Thoughts on my new setup

[clamjellytoast]

Hey everyone, brand new member of the site, and I just wanted to get some thoughts on my setup, see if I'm doing things right. A few more things to go, but here's what I have so far.

I have a 110 gallon with pre-drilled overflow.
Pro-clear 125 wet dry filter with 700 gph mag-drive return pump.
Coralife super skimmer needle-wheel skimmer rated 125 gallon.
300 watt marineland heater.
Coralife 48" aqualight pro metal halides with ballasts.
2 Tunze nano-stream 6025's with natural wave pump timer.

It's been rough going from the start. It took me three days to get the wet/dry working because they kept giving me the wrong tubing at the LFS and I just had to go to home depot and do it myself. After I installed the lights they almost fell into the tank when one of the mounting legs broke, and now the pump that came with my skimmer isn't running when plugged in.

I did luck out by getting some pretty nice cured rock from another of the LFS when some guy who had a saltwater tank came in and gave them his rock. I got about 70 lbs at 4 bucks a lb.

Here's a couple of pics of the setup, what do you all think?

 

[brandonberry]

Sorry to hear about your struggles getting started. I hope things get better. We all have gone through our share of headaches with our tanks. Definitely be careful with that light. I had a light fall in a tank once while my hands were in it. Let's just say I got a nice wake-up call. I'm very fortunate to have survived that one.

Anyway, here is what I would suggest you consider:

Remove the bio-balls from the wet-dry. Most people do not use them anymore because they contribute to higher nitrates. This is due to the fact that they break wastes down into nitrates, but do not complete the anaerobic phase of the nitrogen cycle which converts the nitrates into nitrogen gas. Your live rock and sand should provide enough biological filtration. Ideally, your skimmer will pull out most wastes before it begins to break down.

Once you remove the media, try to fit the skimmer into the sump compartment where the media was. The idea behind haveing a sump is so you don't have all that ugly equipment hanging on the back of your tank. Same deal with the heater, but be careful to position it so it will not melt a hole in the sump.

Consider adding an auto top-off. This can be as simple as a 5g bucket (or larger if possible), a mini-jet pump, and a float switch such as the one offered by ATI. This will help you to keep a consistant salinity and minimize the amount of times you need to add water to the sump. You can also add pickling lime to the top-off reservoir to help maintain calcium and alkalinity in the tank.

Start off with something like a yellow tang instead of damselfish. Many people start with damsels only to find that they harrass and attempt to kill every other fish they add to the tank thereafter. If you do go with damsels, at least get a less aggressive variety such as green chromis.

Lastly, have fun. Don't try to do everything at once. Relax and think everything through before you start changing stuff. That simple step will save you lots of time, headaches and money.

Take care.

 

[cindre2000]

Can tunze be run on a regular wavemaker? I would double check since those are expensive pumps to break. Depending on the motor the constant on and off may mess with it. I would also say to be careful with that heater, I would personally run two smaller heaters since that is one of the most likely pieces of equipment to malfunction.

Looking good so far! Keep us updated.

 

[brandonberry]

Yeah, I think I have heard that those aren't good on a wavemaker as well.

 

[clamjellytoast]

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention it, but I already took out the bio-balls. Got that from a few of the threads on the forum.

I tried to fit the heater and the skimmer in the sump, but I couldn't because of the low water level and size of the sump. As soon as I get a chance I'm going to throw some kind of a simple background behind the tank to limit the ugliness of all the equipment.

I think the wavemaker and Tunzes are compatible. The reason I got it in the first place was because someone recommended in another thread.

 

[clamjellytoast]

You guys were right, looks like I have to get rid of the wavemaker.

 

[brandonberry]

You may want to consider just using a 20g high tank as the sump at some point in the future. They are relatively cheap and everything should fit nicely in it. You could probably sell the wet-dry to someone with a fish only tank and get enough to buy the tank and part of the top-off.

 

[clamjellytoast]

So with the skimmer you dont really need the filters in the wet/dry?

 

[WRASSER]

When you clean the tank or inter-act in the tank, you can use a filter. leaving the filter in the wet/dry could raise your nitrates.

 

[brandonberry]

Agreed. If you really want to use the filters in the wet dry, you need to rinse them very often to prevent nitrate build up.

 

[clamjellytoast]

I'll just get rid of em.

 

[mr_X]

i think there is a wavemaker that you can use those pumps on...tunze, koralia..etc. i don't know the name of it, but it turns the pumps down slowly instead of a sort of on-off wavemaker. i think the pumps never really shut off completely...kinda like a dimmer switch for a powerhead. can someone elaborate on this, or am i totally off base?

 

[cindre2000]

The wavemakers that Tunze makes do that. However, they are only compatible some of their pumps. There is also the new SEIO wavemaker, however, I am sure it is probably only set to a particular power level (since it only works on some of their pumps). I personally wonder how hard it would be to DIY a similar device...