Aeration for 55 Gallon Red Sea Reefer 250?

ReedMarineBiologyClub · Apr 4, 2022

Hello! My name is Joseph, with the Reed College Marine Biology Club! We are a group of passionate beginners, making a collaborative campus aquarium! We do not yet know exactly what corals and animals will populate our aquarium, but we plan to stick to beginner tropical species. A second forum post is to come asking for beginner species recommendations!

We are currently constructing a 55 Gallon Red Sea Reefer 250XL.

We have purchased 2 Aqua Illumination Nero 3 powerheads, producing 2000GPH of flow each.

Is this likely to be sufficient aeration for our tank, or should we purchase additional aeration in the form of airstones?
If we should purchase airstones, how many, and of what variety would you recommend?
Is it possible to over-aerate a tank?

Thank you for any advice!

Timfish · Apr 18, 2022

Sounds like over kill to me but it'll work. I use bubbles in many of my tanks but not with air stones, just an air line with a "moderate" air flow to generate gentle surface agitation. You can see some of my systems here: https://www.youtube.com/user/timfishone/videos

Timfish · Apr 18, 2022

Here's some links you may find informative:

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems