Fowlr

[Kikkilah]

Hi all. New to this board.

I currently have a 55 gallon reef tank. WHen i first got into this hobby did not research as much as I should and now that i have I have found that a reef tank is not the saltwater tank i really wanted. My reef tank has been up and running for 13 months now. No major problems, fight cyano and other algea blooms.

I plan to start fresh. Start a new dsb and cycle and all that. I will be keeping the 90 pounds of live rock i have to help cycle the new system. I paln to give the corals to a friend once he cycles his 120. I am looking at getting a 75-120 gallon tank for a fowlr. I have a few questions thought.

I will still use a dsb of 5inches in the main tank. I plan to mostly have reef safe fish, but there are a few wrasses and angels i like that are not reef safe. I like peacful to semi-aggressive tanks so no ells or lion, triggers, puffers, etc..

Here are my questiosn.

1. will i use the same type of clean up screw?
I am not gonna get anymore blue leg hermits, they are a pain.

2. i never have had a real refugium. I will be using my 55 gallon as my refugium and will start firesh with that tank as well. I not sure how deep a sand bed i need in a refugium. I will be using a prefilter box to get water from the display tank to refugium. How may pounds of live rock should i have in the refugium. I also plan to keep cap macro algea in there. I plan to use the power compacts lights i have now as the lights for the refugium (they are 2 55 wyatt bulbs)

I have a Precision marine hang on the back hot1 skimmer. Would i need a bigger skimmer for the tank. Will it set in the refugium or just hang can i hang it on the back like it is now.

will just the plain lights that come with my new tank work for lights for the disp[lay tank?


Any directions will be great.

I will alsom not be using power filters. I will continue to rely on my lr and dsb to be my filtration.

[Kikkilah]

I forgot a couple of ?

I am also tired of trying to maintain calicum and alkalinty in my reef tank. This has become quite expensive.

When i go to a FOWLR will i need to worry about calicum and alkalinty or will regluar water changes be enough to keep the two levels. I currently use Bioinc for this in my 55 reef tank (expensive). I would assume with a FOWLR tank I would not have to worry about having calicum at 400-450? I beleive water changes should keep it at 350-380 level.

Last question. How many fish can I get away with having. Wish list includes either a flame or koran angle, blue-green chromis, a clownfish, blue tang, foxface lo, and a wrasse of some type.

[Geoff]

First, Welcome to TRT!!!!



if it is going to be a FOWLR then the basic lighting will be fine for the tank.

the Ca and alk levels will be kept fine for a FO tank with just frequent water changes. you may not get a lot of coraline algae growth, but then again that may be a good thing.

i would prolly not go with a DSB, but that is me. we did not for my wifes FOWLR. it is really nice to be able to vacuum out the detritus easily.

what are your thought on total flow for the system? you might want to think about adding a closed loop for added flow. this will keep you from wanting to put to much flow through your sump and cause bubbles. if you can i would put the skimmer in the sump. i do not know how much room you would have left with the heater, skimmer, and pumps for a refuge in the 55.

a lot of theose additives are expensive. that is why i have found cheap alternatives.

i have told my wife she can only have 3 fish in her 75. these will be fairly large fish, but then again her entire volume is well over 100g. you could prolly fit all of those in a 120, but i would not put them all in a 75 though.

depending on the wrasse, a normal reef clean-up crew would be fine. the larger wrasses will eat just about anything that will fit in their mouths.

G~

[Kikkilah]

hi
i will go ahead and use the dsb, i like it as my filtration. as for the refugium i am not sure if i will do a refugium or sump. not sure what difference is. If i go with a sump i will take out the bio filtration. I currently have a cpr aguafuge hang on the back refugium on my reef tank, but i want to be able to hold everything in sump/refugium so not in display.

[traip93]

you will have enough room in the 55 to have a sump and a refugium. IS your main tank going to be drilled?...

A sump is used to house most of your equipment

[Kikkilah]

no its not drilled will getting a prefilter box.

Help me out how would i make the 55 gallon a sump and refugium?

would i divide the 55 gallon into two things? Never had a sump or refugium beofre. all i ever had was a hang on back cpr aquafuge as my refugium.

[Geoff]

when using a tank for both a fuge and a sump. most people will divide it into 3 sections.

1 where the water comes in from the tank: then there are generally 3 baffles to remove bubbles.

2 sump section where the skimmer, heater, and return pump are.

3 fuge this usually has a high wall with a bulkhead in it so the water can flow back down into the sump area. it can be fed by another small pump or you can use the return from the skimmer to feed the fuge. you will want the flow through the fuge slow. gives better contact time with the algae you want to keep. i would not put a DSB in here, but just some LR for the algae to grow off of. maybe some rubble in the bottom to help pods grow. i had a fuge with a 8" DSB. after 6 months it was black from about 1" below the surface down. this fuge will also act like a settling tank so you will need to be able to remove the detritus when it builds up.

remote DSB's are not as beneficial as DSB's in the main display.

G~