My 1st Shot At A Reef...

[Palamedes]

.....

[davocean]

You look like you're off to a pretty good start.
Like to see specs on equipment.
Is that an outer orbit light?
Only thing I don't like is it looks like crushed coral on top of sand, correct?
Too much CC can be a nitrate sink.
I'd like to see more LR, 1-2lbs is rec, but it's a good start.
I would maybe move the zoos down, and save top for light needy corals.
Just my opinion
Welcome to reefing, now hand over your wallet!!!LOL

[Palamedes]

thanks for the recomendations...i wanna take out the crushed coral but im afraid it'll be to much of a bio set back if i swap it out for more sand...

[iVgOnMaD]

Looks like its a 75g, right?

I can also see you have a Fluval cannister.... Sell it or something and get a sump instead. Cannister generate Nitrates, and your LR is doing a better job than the cannister anyways. Its not needed as a filter but it can work as a place to put Activated Carbon and other sorts of chemical filtration like Phosphate removing resins, etc. Just don't use the bio-balls, spunges, or any other kind of biological filtration in it unless you plan on cleaning it daily.

Try to get at least 10x (soft corals and some LPS) to 30x (SPS) the volume of your tank in flow, for example...

In a 75g you would need at least 750gph of water movement in your tank in order to keep soft corals and LPS, more like 1500+ for SPS.

Water movement can come from power heads, closed loops, eductors, return pumps, etc.

[iVgOnMaD]

You can successfully run a reef with only power heads for flow, good lights and a skimmer.

LMK what i can help you with.

Good luck, look like a good start!

[Palamedes]

yea it's a 75g...i wanna put in a sump but how to go about it. i really wanna drill it but how to with everything in there. the cannister only has carbon and chem-pure elite in there right now.

[iVgOnMaD]

awesome, you can do it, the glass dust wont hurt your fish (I think... :)), just bring the water level below the level of the hole so you dont spill any water hehe. Make sure u get some one with experience to drill your tank too (unless you are brave), you dont want to crack it.

In order to get your sump in there you might have to remove that center board, you can put it back when you are done, or you can remove like 75% of th water from the tank and see if you can move the stand away from the wall enough for you to slip the sump in from the back.

[dc_909]

I would get more powerheads in there and only use the fluval for a water polisher every so often. Take your fluval a stuff it with some filter floss. Right before a water change blow all your rocks with powerhead to get everything suspended. Let you fluval run for a few hours then unplug a remove the filter floss. You can then just use the fluval like you are for carbon.

[Palamedes]

thanks you guys talked me into the sump. my tank is acrylic so im hoping its a lot easier to drill than if it was glass.

[davocean]

Much easier.
Use a nice new hole saw.
I made a shroud w/ duct tape so nothing fell into tank.
Put paper towels across water b4 removing duct.
Works like a charm.
I would pull out a little CC at a time, like top half inch, over 1/4 of tank.
You could replace w/ new sand that will be seeded by old.
I rec either ssb, like 1" or a little less, or dsb 4-6", preferably 6"
No tweeners.

[DaChrisDude]

Off to a very nice start.

Everything constructive I had to say has already been said. lol... ;)

[Palamedes]

update...so today i went to pk and bought a 30 lb. bag of fine live sand. I took out a 1/4 of the cc that was on top of my sand on the left side. then i added some of the new sand to fill in where i took the cc from. thanks again guys for the advise.

[davocean]

That's cool, but I personally would add non-live sand in the future.
You already have living sand that will seed new.
Also, non-live is cheaper, and w/ live sand shipment there is dieoff that can result in a minicycle.

[nvrscrd619]

looks like your a fan of frogspawn. Good start, keep it up!