What piece of Reefing Equipment should I choose?

[R33fDaddy]

I have room in my sump for maybe one piece of equipment and I'm trying figure out what would be the most beneficial. My tank is mostly a Tang Gang aquarium with Mixed Reef Corals including Gonipora, Acans, Zoas, Xenia, gsp, and I'm about to add a bunch more coral in about 40 days. I got into the hobby because I grew up with an aquarium and I actually want to do some of the work. I'm a computer engineer by day so the last thing I want to do is computerize my aquarium. So I ruled out a doser because it's easy for me to dose via the auto top off however a calcium reactor does sound appealing.

The only equipment in my sump right now is a Skimmer.

I would like to feed my Tang Gang more than once a day if possible but if I can't it's not a big deal. Currently I feed them about a 2x4 inch piece of Nori and one cube of Brine.

My addition choices are:
Algea Scrubber
Media Reactor
UV Light
Calcium Reactor

Which one of these do you think will be the most beneficial? If you know of another piece of equipment I haven't thought of please mention it in the comments. Thanks

My Aquarium is the Redsea Reefer 250

 

[AutumnReefs]

I guess what really should be asked is what, if anything, is undersireable about your setup? Do you have phopshate or nitrate issues?, Are you not a fan of waterchanges? Is the water not very clear?, Are you not a fan of your current dosing mechanism? (using the ATO is not reliablke for calcium and alkalinity dosing as evaporation rate has no correlation with element consumption).

You may not even need anything additional..

 

[jgirardnrg]

Of that list my choice would be the UV or a media reactor. The media reactor I'd use for CO2 scrubbing.

 

[Pico bam]

Algea turf scrubber is my choice feed away!

 

[dedragon]

tang police are gonna be on you for the gem tang in the 54 gallon tank. like autumn said though, what do you want to improve in your tank and how are parameters looking? i would switch to a mixed diet like LRS reef frenzy for the fish and corals, brine isnt too nutritious

 

[dhnguyen]

I wouldn't feed them brine shrimp as a staple. That's like feeding your kids popcorn for dinner.
BB has practically no nutritional value at all. Better to feed frozen mysis or formula 1

 

[mdb_talon]

If your goal is to feed more i would go the algae scrubber route. A media reactor is more versatile(depending on needs it can be carbon, co2 scrubber, gfo,etc)
...but i would still say turf scrubber. Also a reactor does not have to fit in the sump itself...just in the cabinet.

 

[R33fDaddy]

I guess what really should be asked is what, if anything, is undersireable about your setup? Do you have phopshate or nitrate issues?, Are you not a fan of waterchanges? Is the water not very clear?, Are you not a fan of your current dosing mechanism? (using the ATO is not reliablke for calcium and alkalinity dosing as evaporation rate has no correlation with element consumption).

You may not even need anything additional..

I guess what really should be asked is what, if anything, is undersireable about your setup?

I can't clean my sand bed because if I do my Nitrates will explode lol. I went a year with undetectable Nitrates and then made a rookie mistake and deep cleaned my sand bed, worst decision ever.

I also can't feed my guys as much as I want. I don't over feed or anything but I'd like to feed enough so that my Corals don't look appetizing lol. Maybe instead of one cube and Nori, I could go to two cubes and half a Nori sheet.


Do you have phopshate or nitrate issues?

I don't have any major issues with Phosphates but in generally I would like my Nitrates to be lower than 10 ppm consistently. However Gonipora is my favorite Coral and my homie at WWC said I should keep Nitrates a little high for them.

Sidenote my tangs are always nibbling on the sand bed and rocks so I'm sure they are controlling any algea issue that I may have if it wasn't for them.


Are you not a fan of waterchanges?

I have embraced the water the change lol. I do a 20% water change once a week on my display and Quarantine Aquarium. In fact I'm about to order a water transfer pump so that I can make the process even easier.

Is the water not very clear?

The water is always clear except for that one time a deep cleaned the sand bed. That water was disgusting and I thought "this needed to be done", until my poor goni closed up and I did a water test.

Do you clean your sand bed?

Are you not a fan of your current dosing mechanism? (using the ATO is not reliablke for calcium and alkalinity dosing as evaporation rate has no correlation with element consumption).

Yeah I know, dosing via the Auto Top Off is not the best case way. I decided to do it that way instead of just pouring a cap full of Seachem Reef Calcium & Seachem Reef Plus into my tank. I just put a capful of each into my AutoTop off so that it will slowly dose the Aquarium. I also under dose on purpose because I don't test for those things regularly. I use tropic marin pro reef salt so I think the tank is getting everything it needs for now.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

probably the scrubber from what i read. if you want to clean your sand, go ahead and just do a very small section at a time

 

[R33fDaddy]

tang police are gonna be on you for the gem tang in the 54 gallon tank. like autumn said though, what do you want to improve in your tank and how are parameters looking? i would switch to a mixed diet like LRS reef frenzy for the fish and corals, brine isnt too nutritious

Lol, I'm not worried about the Tang Police. I have four tanks in my house so if any body looks uncomfortable I can move them, but my guys love each other. They all went into the aquarium at the same time (which was expensive lol), they all have their own sleeping space and never fight. Not one of them pacing back and forth they just float peacefully through the water. Bring on the Tang Police and maybe I can teach them I thing or two about keeping multiple tangs lol

I'll have to try reef frenzy. Is it a mix of brine and nori cause that's what I need. My blonde Naso will not eat brine lol. He loves his nori and will just look at me like I'm crazy if I don't give it to him.

