New old timer equipment questions

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Hi all, I'm new to Reef Sanctuary and while I have kept multiple FOWLR tanks for the past 15 years I have been without for the past year ( but my son has been keeping the tradition ). Recently I got the itch again and went out and found a pretty good deal on CL's on a 90 gal drilled setup.

Over the years my setups have been basic. Drilled tanks with W/D, protein skimmer and return.

The tank is a 90 gal drilled tank. 50 lbs of Aragonite ( 1 1/2 inch bed ) that I will seed with a cleanup crew once cycled and about 80 lbs of rock. ( 30 lbs bleached base rock and 50 lbs of live rock from my son's tank that's been established 2+ years )

I have a couple of questions that I would like your opinions.

1) Skimmer - With the setup came both a Urchin Skimmer and a Berlin Turbo Skimmer. I have only used berlin / red sea over the years but the Urchin seems very interesting. Anyone have any opinions?

2) Lights - With the setup came a 48" Corallife fixture with 2 actinic and 2 10k bulbs. Is this sufficient for some soft corals?

What type of light cycle would you recommend? I've got several electronic timers and was thinking that I would turn the actinic on early in the am then the 10k's about 30 minutes later and turn them off after about an hour. Then in the evening turn the 10k's on then the actinics, run both for and hour or so then just the actinics for a little while?

Am I on the right track?

3) Pumps - I've got a Mag 7 currently on the return. Is this sufficient? I've also got a Mag 3 and a Maxi Jet 3000. Should I setup a 2nd return pump to push more water back? Or should I just try and work out a trade for 2 of these and try and get a Mag 12 or something?

4) Wave pumps - I've got 3 Koralia 1050 gph wave pumps - should I run all three continuously or put them on a Ocean Pulse Wavemaker ( got this already )

I know it's a lot to ask and I appreciate the time and feedback.

Jeff

 

[engineer goby]

HI Jeff. Welcome to the forum

 

[engineer goby]

The lights would be fine for leathers and shrooms. I would hook the Koralias up to the wavemaker. I have my atinics come on at 10am followed by the rest at 11am then whites off at 9pm and atinics back off at 10pm and everything is doing great. I have mostly LPS corals in my tank. As for the skimmers I don't have any experience with either. My tank is also a drilled 90 and I kept some soft corals and a bubble under 4 t5's for a year without issue.

 

[dmatt88]

is the coralife fixture PC or t5 bulb? As for pump a mag 7 sounds under powered honestly. With the powerheads ur just going to have to fiddle around with them to see what works best. I run mine on a wavemaker and my lights are on 10-11 hrs a day. The actinic are on first and off last.

 

[BigAl07]

Hello Jeff and welcome

My first question was asked by Matt... is that a PC fixture or T5... world of difference between those two.


Re: Return pump - having multiple return pumps in this particular set-up is almost guaranteeing you to have wet floors and often or possible running a sump dry. It's just hard to work with multiple return pumps unless you are creative with your plumbing. On my 90g (I miss it bad ) I was running a Mag18 and had several in tank powerheads for flow.

 

[tnwillia]

 

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Thanks all for the replies / comments.

Lights - The lights are pc's.

Pumps - yes i'll have to upgr pump to 12 or 18

Thanks again.

Jeff