for all the input, and had another question about the mangroves:
if they are very slow to get started, should I get a young one/seedling now and raise it without a tank, just so it starts off and has some time to grow? or will it adapt to the tank-less environment I would keep it in for the next several months and dislike the change once I setup my tanks?

 

[chuck78]

I would'nt bother with buying one til your tank has cycled. Your "Tankless Environment" would'nt be able to supply the SAME nitrate supply that your tank will. Sure, you could use plant food, but IDT it would be the same as what your tank will provide.

 

[nyquist]

sounds good, I will hold off until I get my basic tank setup


also, considering what plants use as nutrients, I can have a plant in the tank during a cycle, right? small to mild amounts of NH3, NO2 and NO3 are fine for a mangrove right?