36 gallon bow front reef tank

[dcreasy9880]

I set up a 36 gallon bowfront saltwater tank. I am currently starting to turn it into a reef tank. I’m running a tidal 75 filter with, seaclone 100 protien skimmer, single kessil a80 tuna blue light and a eheim 100w heater. For stock I have 2 clowns, a bi color blenny, 2 turbo snails, a ghost cleaner shrimp, 2 blue leg hermit crabs, and 2 nassarius snails. I just recently picked up a Duncan coral with 2 heads and a 3rd is already starting to grow and a pulsing Xenia coral. My parameters are salinity: 1.025 kh: 8 phosphate 0.25ppm nitrate: 20ppm. I just recently added the skimmer so I’m hoping that helps lower my nitrates and ima do a larger water change later this week. I’m looking for advice on best way to keep nitrates low, recommended lighting for my tank and just all around advice I’m new to reef tanks and any advise is appreciated I have pictures of the tank and corals below.

 

[nuxx]

Looking good so far

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Looks great!

There are 3 ways I have found to manage nitrates.

1. Algae Filtration
2. Organic Carbon Dosing
3. Frequent Water Changes

In a tank your size it is likely best to manage nitrate with frequent water changes. You can add a refugium, turf scrubber or start dosing an organic carbon source but with no added equipment you can likely keep nitrate managed by simply changing a 5 gallon bucket every week.

Your tank is a weird shape. Given the dimensions of your tank I think you will be better off with a strip light rather than a pendent light. Most pendants will cover a 24in tank well but with a 30in tank you will likely need 2 which will be cost prohibitive.

I would use something like a Aquaticlife edge for a mixed reef. If you want lots of SPS then I would add a second one but one should be great for a mixed tank.

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[dcreasy9880]

Looks great!

There are 3 ways I have found to manage nitrates.

1. Algae Filtration
2. Organic Carbon Dosing
3. Frequent Water Changes

In a tank your size it is likely best to manage nitrate with frequent water changes. You can add a refugium, turf scrubber or start dosing an organic carbon source but with no added equipment you can likely keep nitrate managed by simply changing a 5 gallon bucket every week.

Your tank is a weird shape. Given the dimensions of your tank I think you will be better off with a strip light rather than a pendent light. Most pendants will cover a 24in tank well but with a 30in tank you will likely need 2 which will be cost prohibitive.

I would use something like a Aquaticlife edge for a mixed reef. If you want lots of SPS then I would add a second one but one should be great for a mixed tank.

AquaticLife HM Electronics 24'' WiFi Edge LED Marine Light Fixture

The AquaticLife HM Electronics 24' WiFi Edge LED Marine Light Fixture features a powerful blend of name brand Cree, Osram Duris and Prolight LEDs to deliver up to 40 watts of Triple Actinic Blue 400nm/420nm/450nm, Dual Blue 472nm/515nm, Dual Daylight White 2,700K/6,500K and Red 660nm LEDs in the...

www.marineandreef.com

@AquaticLifeProducts

I was possibly looking into a second a80 tuna and putting them together with a controller because I love the shimmer that the kessil gives I aslo found a 100w aquaneat light that has the same shimmer as a kessil I believe just wasn’t to sure.. my plan is to mostly keep soft corals with a few lps. I typically do a 5 gallon water change once every other Sunday but this last time I went on vacation and didn’t get a chance to change it so it was 3 weeks beofre I changed it so I was thinking of doing another 8-10 gallon water change this Friday. I also changed my feeding schedule I was feeding the fish flakes twice a day but I decided to cut back to feeding fish and corals every other day.. Wich could have been a factor into my high nitrates as well as as I did my water change I rescaped my tank to add 2 rocks and added the pulsing xenia to its own rock to grow.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Changing feeding will help. You may also opt top change 10 gallons every other week rather than 5 gallons every week. Ultimately if you are changing all you want to change and the nitrates are not under control then you should look into some form of algae filtration or carbon dosing.

You can add another a80 but I use 2 a80s on my 12 gallon tank and the PAR levels are barely appropriate for a mixed reef. The single edge led is 10 watts brighter than 2 a80s so it would still be a better option. 3 a80s would be much better.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks great so far!!

 

[dcreasy9880]

Changing feeding will help. You may also opt top change 10 gallons every other week rather than 5 gallons every week. Ultimately if you are changing all you want to change and the nitrates are not under control then you should look into some form of algae filtration or carbon dosing.

You can add another a80 but I use 2 a80s on my 12 gallon tank and the PAR levels are barely appropriate for a mixed reef. The single edge led is 10 watts brighter than 2 a80s so it would still be a better option. 3 a80s would be much better.

