Hello everyone!
I’ve kept FW for many, many years - but always marveled at these beautiful reef tanks. I’m finally going to take the plunge and try my hand at a reef. This is still much in the planning stages, so I’ve been reading everything I can, and trying to get a list of questions put together to ask more experienced folk.
My original plan was to get a 40 gal breeder or a 75 gal as I like the “width” these tanks provide. Looking at the specs, a 90 might not be out of the question if I can find a good deal on one in the classifieds. Anyway, let’s just say I’m doing a 75 atm. I’ve been looking at getting 2 Evergrow it2040s (saw I just missed the group buy, but maybe get in on the next one). I believe 2 of these would be sufficient for a 75. I’ve read these are programmable with sunrise/sunset and moon lighting settings correct? Also a 20 gal sump should be sufficient for this setup correct? Would love to do a fuge as part of the sump, but that’s also in the planning stage.
I guess I should back up and say that my ultimate goal for this tank is for some lps (always loved the look of hammer corals), zoanthids (started reading about these and seeing unbelievable colors, so will definitely need to include some), with the potential for a few soft corals. Would the it2040s be ok for these corals?
For livestock – I’m not completely decided. I promised my kids I’d get a clownfish. After reading about lots of aquarists being successful in breeding clownfish, I’d like to get a pair and try my hand at it. I’m looking at either percula or ocellaris. I’m also not sure about other tankmates at this point. Of course livestock is way down the road for me.
Re: salt mixes - It seems that most people are using IO (or similar) and then supplementing with additives. Anyone using or prefer reef crystals to the aforementioned method?
Planning on getting 60-70 lbs of dry rock, and then 15 lbs or so of life rock to seed the dry rock. Not sure about my sand bed tho. I know there are different schools of thought on whether to go bb or DSB, or somewhere in between. I’m leaning toward a 3 in (or so) sand bed – again mostly aragonite substrate with a little “live” sand to seed it. What are you currently doing for a sand bed?
I’m sure I’ll have tons of questions in the future, but just wanted to say hello, and provide some basics of my plan. Thanks for any input you can provide!
Daryl
