Hey guys! I’ve been following the hobby for quite literally 15 years but I never had the right time/place to start. Recently I purchased a Waterbox Peninsula 7225 (yes I know this is probably too big for a first tank and peninsulas are more difficult to manage but boy are they pretty). I purchased basically all top of the line stuff (3 Radion XR30 Pros, 2 AI Aquablades (1 Glow and 1 Grow to fill in the shadows on the sides, 2 Ecotech MP60s, Red Sea Reef Roller 1200, 2 300W heaters with the Helios controller, Reef Ocotopus 250 INT, a A360X refugium light for whatever space I have left in my sump for a refugium, and then an Ecotech Vectra L2 (way oversized I know but I wanted to run a great pump at a lower speed with also having the ability to upgrade in the future). I’m pretty confident I’ll get the system up and running and cycled etc but my question is when will I actually need/use all of this equipment? I see a lot of talk about “using when needed”. I assume later down the line when the tanks nutritional needs are much higher I’ll need a more aggressive nutrient export approach (running a skimmer etc) but is there any exact method to this? Specifically when is it advised to run the roller mat/skimmer/refugium? Also if anyone has any tips for this equipment or any further recommendations for other equipment please let me know!
First Reef Tank - questions about equipment usage
- Thread starter mgiorlando87
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Biokabe
Valuable Member
There isn't really a hard and fast rule, but in general here is some advice for your different equipment.
Lights: You should start turning them on at some point during the cycle. Doesn't really matter when. After you get your rockwork set up, it's a good time to use a PAR meter and map out the PAR in your tank. You may still be able to rent one, or you can turn your phone into one with an underwater enclosure and the Photone app. Or you could buy one, but they're quite expensive compared to their utility. You really only need to measure PAR once every few years.
Heaters: Put as many layers of control on them as you can find. On my tank, my two heaters are plugged in to an Inkbird controller, which is itself plugged into my Apex. Heaters are the most common failure point in aquarium so you want as much fallback and redundancy on them as possible.
Refugium: You can start this immediately, but probably best to let your cycle finish before you start trying to grow chaeto (or whatever else you plan to grow). It'll compete for the same nutrients your nitrifying bacteria use, so you want to let them get established first. And really, you don't exactly need this from the start. Might be best to wait until you have fish in the tank to start producing waste products.
Skimmer: See refugium, though for different reasons. The skimmer does three things: It oxygenates your water; it skims out waste products before they decay into nitrates and phosphates; it skims off some (but not all) toxic byproducts, such as coral toxins. As with the refugium, turning this on too soon will starve nitrifying bacteria, so you want to let them get established and make sure there's something in the water for your skimmer to skim before you turn it on. After your first couple of fish is a good rule of thumb, but you can have it on earlier. Just be aware that if there isn't enough "stuff" in your water, it may overflow.
Rollermat: See above. Rollermats remove solid particles down to a certain size from your water, again preventing them from decaying into things like nitrates and phosphates. And pretty much the same advice. You can turn it on whenever, but it'll slow down the growth of nitrifying bacteria and doesn't really help until you have enough waste to need to filter it out.
MP60: Just make sure you don't have them directly opposite each other. For a peninsula, I'd put one on a side pane, probably about midway down the tank, and the other on the glass opposite the return chamber. Position one high enough that it'll create some surface agitation, the other deep enough to have strong turbulent flow through the mid levels of the tank but slower flow along the sand bed. Too low and the MP60 will kick off a sandstorm. You can get fancy with these to create things like standing waves, but personally I think it's best to just keep flow random.
One thing you didn't mention was a UV filter. I'd recommend reading up on them and deciding if you want one now, before you've got everything set up. They're kind of a pain to plumb in after the fact.
Lights: You should start turning them on at some point during the cycle. Doesn't really matter when. After you get your rockwork set up, it's a good time to use a PAR meter and map out the PAR in your tank. You may still be able to rent one, or you can turn your phone into one with an underwater enclosure and the Photone app. Or you could buy one, but they're quite expensive compared to their utility. You really only need to measure PAR once every few years.
