Used Reef Tank Equipment

Marine Aquarists… Lend me your wisdom…?

I would like to start a marine Reef Tank. First time on to marine by the way. And I know reef is a lot harder than fish only, but I’d liked to start with the low-light easier to keep corals like Pachyclavularia and Briareum spp., Sarcophyton sp.

The tank I would like to get is approximately 153×46x60cm.

I would like to ask everyone that has a marine aquarium, what kind of set up do you have. All the equipment you use to keep it running. Much appreciated

I have multiple Reef Tanks, 2-125 gallons, 2-300 gallon Hexagonal tanks, and a 2k gallon (roughly) breeding vat, and 30 gallon reef. Also have a few frag tanks. Ill just list the 30 gallon as it was the cheapest by far and away. 45 lbs live rock and 3 inch deep sand bed in the main tank. Live rock rubble and 5 inch deep sand bed in the HOB aquafuge. I use two heaters (Visitherm in the main tank and a Finnex led in the refugium.) Two hydor Koralia powerheads (Koralia 1 and a Koralia nano), A maxijet 600 powerhead, a rio del aqua pump for my fuge, Aqua C remora skimmer, UV sterilizer I made. I use instant ocean Reef crystals for a salt mix and I Have a couple of RO DI units (Way cheaper for me to go this way, as I had these for prior setups), I use a Aquaticlife T-5 30-in fixture on my main tank, 4 bulbs (2-10000k 24 watt daylight bulbs, 2- 420/460 24 watt actinic bulbs, with 4 night leds. I also Use 2 sseparateLed supplemental Fixtures.( I agree with the above post in that I prefer halides and I use them on all of my other tanks, in that they produce a light which is far stronger and much more natural. On this tank I wasn’t attempting to keep SPS corals, clams, or some of the larger carpet anemones so there was no need for a halide fixture. I also was thinking about my electric bill considering all the equipment I run already.) On my refugium I use a 26 watt powercompact fixture specifically made for the fuge. I keep a variety of different corals in my main tank from ricordea shrooms, xenia, Zoas, candy cane, mmultipleopen and closed brain corals, frogspawn, torch coral, etc. I have 2 occelaris clowns, a purple firefish goby, a yellow watchman goby paired with a Randall’spistol shrimp (red banded), and a green clown goby. I also have a single cleaner shrimp, 3 peppermint shrimp, Around 20 hermits (mostly scarlet), around 30 snails in all (Astrea, Mexican Turbo (2), Nassarius, and cerith, and I also have a small sand sifting starfish. I keep cheato macroalgae in my fuge along with a couple of shaving brush plants. I also keep some cleaner clams in there along with a few astrea snails and a whole load of pods and live rock rubble. I keep a mesh bag of Activated carbon and de-Nitrate in the fuge, and a bag of chemi-pure elite. I replace the chemi pure every 4-6 months, the carbon every month, and the de-nitrate as It is needed. I dose Kent calcium, iodide, Essential elements, coral vite, Phytoplex, marine snow, and Iron (directly to the fuge). I do dose strontium and momolybdenumo my larger reefs, however not the 30 as of yet. I dose calcium and iodide weekly, Essential elements and coral vite every 2 weeks, Iron every month, and the phytoplex and marine snow twice weekly. I use a automated doser in case I am away, along with lighting timers and wave makers for the powerheads and the lights. I feed multiple foods, (Flake, sinking pellet soaked in garlic extract, Multiple frozen foods from Mysis to calamari, some gel foods, etc.) I typically feed only frozen, supplementing the corals with spot feeding as necessary and also using the sinking pellets and gel for the pistol shrimp and watchman who prefer to not have to come out of their tunnel system. I also supplement algae sheets, (purple, red, and green) twice weekly for all of my snails and hermits. I don’t have much algae in my tank as my phosphates have always been extremely low as have my nitrates. I do a water change once monthly and have never lost even a hermit. I also have around 100 empty hermit shells in my tank so they can switch as they choose. Just a fairly typical setup with a fuge. Tank is stocked a little on the heavy side, however the fuge helps balance this out and the clown goby hardly adds to the bioload at all. I also use a custom made wooden stand for the tank.(my father made the stand, he’s made all my stands). I use the interior ride side of the stand as storage for tank essentials, and in the left side I have a multilayered frag tank (custom made) with Led lighting. Its roughly around 7 gallons and is tall versus wide. The multilayered effect gives me the ability to put more light dependent frags higher in the tank safely without worry. Has really worked well so far.

Truly best of Luck

Biocube 29 Gallon Reef Tank – Update 2 (Review of tank setup)

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