Another 10g reef thread..

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Khuligirl93

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Hey everyone, I know there's a lot of threads about this out there, but I'm hoping my prior knowledge and research can allow us to skip the cycling/ stocking talk and get to the good stuff :) I have been keeping freshwater planted tanks for about 7 years, and have recently become captivated by the personality and color of SW fish, inverts, and corals after getting a job at a local specialty aquarium shop.
My plan is to set up a 10g nano reef, and from what I have read, the necessary equipment is as follows:
-AC70
-2 koralia 240 power heads
-heater (already have)
-light (Tao panel): Evergrow Dimmable Full Spectrum D120 120W LED Light for Reef Saltwater Aquarium | eBay
-live aragonite sand (~2" deep)
-live rock (~2lbs for every gallon?) mostly base rock with a small amount of live.
-Ca, Alk, and Magnesium text kits (already have phosphate).

So my questions are:
1) Even though I've read that this is optimum filtration, I'm envisioning fish being unable to swim, and frags toppling over because the current is so strong. Will this be an issue?
2) At my work, I frequently clean out the SW protein skimmer cups. I'm not knowledgeable about how they function and what exactly they remove from the water (but it smells like dirt, like good nitrifying bacteria does) so would emptying the nasty contents into a bag to dump into my filter media be a good way to seed my filter? I wouldn't really be comfortable with asking to take apart the sumps and squeeze out the media, but I'm sure I can also get a scoop of sand and a small piece of live rock no problem.
3) will the light be too strong? I like the idea of it being able to support anything I'd want to grow, but I'm also not knowledgeable about the potential problems that could arise from too much light. Is it similar to freshwater in that with high lighting, having a balance between light, carbon and nutrients is essential to not having an algae explosion? If it is too much, is there a light with a similar appearance and lower price that would be more fitting?
Thanks for all your help in advance:) I'm excited to dive over into the salty side!


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Hey everyone, I know there's a lot of threads about this out there, but I'm hoping my prior knowledge and research can allow us to skip the cycling/ stocking talk and get to the good stuff :) I have been keeping freshwater planted tanks for about 7 years, and have recently become captivated by the personality and color of SW fish, inverts, and corals after getting a job at a local specialty aquarium shop.
My plan is to set up a 10g nano reef, and from what I have read, the necessary equipment is as follows:
-AC70
-2 koralia 240 power heads
-heater (already have)
-light (Tao panel): Evergrow Dimmable Full Spectrum D120 120W LED Light for Reef Saltwater Aquarium | eBay
-live aragonite sand (~2" deep)
-live rock (~2lbs for every gallon?) mostly base rock with a small amount of live.
-Ca, Alk, and Magnesium text kits (already have phosphate).

So my questions are:
1) Even though I've read that this is optimum filtration, I'm envisioning fish being unable to swim, and frags toppling over because the current is so strong. Will this be an issue?
2) At my work, I frequently clean out the SW protein skimmer cups. I'm not knowledgeable about how they function and what exactly they remove from the water (but it smells like dirt, like good nitrifying bacteria does) so would emptying the nasty contents into a bag to dump into my filter media be a good way to seed my filter? I wouldn't really be comfortable with asking to take apart the sumps and squeeze out the media, but I'm sure I can also get a scoop of sand and a small piece of live rock no problem.
3) will the light be too strong? I like the idea of it being able to support anything I'd want to grow, but I'm also not knowledgeable about the potential problems that could arise from too much light. Is it similar to freshwater in that with high lighting, having a balance between light, carbon and nutrients is essential to not having an algae explosion? If it is too much, is there a light with a similar appearance and lower price that would be more fitting?
Thanks for all your help in advance:) I'm excited to dive over into the salty side!


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Looks like a good equipment list, I'll # my answers to go with your questions.
1. No it won't be to much flow, I'm running 2 240s on my 10 and honestly want a little more. If you feel like the ac70 is to much you can either get an impeller from a smaller model (30 would prob work well) or trim the blades on the impeller a little.
2. No don't dump the skimmer contents into your tank, the rock and sand is all you'll need. If you haven't bought the sand yet, the bagged live sand isn't really live, it's just wet so I would just go with dry.
3. That is a lot of light over a 10, but you can dim it down to where it works for your tank. Just go slow when acclimating corals under your light, and you'll probably want to keep them at a relatively low %. Yes excess light along with excess nutrients can cause algae out breaks, but that's more due to the nutrients than the lighting IME.
 
