I have tons of questions!

[AquaMason]

Just took my jack Dempsey out of my 29 gallon and put him in my 125 gallon. I've been following a lot of the threads on nano reefs and wanted to start one of my own. So far I have the tank the stand and the lights. My first question is will my aquaclear filter work? It is for a fifty gallon tank. I know I said I have tons of questions but I wanted to tackle them one at a time so I can absorb all the info I've seen delivered to others. Thanks to all.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Yup an aquaclear would work!

 

[AquaMason]

Any particular filter media I should use? Or will the sponges and what-not that come with it work?

 

[carey]

I run the sponge, carbon and filter floss in my aquaclears, seems to work well. In the future the filter can allow you to run GFO or other media as the need arises. Aquaclears are great little filters, even for saltwater! lol

 

[AquaMason]

Awesome! So I have some marineland led lights. Do you think that they will let me grow some corals?

 

[AquaMason]

And what is GFO?

 

[carey]

GFO= granular ferric oxide. Great media to keep your phosphates low, it helps keep control of algae if you run into issues.

Do you have the marineland "reef capable" lights? Those **might** be enough for some softie corals but not much more. The reef capable is pretty much a big fat fib, in fact, now they mention that the lights will not sustain corals so at least they dont tout them as being totally reef capable.

I ran a 4 bulb odyssea t5 fixture over my 29g and the corals did very well. I did however change out the bulbs they came with and added ATI brand bulbs which made a huge difference. The sites I recommend for the t5's are these:

fish need it;lights; food;Sponge
and
Aquatraders - Guaranteed Best Prices on Aquarium Lightings + Free Shipping!

They aren't very fancy and don't have all the bells and whistles that the real expensive fixtures have, but it's $100 vs. like $300 so it's a great starter fixture.

 

[Starchar]

Ran the same on my 29 gallon also switched out for ATI blubs, huge difference. The fixture still works great and doesn't get very hot!

 

[AquaMason]

What is the best test kit for the amount of money they cost because that's all I'm missing before I can set it up and start the cycle?

 

[carey]

Id start with the API saltwater master kit and as time goes on you can upgrade your tests if you want. The API is about $20-30 online. Amazon has it for 20 i think.

 

[Jacobsal91]

Corallife makes some nice light fixtures. They have quite a variaty of bulbs to choose from, and if you want my
Honest opinion sponges are good and such but you should clean them out very frequently because unlike live rock, the sponge will collect organic material but wont get rid of it completly. So cleaning that nasty stuff out of it will need
To be done. For an aquaclear filter; try putting some small pieces of live
Rock in the filter along with your carbon. I also wouldnt use the ceramic bio rings
Either. Just my
Opinion