Returning to the hobby - setup sanity check

[carnthetiges]

Hi all, i'm thinking of setting up a new tank after a couple of years away.
These days i'm in a carpeted rental, wanting something smaller to maintain.
Last tank was an AIO cube, which looked great though was a pain to clean/scape and the filtration in the back made for constant mess in terms of access etc.

This time around i'd like to try a low profile tank, was planning on just using a seachem tidal for filtration.
Height is only 26cm, rational is it will be much more accessible for cleaning and aquascaping.
Plan is to only stock soft corals and maybe an elegance.
CUC, coral goby and depending on the size of tank 1 or 2 others.

Love the idea of the hob as i can just disconnect and bring it over to the sink for maintenance etc.
Light would probably be spectra aqua knight v2.

60cm version would be approx 10g/40L
90cm version would be approx 16g/60L
Preference would be the 60 as it fits the space a little better, but obviously 90 gives me more flexibility.

Questions...
Does this sound ok for filtration? Expect it would just have a layer for some mechanical filtration and then topped up with matrix or the like.
I'm torn on bare bottom or adding a substrate. Algae become a bit of an issue with the old tank (combination of bio load, natural light, excess nutrients). Does it make a difference?

Cheers!

 

[Thumbster]

Ive been running a 40 breeder with only a Tidal 110 for filtration for a little over three years now. Seems to be doing ok.
I've had ups and downs, bouts of algae, dinos etc. but I don't think that has anything to do with my filtration. I know I'm not the only one who has had those troubles. Recently I started using GFO in a media bag to bring my phosphates down. It seems to be working pretty well.
The only thing that I don't like is having the tube from the HOB filter "clutter" up the tank. Truthfully though, I can barely see it because I have the back of the tank painted black.

 

[Fish Fan]

Maybe the R2R #reefsquad can offer further help; good luck!

 

[tbrown]

Some people have successfully kept reef tanks with HOB filters.

 

[Rocks reef]

My 40 breeder only had a Tunze Comline filter on it. I put filter floss and carbon in it. Mind you, this is an in tank filter, so the whole thing was in my tank for 18 months. My tank thrived.
So yes, a HOB will work. The reason why I went with the Tunze comline is it pulls water from the surface to get rid of the film that forms as well as pulled water from under water.

 

[EricR]

Ive been running a 40 breeder with only a Tidal 110 for filtration for a little over three years now. Seems to be doing ok.

Same -- 40 breeder w/mostly soft corals running only Seachem Tidal 110 HOB.
Tank/setup has been running close to 5 years and doing well,,, never had any crazy issues.

I use 10 gallon tank with smaller HOB (on the side) for invert QT and never had any problems with that either,,, but no fish or corals in that one.

As for substrate, I like sand but I do feel like bare bottom would make for easier maintenance on a small tank like you're considering, assuming you're not going to keep anything that needs sand.