setup options, which way to go

[wernettejr]

I am setting up a fowlr with the idea of eventually going reef. I have been given a 55 tank and plan on using it. As the price was right. I have a bunch of equipment and need advice on what route to take.
First sand or no sand?
I have a protein skimmer. I have 3 canister filters and a small sump tank (looks homemade, acrylic with a few baffles, about 36 long 12 wide, 18 deep.) Thought maybe a combo of the two would be good, however I keep reading that canisters are bad, so I'm not sure.
Next is I have a tank full of dead live rock. I read about giving them an acid bath to reincarnate them. Then figured on splitting them between tank and sump with a few LFS LR thrown in to seed. Sound like a good plan?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mebbid]

Using a substrate is solely up to you. Bare bottomed is easier to clean while having a substrate looks nicer imho.

Skip the acid bath for the rocks. Everything will sort itself out when you are cycling the tank and the die off from the rocks will add some ammonia to the tank for the cycle.

If you didn't have anything for water flow I would run the canister filters empty of media until you can get your hands on some powerheads to replace them. But I would definitely use the sump.

You might just skip adding the live rock to the refugium and instead go out any buy some live rock rubble. It's dirt cheap and fairly easy to come by.

 

[wernettejr]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will go bare bottom. I am set up with egg crate on the bottom of the tank to lift the rocks up off the glass. I have a PVC tube with holes drilled in it all along it and placed at the back of the tank. At both ends I have power heads pumping water through the tube with the idea of causing some flow under the rock and pushing any nasties that fall to the floor back into the water to be picked up by the filter. (hopefully you can imagine it) My question is this- I currently have two old power heads on it that are barely hanging on and not producing much flow, I would like to replace them, but I'm not sure what size power head will create the pressure in the 1/2 inch PVC to create the flow I'm looking for.

 

[Mebbid]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will go bare bottom. I am set up with egg crate on the bottom of the tank to lift the rocks up off the glass. I have a PVC tube with holes drilled in it all along it and placed at the back of the tank. At both ends I have power heads pumping water through the tube with the idea of causing some flow under the rock and pushing any nasties that fall to the floor back into the water to be picked up by the filter. (hopefully you can imagine it) My question is this- I currently have two old power heads on it that are barely hanging on and not producing much flow, I would like to replace them, but I'm not sure what size power head will create the pressure in the 1/2 inch PVC to create the flow I'm looking for.

I understand what you're saying. My only thought about that is that there's a lot of exposed unattractive extras in the tank that you might not like after the tank is set up and running. Pulling something like that out would be a monumental effort.

 

[wernettejr]

This is true.
I was hoping to do some good rock placements to hide the power heads. I also have the egg crate cut a few inches short of the front of the tank so perhaps some smaller rock will help to hide any uglies. I would like the look of some sand but as I have been out of the game for a while I am trying to go for low maintenance low setup costs for my first tank in 15 years. Yet I also don't want to do it wrong either.

 

[Mebbid]

Sand is not a big issue to keep. I have a shallow sand bed on my 20g reef and I barely give it any attention when cleaning. Currently I haven't had a nitrate reading above 0 for over a month.

 

[wernettejr]

Did u use live sand? Coarse or sugar fine? By thin are you thinking inch or less

 

[Mebbid]

Yeah, its about an inch deep. It was the carib sea arag alive special grade sand. It's a little bigger grain size that I want but it works.