I have been entertaining the idea of a hob refugium. I have seen a lot of ppl turn an aqua clear filter into a custom refugium. I’ve also seen the aquamaxx hob systems with filter protien skimmer and area for a refuge almsot like it’s own hob sump

 

[dcreasy9880]

update: i added a rainbow bubble tip anemone Wednesday evening from my local fish store. So far he is doing great and found his happy spot on a rock i will post pics tom morn when i get off work. I also got some gfo to start running in my filtration to help keep my nitrates and phosphates in check. My Duncan coral is doing amazing and already growing a third head that looks like it may split into 2 heads. My xenia so far is still doing good as well. I found a cheap box light on amazon the aqua knight A029. It is a 30 watt light and i thought about buying 2 of them and running them on the tank simply because im having good luck with a single A80 tuna blue Wich is only 15 watts, so 2 would mean id have 60 watts going into my tank. I'm curious if anyone else has had any luck with lights similar. I'm trying to stay fairly cheap for the simple fact id like to upgrade to a 75+ gallon tank and that would be where i really dump some money in. My ultimate plan with this tank is mainly soft beginner corlas and a few beginner lps corals.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Looking good

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Looks great!

There are 3 ways I have found to manage nitrates.

1. Algae Filtration
2. Organic Carbon Dosing
3. Frequent Water Changes

In a tank your size it is likely best to manage nitrate with frequent water changes. You can add a refugium, turf scrubber or start dosing an organic carbon source but with no added equipment you can likely keep nitrate managed by simply changing a 5 gallon bucket every week.

Your tank is a weird shape. Given the dimensions of your tank I think you will be better off with a strip light rather than a pendent light. Most pendants will cover a 24in tank well but with a 30in tank you will likely need 2 which will be cost prohibitive.

I would use something like a Aquaticlife edge for a mixed reef. If you want lots of SPS then I would add a second one but one should be great for a mixed tank.

AquaticLife HM Electronics 24'' WiFi Edge LED Marine Light Fixture

The AquaticLife HM Electronics 24' WiFi Edge LED Marine Light Fixture features a powerful blend of name brand Cree, Osram Duris and Prolight LEDs to deliver up to 40 watts of Triple Actinic Blue 400nm/420nm/450nm, Dual Blue 472nm/515nm, Dual Daylight White 2,700K/6,500K and Red 660nm LEDs in the...

www.marineandreef.com

@AquaticLifeProducts

Protein skimmer

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Protein skimmer

While I put a protein skimmer on nearly every tank. I have never seen a protein skimmer reduce nitrates in an effective way. If I put a skimmer on a tank with 50ppm nitrate the nitrate generally does not budge.

Now if you had the skimmer from the beginning maybe you would have 30ppm nitrate rather than 50 plus better oxygenation and better water clarity in addition to other benefits. Despite the benefits of a skimmer, I would never consider a protein skimmer a good method of nitrate and phosphate control.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

While I put a protein skimmer on nearly every tank. I have never seen a protein skimmer reduce nitrates in an effective way. If I put a skimmer on a tank with 50ppm nitrate the nitrate generally does not budge.

Now if you had the skimmer from the beginning maybe you would have 30ppm nitrate rather than 50 plus better oxygenation and better water clarity in addition to other benefits. Despite the benefits of a skimmer, I would never consider a protein skimmer a good method of nitrate and phosphate control.

I find protein skimmers really help with nitrate control in my tank but ultimately every tank is different

 

[dcreasy9880]

While I put a protein skimmer on nearly every tank. I have never seen a protein skimmer reduce nitrates in an effective way. If I put a skimmer on a tank with 50ppm nitrate the nitrate generally does not budge.

Now if you had the skimmer from the beginning maybe you would have 30ppm nitrate rather than 50 plus better oxygenation and better water clarity in addition to other benefits. Despite the benefits of a skimmer, I would never consider a protein skimmer a good method of nitrate and phosphate control.

ima do larger more frequent water changes to help lower and control the nitrates. i am also now running GFO in my filter to help reduce it as well.

 

[Mr Fishface]

First things first; welcome to the forum! Your tank is looking really nice!

I am a HUGE believer in using algae in tanks. In fact I run macro-algae inside my display tank. I think there are many benefits to algae, especially macro-algae, in our tanks. I'm going to start some in the back of my AIO for a little version of a refugium to help run lights on opposite schedule to keep a more stable PH. I have also used carbon dosing and biopellets alongside a skimmer to help reduce nutrients. It is definitely an option if algae is not an easy or viable method for you.

Also, you might like to take what you have posted already and make a new thread over here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/member-tanks.52/

It's the forum for members' build threads. You can start a thread and keep updating it as time goes. There is also a way you can link it to your profile to get a badge I would say just copy and paste what you have here so far!