upgrading fowlr to reef. feeling a little helpless.

[Brandonjkoontz1]

Iv been tossing a lot of ideas around. Looking at pros and cons of nano tanks and then larger tanks. I'm pretty sure iv decided to just upgrade my 30 gallon folwr to a reef tank. But I have virtualy no experince with corals. I do 40% pwc every two weeks and my parameters are pretty consistant with am at 0 trates and trites at 0-5ppm. Stock is pretty light iv got one domino amd a three stripe damsel so my bioloads not real bad. I'm running 2 penguin 350 filters with about 25 lbs of live rock. So for a fowlr I feel pretty well filterd. For a reef tank to suppourt sps corals I'm not so sure. =\ I'm also runny pretty low lighting as well. So any inputs on possible lighting or filtration would deff help. Also maybe a little on skimmers? Absaloutly neccesary or optional? Thanks I'm pretty lost in contradicting and overwhelming thoughts. Lol

 

[obscurereef]

I think you mean 0 nitrites and 0-5 ppm nitrAtes. If I were you, I would get rid of those damsels as they will be very aggressive towards newcomers (just aggressive in general) and most reef-safe fish that will fit in a 30 gallon, are peaceful and won't be able to defend themselves. You might want to change the water changes to 10-20% each week for more frequent water changes (as corals will use up the nutrients, calcium, etc.). You could get a simple reef API test kit to measure calcium and phosphates and carbonate hardness,etc. I think you could pull of that filtration if you keep up on water changes! Refugiums are for more water volume, and a safe place for pods, doesn't do much for nitrates, but it is an effective way of filtering. I don't think you need a skimmer for that size tank, but once again, water changes would be even more important if you didn't have one, so that you can get some of the organic waste out and not left to decay and raise your nitrates. For lighting, if you want sps, I'd recommend T5 HO or LED or MH. Metal halide would probably be very hot for such a small tank. I have the same t5 HO fixture as my lfs (sunlight supply tek 6 bulb) and their sps frags under it look fantastic! I don't know if this supports sps corals, but it's convientely priced in my opinion.
My light:
T5 Tek Light Fixture - Bulk Reef Supply
other:
36 Inch Panorama Marine LED
Also flow will be a major factor. Koralia evolutions are okay and the cheapest, but mp10 vortechs are very popular and have great feedback, but they are very costly IMO.

 

[Brandonjkoontz1]

Thanks. But yeah I was hoping I didn't need a skimmer and doing pwc more often won't be a problem so ill deff be doing more of them. And I was lookig at the t5s and the leds. I would love to go with leds because from what iv heard there amazing and with out having to replace bulbs I think the little extra they'll cost will be worth it. But oh I know the damsels are ganna go pretty soon. The three stripes not that bad but the dominos a terror. Lol also I had a question about nutrients for corals. I know they all have diff needs but overall iv heard ppl adding calcium and things like that. Is this hard and of I mess it up will it effect other aspects of my water quality?