All my parameters are good but I would like to feed more. I'm also about to put a lot of Coral into the tank soon in case that makes a difference.

 

[R33fDaddy]

probably the scrubber from what i read. if you want to clean your sand, go ahead and just do a very small section at a time

Thanks, I will definitely do a very small section at time. I'm nervous about it now cause I almost crashed my tank doing something I thought was good lol

 

[PeterC99]

Algae scrubber or algae Reactor is the way to go. The biggest bang for the buck and will lower NO3 and give more coral options.

 

[dedragon]

definitely keep the sand clean and suction it with water changes,
LRS reef frenzy is a mix of a lot of stuff (mysis, clam fish eggs etc), including seaweed as well. if they are all gem tangs, dang that is super expensive! maybe in ayear or two they will need to be rehomed,
the naso tang 100% will need to be as it grows to 1.5 feet in length

 

[R33fDaddy]

If your goal is to feed more i would go the algae scrubber route. A media reactor is more versatile(depending on needs it can be carbon, co2 scrubber, gfo,etc)
...but i would still say turf scrubber. Also a reactor does not have to fit in the sump itself...just in the cabinet.

I run Chemi Blue right now and it seems to be getting the job done. I was thinking putting the Charcoal and GFO into a media reactor would give me better results, however I only have room for one piece of equipment. Wasn't sure if I should use that real estate on a media reactor.

 

[dedragon]

+1 algae reactor but i think the red sea can fit a regular refugium for free if you want to test it out and see if the chaeto is working well for you.

 

[R33fDaddy]

definitely keep the sand clean and suction it with water changes,
LRS reef frenzy is a mix of a lot of stuff (mysis, clam fish eggs etc), including seaweed as well. if they are all gem tangs, dang that is super expensive! maybe in ayear or two they will need to be rehomed,
the naso tang 100% will need to be as it grows to 1.5 feet in length

I actually don't have a Gem tang, not sure where that came from.

I have:
Sohal
Purple
Blue Hippo
Blonde Naso
Squaretail
Orange Shoulder

I'd never rehome these dudes these are my guys for life. Unless rehome means get them a bigger tank lol. Once they need a bigger aquarium I'll absolutely get that for them no doubt. That's going to be a nerve racking day though because everything is so peaceful and calm. I'm not sure how they will react to a new environment lol.

Where do you get reef frenzy from? Also do you worry about your fish getting a taste for Clam? I want to get on one day and I don't want then to see it as food lol.

 

[R33fDaddy]

+1 algae reactor but i think the red sea can fit a regular refugium for free if you want to test it out and see if the chaeto is working well for you.

You can see in the picture above I kinda use what would be the refugium area as a filtration chamber. I run filter floss, Chem blue and some other media there. I don't use filter socks because they get nasty and the poo just breaks down in there unless you change them every two days. If I do set up a refugium I'd probably have to change everything around. I'd also have to figure out how to Quarantine the chaeto because nothing goes directly in my display tank.

Do you think a refugium would be just as good as an algea scrubber?

 

[dedragon]

never had any of the larger tangs but you will definitely need a bigger tank at some point, these guys get so big they will have trouble swimming once they reach like 8+ inches. Now i get the nitrates too, these guys eat and crap a lot so its probably getting bound in the sand.
If they want to nip at the tridacna clams, thats weird, but will prob just be the appetite of the individual fish and not much you could do about that. I find my tang will try to bite everything at least once to see if it likes it anyway

 

[Suohhen]

Active fish benefit from being fed 3 times a day, nori can help but in the long run the proven way to keep a peaceful tank without your corals becoming part of the menu is to feed with a shovel. Pellet foods such as TDO Chroma Boost and Seaweed extreme are an excellent, easy, auto feeder solution but they will up your nutrient significantly so get a algae scrubber setup first. The scrubbers on the market these days are incredible.

 

[dedragon]

You can see in the picture above I kinda use what would be the refugium area as a filtration chamber. I run filter floss, Chem blue and some other media there. I don't use filter socks because they get nasty and the poo just breaks down in there unless you change them every two days. If I do set up a refugium I'd probably have to change everything around. I'd also have to figure out how to Quarantine the chaeto because nothing goes directly in my display tank.

Do you think a refugium would be just as good as an algea scrubber?

probably not as efficient but works well and sometimes chaeto withers in some tanks so its easy to test it in the area where you have the bags already with a cheap bulb from homedepot or a nicer (like $20) led light from amazon.