Hi All (Copied from Welcome Forum for Advice)

[Innovator]

I agree with Mr. Wizz on the initial post.

Originally Posted by steve149c

Thanks to both of you,

Just to clarify its a 270 Litre tank, approx 70 US Gallons. As I say I am still at the early planning stages. Not too sure about the sump idea, I will put up with the additional "clutter" in the tank for the moment - I can always swap over later.

If you plan on drilling the tank do it now while it is empty. This is a dangerous task when full of decor/livestock.

Ok the rough list:

Clown fish - pair
Royal Gramma

That should just about take me to a nice limit,

Also

Shrimps (Cleaners)
Snails
Crab - I assume crabs will act as a substitue for the hermits?
Coral - soft
Polyps

As I say, first tank, so I don't want to run before I can crawl.

I hope that this meets with everyones agreement.

From your previous inquiry, Centropyge angels (dwarf angels) can indeed turn to consuming a variety of corals, but then again so can just about every other fish. Why these get picked on for it, I really don't know. Either way, the Potters angel, Centropyge potteri, tends to be a delicate shipper and overall a shy animal. If properly acclimated and sharing its enclosure with reasonably peaceful fish, this eauty can grow very robust and over time lose some of that shyness. As far as the cleanup crew list, snails can do all the necessary work: astrea, trochus, turbo, nassarius, stomatella, abalone, money cowrie, and chiton. Of the crabs I do trust: Scarlet reef hermits, mithrax, and porcelain.

Equipment:-

(1) Protein Skimmer with inbuilt UV?
(2) Water pump to pump through external UV (If option 1 without UV)
(3) Two heaters
(4) Lighting - Twin T5 lamps and Single Dusk lamp
(5) Wave makers and Control unit - possible D/D X-Waves?
(6) Water via Reverse Osmosis
(7) Refractometer
( Live Rock, Rubble & Sand
(9) Possiblity of a Fluidised bed sand filter - Question, do these have a pump inside? Or can I link it through the Water pump/external UV line?

Thanks again

Steve

1. Protein skimmer, yes. UV filters are worthless ime, except perhaps the newer models with built in bulb wipers. For one, they only destroy what is brought in from the water column (very little bacteria and disease remain there) and cannot differentiate between what you may want or do not. Once the bulb has been coated the effective rates also drop. If I remember correctly, somewhere a study shows a bulb needing to be wiped every hour to be effective, which no longer would be a problem with the newer models.
2. See response 1.
3. Two 70w+/- to 100w+/- heaters would work or three 50w+/- to 70w+/- heaters.
4. Lighting highly depends on what you wish to keep in the long run so I would advise you to think about it more before making such an expensive purchase. You mention soft coral and polyps, but is that a starting point or is that all you wish to keep?
5. If you are going to drill the tank go ahead and drill for a closed loop as well. You can do a search on this and will negate the need for powerheads; however, I believe Koralia came out with a wavemaking device or Tunze Turbelle system.
6. SpectraPure is a personal choice.
7. A definite.
8. Fiji, Marshall Island, Tonga, etc. Stay away from dead coral skeleton rock since these tend to fall apart due to their brittleness. Atlantic rock is dead coral skeleton, but stronger due to locations recovered from. There is no need for rubble unless you just like the look or plan to create a refugium including it. Most aquarists use an aragonite based sand due to the fauna friendly shape (less pointy edges), but non aragonite can work just fine. Most dsb's (deep sand bed) use finer gradients, but not necessary either.
9. As others have stated, really not needed since most systems have the overflow distribute water through a filter sock, skimmer compartment, baffles with chemical media and bubble traps, refugium (optional), and back via return pump.

[steve149c]

Thanks for all the advice, am busy book worming on the subject too. Now all I have to do is move house in 4 weeks and get everything up and running - once I've bought the required equipment

Thanks

Steve

P.S. I'll get the photos up as soon as I start