Livestock and sump filtration order advice desired

Hollywood Hobbyist

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10 years ago I started my first reef tank in a 30gal glass box and saw success with softies. For the past three years I’ve seen a lot of success with an LPS and easy SPS in a 20g AOI.

Last week I finally picked up a sump system, grabbing an RSR 170 with pump and radion lights for a steal. I tried buffing the scratched up glass, but this old man’s back wasn’t up to the job. So in the future it’ll probably upgrade to a 20g Fiji sump and then a 60g cube because the stand is in great shape. Likely glass first sump later. But that’s 2 years down the road.

I’m hoping for some sump advice. My refugium contents arrive later this week, going with the algebarn sea lettuce starter pack, In the main sump portion. I have an led grow panel from Amazon that was on sale for only $12 on a timer, opposite the radion for ph stability. In the return pipe section will be a scice 1.5 that feeds into a mini brs carbon reactor, piped into a 9w twist Uv sterilizer. That empties into a media cup with just floss. It goes through the refugium from there then into the return pump chamber. I’m running kalkwasser in my ATO. I love BRSTV and designed this up based on the brs/wwc hybrid method.

Is this an appropriate order for filtration? I want my copepods to be able to get into my main tank from the refugium, but I want the UV to help with excessive algae and disease and pest management. Not running GFO, but I can always do a gfo/carbon mix in the reactor is I seem to have a phosphate problem. Right now the old guaranteed bio load is a single small white mocha clown, 4 or 5 torchus, 5 hermits, 6 Cerriths, and an emerald crab (refugium banishment for sure because he keeps stripping flesh from the brain coral). My 20g is packed with sps, And euphy. All of it will be moving in a few months.

I’d like to add a mandarin, and a few other wildly colorful fish, maybe a purple fire and a biota orange tail damsel, and a wrasse like a possum or carpenter’s flasher. Any advice for livestock would be appreciated.
 

ichthyogeek

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The Unanwered Threads section went whacko a while back, otherwise I would have answered this sooner.

Refugium stuff: If I'm understanding this right it goes from overflow to reactors/machine-y part to filtration to refugium to return pump. If so, then that looks good, I'd just make sure that the Ulva doesn't go all over the place (look into sea lettuce cages). And the Ulva's being lit 24/7? It's a good idea that you're UV-ing pre refugium instead of post refugium!

I think you should aim for 4 fish maximum at the moment. Here's what I'd do: purple firefish first, since firefish are really skittish, mine are still scared of me 5 months down the line! Clownfish or flasher wrasse next and then the other afterwards. After that the orange tail damselfish. Finally the dragonet. Most of those fish are zooplanktivores barring the dragonet. A possum wrasse would compete with the dragonet and in a 34 gallon tank (I think?), that's not a lot of space for competition for pods. That may be pushing the bioload though.

Have you thought of nixing the orange tail damselfish and looking into something like a zebra dartfish? And if you don't go with the dragonet, a stunning dwarf angel might round things out better than a possum wrasse (unless it's a Tanaka's, but I'm highly biased towards Tanaka's possum wrasses).
 

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