upgrading my aquarium

[ntueller]

I bought this beautyfull 200 gal aquarium the other day. it has 4 beautyfull fish and a bunch of corral skeletons. It came with state of the art (for 1991) oceanic protine skimmer, a wet/dry bioball filter-sump, a seperate ehime canister filter with all kinds of stuff in mesh bags, and a old school paper canister filter on its own pump. I've got 3 in lines and 3 out lines attached to the aquarium. It also came with 4 totes of stray stuff. I bought a more modern book, "natural reef aquariums", by john tullock. I'm liking what i'm reading but have so many questions. should i loose the paper canister filter?, the bioballs?, the chemical canister filter? replace all these systems with live rock and live sand? I'd like to get to the point where i have a simpler to maintain, more diverse (like some corrals, inverts, ect) and more attractive tank. the fish i have are fantastic. a emperor anglefish, racoon buterflyfish, yellow and purple tang. there fun and i enjoy watching and feeding them but the 25% water changes monthly to control nitrate levels are a pain (perhaps as ive not perfected this task) and all the pumps are hot and keep the water at 79, to hot? i'm thinking of starting with a "plenimum" and some live sand. is this a good place to start? Can one seed some regular sand with a certian ammount of "live" sand sucessfully? should i start with live rock first? I'd love some advice on how best to proceed.

Thanx,

Nathan

Girdwood, Alaska

 

[ReefLady]

Hi and welcome Nathan!

Lots of questions here... many can be answered with lots of reading from the knowledgebase here:

www.reefsanctuary.com/knowledgebase

You can definitely do some more user-friendly filtration techniques to get rid of the nitrate issue. First step would be to get some live rock. At least 200 lb. for your tank. After the live rock has been in there a couple weeks, start pulling the bioballs out of your sump slowly until there are none left (I'd say over a couple weeks).

You won't be able to keep many inverts with the fish you have. The angel and butterfly will most likely eat corals.

79 is not too hot, it's actually a pretty good temp as long as it's stable.

As far as live sand and plenums and such, I think you should focus on getting the live rock and pulling the bioballs, then think about your next step.

A famous quote for you:

"Nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby."

Go slow, make progress, read, read, read, and most importantly, enjoy!!!

Travis

 

[Gina]

:welcomera to RS!
Travis gave you excellent advice!
Have fun and enjoy your stay with us!

 

[ntueller]

thanx for the advice, travis. I'm pretty pschyced about the whole thing so its probably good to take it one step at a time. I really didnt know what i was getting into when purchased the tank out of the paper. its really involved. my books are getting me excited about the possibilitys. as to the butterfly and angelfish, they'll eat the inverts. perhapse i should remove them to the pet store and start from scratch? there are so many options, I origionally thought i might try a cold water tank with north pacific or bering sea species. I may go back to that or just take some time to research the possibilitys and costs and try somthing different. meanwhile i enjoy my fish and so does the family. "fish" was one of my daughters first words. Anyway, were starting to get some daylight up here, a nice change.
thanx for your welcome gina

nathan

 

[Woodstock]

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary Nathan!!

 

[Witfull]

another Monster tank,,,welcome to da club and RS!

 

[proud2bcanadian]

Welcome to RS!
Wow! Alaska!!! That's even further North than me :O lol

Sounds like an amazing tank!
Don't forget to post A LOT of pics along the way!

 

[cheeks69]

If and when you do buy Live Rock just keep in mind that if it's uncured you CANNOT add it to the tank otherwise you'll get an ammonia spike and kill your fish. You can use a large plastic container with a powerhead and a heater and let the rock cure there and continually test until your ammonia is 0.

replace all these systems with live rock and live sand?

That is what I would do and also add a powerful skimmer which will help by removing nutrients before they breakdown into nitrates. You also have to be careful and not overstock your tank especially if you want to make it a reef the general rule is 1" of adult size fish for every 5 gal.

 

[ntueller]

thanx cheeks69.
spent the day with the system, cleaned out the old paper style canister but left it hooked up and dry for when i clean the tank, redid some plumbing so now theres no hoses hanging over the side. luckily the tank has 5 holes in the bottom for piping. then went to the garage and built a light hood out of some pine i had. have to have somthing to hold the rebuilt icecaps and 6 6' vho actinics i procured this week. just have to put some fans on it to cool things and it'll be ready to go.
heres one for the aquarium gurus, I have an oceanic 6 protine skimmer, never has produced any real quantity of gunk. its a 180 gal system with 4 fish only, total of fish=16" is there just not that much gunk, is the skimmer to old and outdated (origional purchas 1991) or is it just improperly tweaked by me? it is a venturi type and ive tried putting a air pump on it with no better results. every other day or so enough funk builds to spit a teaspoon into the catch basin, any thoughts?

 

[cheeks69]

I didn't know Oceanic used to make skimmers ! If you have no Live Rock and are feeding daily then the skimmer should be pulling out more gunk and even though the fish you have are still small they're big eaters especially the Tangs.

I have 4 small fish and 2 medium sized fish in a 93gal and this is what I'm pulling out with my Turbo-flotor every week to 10 days and this is after a filter sock on the drain.

 

[ntueller]

wow, my skimmer has never looked anything like that. perhaps a skimmer will be my first purchase. any specific recomendations?

 

[cheeks69]

For a 180 your gunna need a powerful skimmer. There's so many good skimmers you just have to look at what is affordable and will fit best in your system.

These are just my opinion:

EuroReef CS8-3
AquaC EV180 with Mag-Drive 7 Kit
ASM G3
Deltec APF 850
Turboflotor 5000 Shorty