Will this system be ok for soft corals- fish?

[Canada_Dry]

I am new to salt water I need to know if what I have in mind is ok please take a few min to look it over and let me know your thoughts or any suggestions.

I just bought a 65g tank (18 inches wide by 4 feet long) and I am planning on having a fish and soft coral combo, with mushrooms, polyps, Feather Dusters, Anemones, gorgonians/sponges various star fish, shrimp, snails etc.. I would like about 10 to 15 fish, like a yellow tang, ( Can 2 Yellow tangs be kept ok in a 65g tank?) 5 dominos, 5 yellow tail damsel, Bicolor Angel, a Percula and a Maroon clown (is this ok to have a Percula and a Maroon in a 65g tank?) and maybe a Mandarin Goby.

the equipemt I orderd for the tank is as follows:

50lbs base rock
60lbs live rock (will get more latter)
2 Penguin 170 (170 GPH) W/BIO-Wheel
1 Seatest Hydrometer
2 Power Sweep 226 (190 GPH) power heads
1 Visi-Therm Automatic Aquarium Heater 350 watt
1 SeaClone Protein Skimmer/with maxi-jet pump
1 SALTWATER MASTER Liquid Test Kit
2 55 watt 10000K daylight compact fluorescents
2 55 Watt 71000K Actinic Blue compact fluorescents

I am not sure if I should use live sand or go with crushed coral? what is the best for the type of set up and live stock i listed above?

Oh I forgot to ask how many fish can this set up safely handel?

Thanks for reading my post any help and sugestions would be a great help.

 

[Tybond]

Welcome to the zoo Canada!

Lets see here....

sounds like a good start but please don't be upset with my thoughts as you will find here we all have different opinions and each way is right..just ask

I will start with equipment:

Dump the bio wheel! they will cause you problems due to phosphate and nitrate build up over time and you shouldn't need one.

Do your self a BIG favor and go with a deep sandbed (4" to 5" deep) and you will have NO need for mechanical filtration other than your skimmer.
110 lb Live Rock and the sand bed will filter all you will need.
just my opinion but well WELL worth the cost!

As for the lighting, you may find it's a bit low for some soft corals. The mushrooms will be fine and if you place the gorgonians about midway up in the water column they are ok but some softies like leathers will want more than just 4x55w PC's

I am running 8x55pc's on my 55g and can now keep a few (very few) sps but clams are a no go.

Also you may want to swap out the 7100k for Actinic 03's. The 7100k bulbs turn everything in the tank blue but don't add much floresence to you corals. the 03's will look a little better too. I don't believe pc's are real actinic but better than the 7100k attempt.

Test kits are a must have. Most people on the boards use Salifert kits but they are a little more expensive than most. But on the up side, they are more accurate and seem easier to read than most others I'v tried.
You want to test Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate at the start and when these 0 out during cycle your ready to go. Your salinity should be 24 to 25, most run 25. other test kits that are a help later are by choice but Calcium is a good addition. Even though you say you only want soft corals and didn't mention LPS. softies still have a need for calcium and it is recommended to keep the level in your tank between 400 to 450.
mine hovers at 420 and I use ESV B-ionic calcium and alkalinity buffers.

You may also want to think about adding a refugium to your tank for added filtration and a live food source for you new pets. especialy if you do decide on the mandarin. Mandarin's live off live mysis shrimp and other pods and the refugium will provide a place for them to multiply without predidation. One other benefit is filtration as you will grow macro algea in there to help remove phosphates and such from the water. just harvest the stuff out when it gets thick and give it away to a fellow reefer, sell it to them, or if you want, place a little in a vegi clip and let that yellow tang have a treat.

This brings ne to the fish,

Get a matched pair of clowns. I dont think mixes clowns will work well in 65g they just get to mean. also you might reconsider all the damsels. they are hell on wheels and very preditorial.
plus when they reach adult hood they loose their color and just look plain.
As for they yellow tang, go for it...but only 1 (In my opinion again) Most will tell you not to put one in anything under 200g because they need lots of space but mine seems happy with his home.

Anemones move around a lot until they find a sweet spot they like and most you will find won't be a host for a clown. I have one and I am sorta tired of moving corals when he decides to go on a walk about. I found that percula clowns don't need an anemone to be happy, I have a hammer coral and frogspawn that both have called home from the day I put them in.
If you do decide to go with an anemone, I sugest the carpet anemone or long tentacle. I will still recomend the hammer and frogspawn approach though.

As for the deep sand bed I mentioned, don't use crushed coral for this. Use a mix of aragonite and sugar sized oolite sand and mix in a few clumps of reef rubble too. (the rubble is for the posibility of added fish like jaw fish later)
There is a lot of info here on the board about setting up a deep sand bed (DSB) just do a search and read up on them. I like the DSB because it acts as my primary filter and the Live stuff growing in it feeds so many things.
You will deffinatly want Live Sand but you only need about 10 pounds to seed your tank and it is a good idea to consider ordering a kit from a MO place like Inland aquatics. They cost a little but will get things kicking fast.

I'll stop here.
Oh, 10 fish should be about dead on my thought of maxing your tank out.
suggestions:
1 yellow tang
5 domino's
2 percula clowns or 2 maroon clowns
1 mandarin (please read about this beutiful fish before you buy and try to see if it will eat frozen mysis at the store. they have a much better chance if you can feed them frozen along with the live)
1 wrasse: take a look at this site and click a few names and discover the wrasse!