Looks like a good equipment list, I'll # my answers to go with your questions.
1. No it won't be to much flow, I'm running 2 240s on my 10 and honestly want a little more. If you feel like the ac70 is to much you can either get an impeller from a smaller model (30 would prob work well) or trim the blades on the impeller a little.
2. No don't dump the skimmer contents into your tank, the rock and sand is all you'll need. If you haven't bought the sand yet, the bagged live sand isn't really live, it's just wet so I would just go with dry.
3. That is a lot of light over a 10, but you can dim it down to where it works for your tank. Just go slow when acclimating corals under your light, and you'll probably want to keep them at a relatively low %. Yes excess light along with excess nutrients can cause algae out breaks, but that's more due to the nutrients than the lighting IME.


Ok great:) thanks
Ok, so no skimmer contents. Why? And no I haven't gotten anything yet actually, I wanted to make sure I got the right stuff:) so I'll get dry aragonite. I think I'll start my cycle with a piece of raw shrimp.
Ok so I'll keep the light dimmed all the way down. I'll be getting my water from work, and we mix it with RO water, so I don't think nutrients should be an issue. Will I need to add anything for the corals? I suppose I can cross that bridge when I come to it, but I know we sell a plethora of reef tank additives and they look pretty overwhelming.

Edit: So it looks like this might end up being a 20 long actually :) does that change the powerheads I'll need?

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Ok great:) thanks
Ok, so no skimmer contents. Why? And no I haven't gotten anything yet actually, I wanted to make sure I got the right stuff:) so I'll get dry aragonite. I think I'll start my cycle with a piece of raw shrimp.
Ok so I'll keep the light dimmed all the way down. I'll be getting my water from work, and we mix it with RO water, so I don't think nutrients should be an issue. Will I need to add anything for the corals? I suppose I can cross that bridge when I come to it, but I know we sell a plethora of reef tank additives and they look pretty overwhelming.

Edit: So it looks like this might end up being a 20 long actually :) does that change the powerheads I'll need?

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The skim mate is dissolved organics, not filter media like fw. The rock in your tank acts as this in sw. As far as dosing goes, as long as you use a quality reef grade salt it's not needed until you have a large stony coral bio load. The 20 long is an awesome tank for reefs, love that footprint, great choice. ;) But yes you'll want to upgrade your power heads, a jaebo wp10 and korillia 425 (or 2 wp10s if you think you'll end being sps dominated), aim for 30-60x turnover an hour depending on your plans for coral. The jaebos are nice because they offer the controllability of the ecotechs for a price that's closer to a korillia, that being said if money's not an issue the mp series by ecotech are awesome and the ability to have the wires completely out if the tank and all the controls makes up for the price tag IMO.
 
Ok I'll go ahead and go with the two jebao wp 10s just in case.
We have those ecotech power heads on our display tanks at work, they're pretty sweet but way out of my price range.

So today I got an AC 70 (on sale for $46.99) and 3 bags of aragonite (2 10 lb bags of smaller grain size for $8 each and one 15lb bag of larger pieces also for $8), totaling 35 lbs. The 20g long is on sale at my local petsmart for $32 so that will be my next purchase once I get a spot ready for it :)

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to larger or smaller sizes of aragonite? The larger bag I got even has some whole shells in it. I'm not quite sure I like the appearance now that I'm looking at it closer.

Sorry one more question haha. Why is it that most reef lighting is such a high spectrum giving the tanks a blue look? Natural sunlight that reefs in the ocean receive does not look like this. I really like reefs that have a more natural light color like these:
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums...B-CF26-44C5-A257-8262128BF142_zpsfnhgbdd5.jpg
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums...0-7048-433E-8F9F-25A2ECF1BF19_zpsf04ooc9l.jpg
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums...6-AC95-4F6C-AD2C-90F64DCC5128_zpscfu5u3it.jpg
As opposed to the usual light color that I see like these:
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums...A-A66D-4388-B448-5D2F4A1889CA_zpsuyugeodv.jpg
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums...5-365C-4893-A8E6-A18DF83ED3AC_zpsekt8mzmq.jpg

Does anyone know what the LED I posted a link to will look the closest to? How do people get that nice lower spectrum like the first 3 pictures, that bring out the yellows and reds?

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