Salt Water Start Up, Darbex style!

[myjohnson]

yeah, Brian has one of the "AIO" (all in one) tanks. I had a BJB nano cube a few years ago and learned a lot about all the mods out there. When I get on a laptop I post some good links.

But for know:

I would not do the MH mod. I would do the LEDs for this size tank. The main up side would be that he could grow almost any thing in the tank and the LEDs produce a lot less heat so there is no need for a chiller. I think 20 LED puts out as much as a 70W MH.

I would buy the over flow plate so that chamber 1 will be an overflow box. I would put filter floss on top, purigen, chempure, then LR rubble on the bottom in this chamber. Chamber two, I would add a little cheap CF light to the tank side and trun into a little fug and grow cheato in there with maybe some more LR rubble on the bottom. In the last chamber, I would do a smaller heater, upgrade the pump, and put the auto top off sensors in there. I don't know about the wace maker is build into this system so you might have to change some of that around.

Start reading Brian!

[myjohnson]

Fug?

It's short for a refugium. Basically a SW version of a freshwater wet/dry, but in addition you grow marco algae in it to suck up nirates.

http://petcare.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_refugium

http://www.aquatouch.com/AquaTech%20Refugium%20article.htm

(note: you don't want sand in yours)

I'll post some more really good links from people that actually have the same tank and they made fugs out of the second chamber when I get on laptop later.

[Darbex]

The center chamber already is an overflow box isnt it?

[tnguyen]

Brian,

What is you goal? What do you want to keep? All this will determine what you need to do.


$$$

[Darbex]

What I am looking to do is coral, clown, gobies, and maybe one of the other nano fish. I presume the purpose of the refug is added bacteria and algae cultures to help absorb the nitrogens?

[Darbex]

Ok so couldnt I ghetto rig one and put a few gallon tank in the stand and return the water back up separately from the current filtration system?

[tnguyen]

Is it even necessary to have a refugium for this nano tank with such a foot print. If you do weekly water changes I would assume you could get away with it.

[tnguyen]

I have plan for a nano myself with just using a canister as a mechanical filtration and water changes weekly. Doing a nano with salt I think you have to be on top of your game otherwise it will crash.

[myjohnson]

Is it even necessary to have a refugium for this nano tank with such a foot print. If you do weekly water changes I would assume you could get away with it.

You really don't but this depends on the fish stock you have. More fish then more nirates so it would help a lot to have a fug.

I also think the corals health is really determined by water conditions. Some can be very picky and I would mod one of those chambers to a fug.

[myjohnson]

Ok so couldnt I ghetto rig one and put a few gallon tank in the stand and return the water back up separately from the current filtration system?

I don't understand what you are trying to do?

Do you mean make a fug from a small 5-10 gallon tank and pump the water back up? If this is what you mean then it can be done. There was a guy on nano-reef that did it and it looks really clean too.

Personally, I would just turn one of the cambers in the back into a fug. Less modification to get this done and it's been proven to be very effect on this tank. Guys are keeping all kinds of stuff in their 28jbj.

I would save the space under the tank for an auto-top off system. That way you will have a complete automatic reef system and it will look all around clean.

[Darbex]

Yeah I was thinking about putting a 5G tank in the stand and cycle water through it. How big is an ATO and is it that necessary?

[myjohnson]

I like everything automatic on my tanks. I have auto timers and auto feeders on all my tropheus tanks cause I'm gone days at a time.

Do you need them? No.

But I highly recommend them. Basically the water evap. over the day will increase the salt content in the tank. You have to add RO water to keep the salinity stable. You will have to most likely top off by hand with RO water daily if you don't get the auto-top off. If you think you can do that and want to do that then you don't need it. If you want it more hands off (like me) then get one.

The system itself can be small. There is basically a float value that sense the water getting low in the main tank. The "Brain" tells the pump to kick on and RO water it pump into the main tank (from the holding tank) until the float value tells the "Brain" that the water level is back to normal. The main size to the system is the holding tank. if you get a tall and not so wide holding tank you can save a lot of room.

[tnguyen]

I debate on this myself. I guess it all depend on how religious you are going to be on this tank. If you tend to it regularly then you can top it manually but require more of your time. With hooded system I think you won't get much evaporation but keep an eye it. Also if you using light setup that will heat more then you will get faster evaporation. If you use a fug which is open top then that will evaporate even more so an ATO is good for this.

[myjohnson]

Yeah and if he does the chamber fug then evap will be even lower cause the hood is over it too.

[tnguyen]

Yeah and if he does the chamber fug then evap will be even lower cause the hood is over it too.

I agree with you on this. If you are really going with a fug then retro and keep it simple. add a small skimmer and you are good. What kind of light would anenome need? Do they need that strong of a light?