Thirty gallon reef tank

[Matt.D]

Well i've finally decided to get a saltwater tank and I can finally pay for it hopefully. The tank I want is a 30gal. long tank. I figured it has a decent amount of water but short so perfect with the lighting. My goal is to have 96watts over it, sand seeded with live sand from the fish store, alot of live rock (how many pounds do you think is ok?), and the only corals would be various zoo's, shrooms, and mostly full of a massive Xenia forest. The live stock i've picked is two black and white percs., purple firefish, green clown goby and a skunk cleaner shrimp if possible. I also plan to have two ten gallon tanks behind it, one acting as a fuge full of various algae (any suggestions?) and the second tank packed with live rock rubble to help the liverock in the tank, use for coral fraging, and because it adds more water to the system. With all the rock and everything, hopefully its about 35-40 gallons of water. Helps keep the levels stable. I'll have a small power head take water from the main tank and put it in one of the tens and then that water will move to tank 2 via gravity from the water in tank too going to the main tank. I'm going to have tubes run from tank to tank (tank 1 to tank 2 to main tank) so the water will move through. Anyways does this sound like it would work ok? Also the tens will house the heater and stuff. Also do you think I need a protein skimmer? Every suggestion is very important to me and I thank you for spending some of your time to help me! Thanks all!

[bigfoot]

yes i would get a skimmer usefull tool in this hobby on the lighting im not sure what xenia require but someone will chime in are you going to drill the 10's i run emperor filters on mine they work good and 1 power head in the corner. LR to gallonage is 2 to 1 for optimum filtration

[Matt.D]

Thanks for posting. No i'm not gonna drill the tanks but going to connect them with a upside down U tube that is full of water. Thanks for the live rock help, so I guess i'll need about 100lbs of live rock? wow thats serious

[Matt.D]

I was looking around and have decided that I will make my own protein skimmer, so I have that done. I've also decided that I'm going to make my own liverock/baserock. Talk about cheap! Also going to DIY the lights for the fuge. Think one 60watt house light bulb would keep the algae growing? I've found out this might not be as expensive as I thought!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Matt, welcome to CF! Sounds like youv'e already done alot of research and have chosen your tank inhabitants wisely.

As for how much LR, 1 1/2 pounds per gallon for LR would be enough, so about 45 pounds or so in the display tank and another 15 or so in your sump.

Macroalgae for the fuge, most folks prefer chaetomorpha because it won't go sexual and turn your tank the color of pea soup. It also grows in nice tight compact balls that becomes a great place for pods to breed. When you're ready for the macro once your system is up and running, check the buy/sell/trade forum, there's usually someome selling some.

Yur lighting is going to be on the low side, but for the corals you've chosen, I think you'll be okay.

Best of luck to you with your new tank, keep us up to date with your progress!

[Matt.D]

Will do, thanks for the help! Yea I really only wanted low light corals, for now. I thought of useing chaeto. but didnt know what was considered "most prefered". I figured around 40lbs of dead rock seeded with 5lbs of live when cycleing and stuff to get things going. I will def. make sure the dead rock has had a good chance to be seeded. With my DIY skimmer that i'm gonna make 2 feet tall, and my little sump, fuge, and a good sand bed, this tank might be fairly easy to handle as far as the levels go. Thanks for the help!

[Matt.D]

I forgot to bring it up, but what kind of clean up crew I might need?

[TranZ]

Matt Welcome...Astrea snails, cerith snail and nassarius snails the one i have in my tank with a few scarlet hermit crabs.