Items Needed For A Successful Reef
Reef keeping can be a delightful hobby, especially if you have
the right balance of coral and fish to create a truly beautiful
aquarium. You can go and buy a small tank to start off, but that
is not always the best move. You might as well go and get the
largest tank that will fit in the space you have available, so
that you don’t need to bother with upgrades. If you go small at
first and then decide to go larger later, you will need to make
changes in your lights, filtration system, everything really. So
the cost for upgrading to a larger tank will be much more than
just acquiring the larger tank later.
And your fish will need room to swim and to grow. If you get a
small tank you will have small fish that aren’t happy because
they have no room. This may lead to aggression between your fish
and that doesn’t make for a good situation at all.
Once you have decided on your tank size, you will need to
consider your filtration system, which is where bacteria live.
You want bacteria because it breaks down waste. While you can go
with mechanical filters, you could instead use a sand bed to
mimic how it works in the ocean. This will cost less and work
better, so it’s a wise choice. Use three to four inches of a
fine sand grain and then top it off with one to two inches of
heavier sand to keep the lighter sand down.
Next are your rock formations. You will want to start off with
figi because of its combination of shape and price, then you can
select other rocks based on aesthetics. Between the sand bed and
the rock formations, you will actually have created a natural
filtration system which all of the critters you place in your
tank will like and so will the bacteria you need.
Note that if you are starting with a new tank, you want uncured
rock to help cycle your tank, but if adding to an established
tank, make sure you used cured rock, so that your cycle is not
interfered with.
The next thing to consider is your overflow system including
your water pump, sump, and return tubing. You want to use an
overflow box set, and a mag drive is a quality pump choice and
you can use a tote for the sump. For the tubing you can just use
PVC pipe, it’s effective.
You need to have a water conditioning system to keep the water
fresh for your livestock and to help prevent algae. The right
ingredients include a protein skimmer, an RO TFC water filter,
and an RO float valve kit.
Your lighting system is also important. You want a mix of two
kinds of bulb: 10,000K white and 460 Actinic (blue) bulbs, and
put them on a timer because you only want to keep your tank lit
for ten hours a day in order to avoid rapid algae growth.
Now that you have your setup, you can go ahead and add your
coral and fish, and enjoy your reef tank!
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