Heaters: Put as many layers of control on them as you can find. On my tank, my two heaters are plugged in to an Inkbird controller, which is itself plugged into my Apex. Heaters are the most common failure point in aquarium so you want as much fallback and redundancy on them as possible.
Refugium: You can start this immediately, but probably best to let your cycle finish before you start trying to grow chaeto (or whatever else you plan to grow). It'll compete for the same nutrients your nitrifying bacteria use, so you want to let them get established first. And really, you don't exactly need this from the start. Might be best to wait until you have fish in the tank to start producing waste products.
Skimmer: See refugium, though for different reasons. The skimmer does three things: It oxygenates your water; it skims out waste products before they decay into nitrates and phosphates; it skims off some (but not all) toxic byproducts, such as coral toxins. As with the refugium, turning this on too soon will starve nitrifying bacteria, so you want to let them get established and make sure there's something in the water for your skimmer to skim before you turn it on. After your first couple of fish is a good rule of thumb, but you can have it on earlier. Just be aware that if there isn't enough "stuff" in your water, it may overflow.
Rollermat: See above. Rollermats remove solid particles down to a certain size from your water, again preventing them from decaying into things like nitrates and phosphates. And pretty much the same advice. You can turn it on whenever, but it'll slow down the growth of nitrifying bacteria and doesn't really help until you have enough waste to need to filter it out.
MP60: Just make sure you don't have them directly opposite each other. For a peninsula, I'd put one on a side pane, probably about midway down the tank, and the other on the glass opposite the return chamber. Position one high enough that it'll create some surface agitation, the other deep enough to have strong turbulent flow through the mid levels of the tank but slower flow along the sand bed. Too low and the MP60 will kick off a sandstorm. You can get fancy with these to create things like standing waves, but personally I think it's best to just keep flow random.
One thing you didn't mention was a UV filter. I'd recommend reading up on them and deciding if you want one now, before you've got everything set up. They're kind of a pain to plumb in after the fact.
I actually do have one of the 57 watt UV sterilizers, forgot to list it. I have a gyre too I know people with peninsulas have had success but I’ll start with the mp60s for sure and adjust from there. But in general, from what I gather I should just monitor parameters until they’re stable and as I add livestock and notice the water is getting “dirtier” then I should get all the equipment going. The refugium I figured would only help post cycle (I plan on doing a slow cycle with Tampa bay sand) so I will have a strong and diverse bacterial ecosystem.
Also thank you for such a detailed response I really appreciate it!
Biokabe
Valuable Member
Yeah, exactly. The UV sterilizer goes on the list with the skimmer, refugium and roller mat - turn it on after the cycle is finished, once you have things for it to sterilize.
If you have a gyre, put it at the far end of the peninsula once you decide to install it, and have the two MP60 on your side panes, one at 1/3 of the way down, the other at 2/3. That'll give you strong flow in all directions throughout the tank without having opposing flow sources cancel each other out.
If you haven't already purchased everything maybe take a look at the tunze orca 6105. I have a couple of 6075s on my 4ft peninsula and flow looks good but the tank hasn't been up long enough to know how coral are going to respond.
PS. Mine are mounted on each side of the overflow for a clean look. This is my first peninsula and I'm loving the view compared to my lagoons which are in a corner so only 2 viewing sides.
PS. Mine are mounted on each side of the overflow for a clean look. This is my first peninsula and I'm loving the view compared to my lagoons which are in a corner so only 2 viewing sides.
BryanM
7500 Club Member
You also didn't mention if you're going to use ocean live rock, or dry/dead rock.
If real live rock, when I did my tank, I turned everything on day 1
If real live rock, when I did my tank, I turned everything on day 1
Using Carib Sea “live rock” and then the Tampa bay sand so I’ll probably take it slow and leave equipment off for a couple of weeks for the bacteria biome to grow.
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