New 55 build

F

foxriverat

Member
I will be upgrading my 29 FO to a 55 Fowlr. The 29 has been running for 3 years with no problems. 1 clown 2 blue damsels. I will be using the aquaclear 70 filter and heater from the 29. ( Not reusing 3 year old crushed aragonite) I picked up a used reef octopus bh100 skimmer. I ordered glass tops and a 48 double bright marineland LED from dr foster and smith. (not the greatest light but on sale and tank will only be FOWLR) I ordered 50lbs rock from reef rocks and 40lbs free sand. Will add some live rock to seed. And probably will need a little more sand. I picked up 4 Koralia 750 power heads 2 used 2 new from a member. Don't plan on using all 4 but he sold for a good price. I will be using the water from the 29 plus new water from local fish store. I plan on putting the aquaclear on left side middle. Skimmer on right side middle. Heater in middle. Looking for any suggestions. Or ideas to make the switch go smoothly. And how many and placement of powerheads I should use. I was thinking one on each side of tank. Thanks
 
Sounds like your going to have a very nice looking tank! One quik suggestion, since your starting with a new tank, have you thought about making it with an overflow? That way you don't have to clutter your soon to be beautiful tank with equipment and throw everything in the sump. Either way wish you the best .
 
I did think about that. I have been picking up new and used equipment on a budget the last 6 mos and this is what I ended up with. Also not much room under 55 stand. I will be painting the back of the tank flat blk with the krylon plastic paint to hide some of the mess. Good old Melrose Park. Grew up there back in the 70`s
 
As far as making the switch between tanks, what I would do is get the new tank in place and set up how you want it. Since you are using dry rock you will have a cycle. If you have the patience you can always cycle the rock in the new tank and just wait for it to be ready or you can cycle the rock in a brute trash or other tank and just use the rock from your nano in the 55 for your biofilter. Then once the rock in the brute is ready you can just place it in the 55 and be good to go. I would also use all the water from the nano that you can get without stirring up the sand in the 55, the I would transfer over the fish, then I would take the LR and shake it out in a bucket of RO/DI or old SW to get as much crude off it as possible, If you have a 1-2" sandbed currently and it gets stirred up regularly I would also rinse it out and then transfer it over. GL you should be fine, just make sure you watch for ammonia and have some prime on hand to prevent it from killing your fish. Also the powerheads should be fine, I would have them angled at the rocks to prevent Cyano. Just make sure the flow isn't too much so that the fish can't find a place to sleep at night.
 
I wondered about the new rock curing and cycling myself. I ordered from reefrock after reading post in his forum on RC from members and Steve the owner that no curing or cycling is needed for his rock. Also my 29 has no live rock. I was going to purchase some fro LFS. I thought it would be a good idea to reuse the old crushed aragonite for beneficial bacteria. But did not no if I should mix with the new sand because its a different grain. If it would be ok I would like to do that. Thanks for you help Jon.
 
You can mix sand no problem, in fact it will help the new sand cycle faster. With anything that has been dried out rock or sand there will be a cycle. Now rock or sand that has been cleaned very well (whether by acid, powerwashing, etc) there will be less of a cycle (due to less organic material decomposing), but there will still be a cycle. The cycle is allowing the bacteria to build up on your rocks and sand. The first bacteria that grows is the kind that uses ammonia for energy, then the nitrite using bacteria come, and lastly the nitrate using bacteria (more found deep within the rocks and in deep sandbeds). The reason you let your tank cycle is if you introduce a rock full of broken down organics and fish that eat/poop the amount of bacteria needed to instantly convert the ammonia into a safer nitrite and then nitrite into the safest form which is nitrate will not be ready yet. So if you don't have enough bacteria to convert the ammonia then you will have elevated levels of ammonia in the tank which can kill the fish.

As far as buying LR from the LFS, you can always find a local reefer to buy a piece from or just allow the tank to cycle on it own. I used all dry rock and added a raw shrimp to the tank to get an ammonia spike, then several weeks later the tank was ready for fish/corals. Adding LR does help speed the cycle up though. GL
 
Thanks Jon. I will rinse out the old substrate and reuse. Should I run it through a screen or something to remove the larger pieces of crushed argonite?
 
All I do with new sand that I rinse is fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 full of sand, then add 1/3 of ro/di or used SW and mix it around vigorously with my hands. Then I dump the dirty water out and add the water again. I do this 3 or 4 times until I am happy with it. The cloudiness will never fully go away, but you can tell a difference between bucket 1 and bucket 4. So go until you are happy with it.
 
Thanks for all the help. I have read some reefers clean their substrate through a pillowcase. Also on the powerheads. Is it ok to keep both powerheads running all the time. (except when feeding) Or should I add a controller? I just saw a hydor smartwave which is made for my evolution pumps on amazon new for $55.76 and free shipping. It gets pretty good reviews. Thanks
 
I have Hydor PH is my tank and leave them running all the time except when feeding pellets (I leave them on for frozen and cyclopleeze for my anthias who like their food moving). The wave effect can be pretty cool, but I don't know if it would justify the extra money. I am going to start a thread on it and we will see.
 
Was playing with my 50lbs of dry rock today. Put this together in about 10 minutes. Thought about using rods or putty. But its very sturdy just the way it is. Think I will just leave it stacked. I took the picture so I could number each rock and hopefully get it in the tank the same way.
 
Got everything put together yesterday. Still waiting for my other power head to be delivered. And eventually add some live rock. The move went pretty smooth.
 
Looking for some recommendations on powerhead placement on my tank. I have 2 koralia 750 evos. I will be adding some live rock eventually. I get surface agitation on left side from filter. Skimmer on right does not give off much surface agitation. Right now I have them on opposite ends flowing slightly through over rock pointed slightly forward at each other.
 
Just wait those pristine white rocks are about to be covered in nasty algae and red slime...when you finally get past the ugly stage of setting up a new tank you will probably still have a little red slime sticking around. Those areas where you still see the red slime are typically very low flow areas and might need the powerheads directed in a way to increase the flow. Since you won't be keeping corals you don't have to worry about each individual corals need for different types of flow. I would have one pointed at the surface and the back of the tank on one side and the other pointed towards the sand and the front. This will cause a whirlpool effect that will increase the flow to all portion of the tank (laminar flow isn't good with corals, but is how I have my QT setup to increase the flow with a smaller powerhead. Just make sure that your fish are able to rest at night and that the flow isn't forcing them to swim in place all night.
 
You will just have to wait and see. If the 2 you have in there work fine, why add 2 more to clutter the look of the tank and also add to your electric bill.
 
Tank has been up and running now for a little over 2 months and doing well. I added a coral beauty angelfish on Saturday and he is very healthy active and eats anything from flakes to frozen. I thought he would be ok with the 2 yellowtail damsels. But those little turds started messing with him right away. I cant believe I netted those 2 guys without removing anything from the tank. I have room around all sides of rockwork. So I placed a large net against rockwork in front of tank. I used a small net and my hand to chase them around till I could get them to swim between large net and glass. Then I pinned him against the glass with the net. Took about an hour. Anyway damsels are now in the 14 qt tank for now. Looking for some suggestions on future tank mates for my Ocellaris Clownfish and Coral beauty.
 
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