Reef Tank Plumbing

Help building a self contained reef aquarium?

My family has had a small (i think 18 gallon) Reef Tank for a few years now, and we’ve decided we want something bigger. My dad tasked me with coming up with a new tank, and said that it had to be self contained. He wants it to be about 50 gallons, with minimal input on our part.

I know that at every store we’ve been to for coral has had those tanks that basically run themselves. they have one part that grows the nutrients, another that you actually see that has all the coral in it, and as far as I know, they have the whole system automated, so they don’t have to do anything but if anyone could confirm this, that would be great.

I want to build something like that (only one tank, though) that pretty much runs itself. I am pretty handy with tools, and plumbing is not a problem, but getting it as a kit would be much nicer. If anyone can give me tips on what I need, and anything that I have wrong, that would be great. also, any kits that would do this for me would be great also.

Reed and minimal maintenance are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Reason is that corals are VERY sensitive to water conditions, they MUST be tested and adjusted regularly to maintain the exact conditions that corals need to survive.

Now there are ways to make this easier.
Dosing computers can be installed that drip in pre-determined amounts of dosing chemicals, but the levels still need to monitored and the computer setting adjusted
A Refugium can be installed in the sump, growing algae to remove excess nitrate and phosphate from the system
Automatic water changers are another possibility.

But None of those things are going to be “set and forget”. You are trying to replicate the ecosystem of the Pacific Ocean in a small glass container. Not an easy thing to do.

Ian

Rickets Reef – 90 Gallon Build #5. The Sump and Stuff

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