Newbie Tank and equipment questions

[Tropical Baker 17]

Hi everyone!

So I am currently in the process of starting up my first saltwater tank and am looking to get a little help and make sure I have everything I need to get myself up and running properly.

The tank is a 55gal tank, I currently have 55# of dry "live" rock from BRS, and am waiting on my live sand and a few other pieces of equipment to come before I begin to actually setup. The equipment that will be going into my tank is: Aquatech 30-60 filter (I do not currently have the ability to add a SUMP but plan on a in-tank Fuge in the future for some Chato and copepods), 3 Maxi-Jet Powerhead 600s, and a Finnex HMO 150W heater. In addition I plan on getting a Reef Octopus BH100 HOB protein skimmer before I add any fish or inverts to the tank. Also I need to get lighting for my tank before I add in any fish. Currently I have a 48" unit that takes T12 bulbs and was looking at getting a 48" VHO Super Actinic R UV bulb. I believe from what I read it runs a full 420nm blue spectrum and 12000K.

So, I plan on starting slow and going with a FOWLR tank for the first few months to a year before I start to add corals and make a reef tank. Is this equipment going to be sufficient? Will the light I listed above be sufficient to grow any coral? What will need to be upgraded as I begin to add in corals? I plan on starting with a few soft before adding some SPSs (admittedly I haven't done a super amount of coral research yet as it is further in the future). I do not have the lighting or heater yet so both of these items are flexible. I think I covered everything, any other specs I should have included?

 

[Ted]

For a Fowlr your list is ok, need to be careful with the hob filter. Will need to be cleaned often. The t12 lights are ok for a fowlr but I wouldnt run it with any type of coral. Look into t5 for bulb fixtures if you are going to start having corals. I was scared of sumps for many years. I now have a system with a sump/refugium and I feel stupid for ever not having one. My system now is so much easier to maintain and is so much better looking. If you dont mind me asking, what is holding you back on a sump? If its cost there are ways to do this cheaper.....if its just the unknown we can walk you through it.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Good to know everything is fine to start out with. I figured as much with the lighting and that can always be upgraded easily in time when i decide I am ready to start adding corals. As far as the sump goes it is partially unknown in the area of plumbing it into the system but I am sure I could figure it out with a few days of reading through articles and forums and asking a few questions. Currently its really a space and aesthetics issue. My 55gal stand is pretty low and doesn't have any room to house anything underneath so I would need to have the sump next to the tank. I do want to add one in in the long run but first I will need to figure out exactly what I am going to do to make it look presentable and get the cash for whatever I will need.

 

[Ted]

The biggest thing I would think of before getting the tank wet. If you are going to do a sump in the future and the stand you have wont work. Would it be better to change the stand now and not go through the hassle of taking the tank apart to change stands later. The cost of my sump was around $120 the return pump, heater, skimmer, drain lines was around another $100. I bought some off brand stuff but it has been working really well. Check out my thread on the bottom of this post. Things dont have to be as expensive as you see.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...Ted has you covered.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

:D thanks for the help so far I'm sure ill be having more questions soon enough.

Although getting a new stand now would be the smart thing I just don't really have the cash at the moment...on the upside it gives me a project to plan for down the road - even if it will end up being a huge pain lol

 

[little_fish]

Hello and welcome!

I would wait until you have a good stand to start your tank, there is a lot to deal with in a new tank and you want to start off with the best you can. I started with a crappy stand it was beyond horrible to deal with, and changing out the stands is not an easy thing to do, it is much more than a pain in the ass.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Ok so lets say I decide to take my old 10gal aquarium sitting in the garage and turn it into a sump. Now I don't have room to house it under my stand but I could build a table to match the stand to house it under.

If i go this route my first question is water flow and out. I don't have a drilled tank and really dont want to run any hole through my aquarium at this point. So can I simple use a powerhead from my above equipment to run water into the sump and another to run return to the MT? If so is only 1 powerhead in the MT still going to provide enough flow?

Now with plumbing out of the way what would be my best route to dividing the sump into compartments? or is this even necessary if I would still run a HOB skimmer?

Other than that I will have extra sand and could run a DSB and I'd just have to pick up some extra rock from my LFS

If this setup will work I should be able to get a 10gal sump up and going for the cost of some tubing and the materials to build a housing unit and a little black paint.

 

[Bifferwine]

No, you don't want to use a powerhead to bring water to your sump. If something happens (like your return pump in the sump stops working), the powerhead will continue to bring water to it, and it will flood.

If you don't drill your tank, you need to either buy an overflow box or DIY your own overflow.

You don't need to divide the sump up into compartments if you don't want to. If you can move the HOB skimmer into the sump, that would de-clutter your display tank and make it look nicer.

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Btw this is the tank and space I am working with

 

[Tropical Baker 17]

Gotcha so something like this (first one that popped up on google). Will this let me set the height the overflow runs at so in case of an outage my tank would flood the sump and overflow onto my carpet?