Good luck, and again..welcome to the board!!
ty
Reef Safe Wrasse

 

[Canada_Dry]

Thanks Tybond
Thats helps alot, about the penguin bio filters what if i run them with out the filter media and just use the bio wheel for added filtration and water movement? would that be ok?
Also if i can get some south sand and add about 10lbs of live sand and a bit of crushed coral is that ok? and should i put in the south sand then layer the live sand on top , or mix them together?

Thanks Canada_Dry

 

[Clearblue303]

Tybond explained you all.
I wouldn't want any Demsels,they are too mean.
Where are you drieing in Canada?

Good luck!

FM

 

[Tybond]

Canada,

In regards to the biowheel, I suggest leaving them out entirely. they will just contribute to problems later. BUT...don't pitch it!
You can still hang it on there for current and when you need to run carbon from time to time for algea problems and to clear up your water if needed your ready to go. Just don't leave the carbon in past about 2 weeks at a time. It will slowly loose its usefullness and will start to contribute to phosphate buildup. It is fine to just let it run as a form of water movement without whells or pads and beleive it or not, some pods and such will get settled in living on the junk that settles to the bottom and you will have a "mini" refugium going.

Most people I have talked to that run these type of hang-ons claim they put a little reef rubble in the housing where the filter pads go and have sponges and things start taking up residence.

The Southdown sand is great if you have access to it where you are. I haven't here in my neck of the woods but from what I have discovered, The Southdown sand is the exact sugar sized grain of sand you want and is basicaly the same sand as the caribsea dry sand I used. If you can get it, Use It!

A guide line to use setting up a DSB is this:

Put down about 2" southdown sand or other sugar sized grain (salt water aquarium use only, no sand for the kids sandbox other than Southdown) then place your live sand in 3 clumps across this layer. 1 clump left end, 1 clump center and 1 clump right end. You don't have to spread the live sand over just leave it clumped in 3 piles.

Next add more sand to cover the live sand and immediately put enough water in the tank to just cover the sand bed. This is to keep that live sand live while you work on the rest of the bed.

Next place a few clumps of reef rubble (bits of dead coral chunks) where you might like to see burrowing fish like Jaw fish call home if later you decide to get any. (its very cheap and basically easiest now instead of poking it it later if you want one)Just put a little pile where you invision in your mind would be the best place. The fish will find it and most likely call this place home as there will only be rock for them to work with where YOU want it.

Next put down alternating 1" layers of aragonite sand and southdown sand until you reach your desired hight 4" to 6".

If you like the look of crushed coral then using it is fine but use it in the top layer to "aquascape" your bed and provide the visible look you want. Over time critters, fish, and time will cause some of the crushed coral to "settle" in to the bed giving you a pleasing natural mixed look.

Thats it for your DSB

One thing to remember about sand. If you like the look of the hill and valley aquascape of a sand bed, you will need to use the heavier grained aragonite where you start a valley. The sand will settle out flat over time but this will slow the event much more.

Another suggestion to think about before starting your DSB is the live rock structure you will be building on to of the sand.

Placing Base Rock / Live Rock directly on the top of sand can be a bad thing because as the structure settles in, it can become unstable. Placing Live Rock 6" into the sand will result in dead rock and if you can't see it why pay for it!

To prevent this and save a few bucks, buy a 6 foot length of 1-1/2" white PVC pipe and cut it into equal lengths that will be about 1-1/2" shorther than the top hight of your DSB. Place these on the glass in a stagered pattern across the floor of your aquarium about 2" apart where you will be adding your rock structure before adding any sand. When your sandbed is complete, all PVC will be hidden and you have a VERY stable base structure to build on and no wasted money on rock you'll never see. Just place your base rock down into the sand, push it down till it stops and turn it back and forth in a clockwise motion a few times and presto. By turning the rock, you fill in any gaps and "lock" the rock in.

Now you can build up your rock structure and not have to worry about things topling over.

Hope this helps you!

ty

 

[Scottis24]

Good Luck Canada_dry, I hope you stick with the hobby. I started mine about 8 months ago. We made the typical first time mistakes (thank you very much LFS) running crushed oyster shell/coral for a substrate. Please don't do that. 60-70 lbs of aragonite w/ 20 lbs of LS would be a much better start. I run a Oceanic 58g with 60lbs of aragonite and 55lbs of LR. I have a trickle filter in my sump (again thanks to my lfs), and am going to take out my bio balls and just grow some macro alge in the sump in my sump. It works really well right now, but I just wish it was bigger! I wouldn't do hang on filters unless I had a reason too. What I ended up with was a good FOWLR set up. I decided to do this becaus angels are just to pretty, I'll do coral later in another tank.
My livestock is as follows:
1 Yellow tang (great alge eater)
2 precula clowns
1 brittle star
1 cleaner wrasse (new addition, hope he works out)
I run a sera test kit, and have had good results with it. I hope this helps. One last peice of advice READ! I like Moe's the marine aquqarium reference and the handbook also by Moe.

Again good luck and stick with it, the hardest part is leaving well enough alone!

 

[Canada_Dry]

THANKS GUYS/GIRLS..
for the great information and help. I will re-think my set up a bit more before i buy any live stock.

Canada_Dry