Hello and a couple questions

[Monte Blair]

Hello everyone! My name is Monte. My wife, Evy (pronounced E-V), and I live in San Diego, CA. We just recently started our first tank. It's 30 gallons and is doing great! I have 7 corals, two anemones, two clowns, a ruby red dragonette, red fire shrimp, a few turbos, a few snails, and 1 royal gramma. We also have live rock and live sand. We've had it for about 3 months now. We already got excited for a bigger tank and just bought a 100 gallon (48" x 24" x 24") tank and 30 gallon refugium. We got a really good price on both. I just built a custom stand for the tanks and we're probably going to start setting up the tanks this next weekend. My questions are about accessories for the tank.

(Any brands and where to buy would be very helpful)
What are some good lights to get that aren't too crazy expensive?
What would y'all recommend for a pump from the refugium to the tank?
Filter sock?
How thick do you think the sand bed should be?

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/general-equipment-hardware-filtration.30/

 

[Gweeds1980]

I have 7 corals, two anemones,

What are some good lights to get that aren't too crazy expensive?
What would y'all recommend for a pump from the refugium to the tank?
Filter sock?
How thick do you think the sand bed should be?

Welcome! Let's see some pics!

Before anyone can offer advice on the lighting, it'd be great to know what corals and anemones you have and are hoping to keep... there's a big difference between what softies, LPS, SPS and nems need. What lighting do you have at the moment and what's your budget... you mention not crazy expensive, but price is all relative.

Pump would depend on what other flow you have going... aim to turn over the tank volume 50x per hour in terms of total flow. So if you have 100g, you'll need total flow of around 5000gph. Of you have a couple of 2500gph wavemakers then you'll only 'need' a smallish return pump. If however your return pump is your only means of creating flow, you'll need at least a 5000gph rated pump... by the time you've taken the head into account and that flow rates are usually overstated somewhat, then something closer to 6 or 7k gph...

Assuming you've got other means of flow, I'd go for something like the jebao dct6000. It's a decent price, controllable and will give you more than enough oomph at less than 100% power.

I had a filter sock... got fed up of changing it all the time though, I still have it in the refuge but it's blocked up and overflows, so does nothing. Honestly, I noticed no difference in water clarity or quality. I have pretty dense caulerpa growth in my fuge and that seems to work as a decent mechanical filter.

For the sand bed, you need to decide on whether you want a shallow sand bed (SSB) or a deep sand bed (DSB). I have a SSB in my DT and a DSB in my refuge. Both have advantages and disadvantages so it's personal choice, Google for info. All I'll say is if you go shallow, no more that 2" depth, if you go deep, no less than 6" depth... 3" to 5" is neither deep nor shallow and can cause issues with water quality.

Happy reefing and looming forward to seeing pics [emoji2]

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R.

 

[Monte Blair]

Here are some pics! My red bubble tip anemone is all closed up at the moment so no pics of that today.

Gramma and shrimp

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

IMG_0088

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

IMG_0087

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

Mushroom

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

Carpet anemone

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

Duncan, zoas, torch corals

• Monte Blair
• Jul 16, 2017

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[jimmyzhou]

Welcome to R2R

 

[melypr1985]

Welcome to R2R! Congrats on the upgrade

 

[Rick cowen]

Welcome to R2R, tanks looking great

 

[Joker Corals]

Welcome to R2R.

 

[kireek]

*Welcome to Reef2Reef @Monte Blair !* @Gweeds1980 gave you some excellent advice.Only use a sock if you plan on keeping them clean.I myself am far to lazy to hassle with such things.Sometimes I will install one temporarily after a water change to gather what I stir up.