Fowlr Equipment Advice (sorry, Loads Of Q's)

[kimGeach]

HI,

Im a complete newbie who has a dream of a FOWLR, having spent enough time researching on the net that my husband has forgotten what i look like minus laptop I have become the proud owner of a apparently ridiculously sized tank.

I'm now at the stage of purchasing additional equipment, i'm happy with most of the requirements but have some questions on some eqiupment so thought i'd come out of lurkerdome and ask for some advice (pretty please!)

OK!

Tank is 72''x30(depth)x 18(width) - 168 us gallons.

Has a trickle filter sump (42''x12x12 - 26 gallons)
The water is fed over a 'trickle tray' into a chamber containing plastic triangles (dont do techinical!) then through a large sponge into the rest of the sump which is open and contains the pump taking the water through a uv unit and back into the tank. Should I be looking to add/change anything here? (planning on adding a skimmer when i get to the fish stage)



Heaters - working on 5w PG so - 840w. what would be best 1x500w and 1x300w or a combination of lower watts (any suggestions?)

Powerheads - same issues as above, looking at x2 1500lph or is more at lower lph better (also i'm working this out at 5x volume of my tank w/o rock (637L) should i be factoring in the volume of the sump in addition?)

If i haven't already asked any stupid questions, this is one - lots of articles are advising that heaters and other equipment can be kept in the sump, now i'm assuming that three heaters in the sump isn't gonna work :stupid:

Rock - I was given a load of tufa rock with the tank, its sitting dry in buckets at the mo - my plan is to add this and the substrate straight into the tank, add appropiate water and cycle.
Now, is the sump sufficent filtration to have the rock as purley cosmetic or do i need to be making sure I have enough for the rock to act in addition to(worked this out as 70kg?). If so is Tufa rock any good or should be looking at other types (any suggestions gratefully received).

Am i right that I can just add uncured rock and let the tank cycle? (even if its a cosmetic amount or correct amount for filtration?)

If I add rock/sand straight to the tank do i need to consider additives to assist with bacteria or is patience and cycling all that is required (i'm in no hurry)

Substrate - I seem to recall a thread advising that bags of 'live' sand from LFS is a waste of money and that bagged play sand is ok - do i have my wires crossed here?


Inhabitant's
I've still got tonnes of research to do on my wish list, will be paying particular attention to stocking advice already available on here so the filtration system won't be overloaded.

As i've said, i'm a complete newbie and prepared to accept that i've got this all wrong, any corrections/suggestions/critisim gratefully recieved !

If you've got this far, then

 

[CageUK]

HI,

Im a complete newbie who has a dream of a FOWLR, having spent enough time researching on the net that my husband has forgotten what i look like minus laptop I have become the proud owner of a apparently ridiculously sized tank.

I'm now at the stage of purchasing additional equipment, i'm happy with most of the requirements but have some questions on some eqiupment so thought i'd come out of lurkerdome and ask for some advice (pretty please!)

OK!

Tank is 72''x30(depth)x 18(width) - 168 us gallons.

Has a trickle filter sump (42''x12x12 - 26 gallons)
The water is fed over a 'trickle tray' into a chamber containing plastic triangles (dont do techinical!) then through a large sponge into the rest of the sump which is open and contains the pump taking the water through a uv unit and back into the tank. Should I be looking to add/change anything here? (planning on adding a skimmer when i get to the fish stage)



Heaters - working on 5w PG so - 840w. what would be best 1x500w and 1x300w or a combination of lower watts (any suggestions?)

Powerheads - same issues as above, looking at x2 1500lph or is more at lower lph better (also i'm working this out at 5x volume of my tank w/o rock (637L) should i be factoring in the volume of the sump in addition?)

If i haven't already asked any stupid questions, this is one - lots of articles are advising that heaters and other equipment can be kept in the sump, now i'm assuming that three heaters in the sump isn't gonna work :stupid:

Rock - I was given a load of tufa rock with the tank, its sitting dry in buckets at the mo - my plan is to add this and the substrate straight into the tank, add appropiate water and cycle.
Now, is the sump sufficent filtration to have the rock as purley cosmetic or do i need to be making sure I have enough for the rock to act in addition to(worked this out as 70kg?). If so is Tufa rock any good or should be looking at other types (any suggestions gratefully received).

Am i right that I can just add uncured rock and let the tank cycle? (even if its a cosmetic amount or correct amount for filtration?)

If I add rock/sand straight to the tank do i need to consider additives to assist with bacteria or is patience and cycling all that is required (i'm in no hurry)

Substrate - I seem to recall a thread advising that bags of 'live' sand from LFS is a waste of money and that bagged play sand is ok - do i have my wires crossed here?


Inhabitant's
I've still got tonnes of research to do on my wish list, will be paying particular attention to stocking advice already available on here so the filtration system won't be overloaded.

As i've said, i'm a complete newbie and prepared to accept that i've got this all wrong, any corrections/suggestions/critisim gratefully recieved !

If you've got this far, then

Hi Kim

Lucky you for having that size tank!

Can't really answer about the trickle tray etc as I don't run a sump.

With regards to the sand though, although play sand is absolutely fine in freshwater it's not really suitable for Marine use. It contains silicates which can encourage diatoms and algae and is really not worth taking a chance on. You ideally need Aragonite sand or Crushed coral sand. As mentioned, the reputation of 'live' sand is dubious and not really worth the extra expense.

Re: the live rock.
The tuffa rock ideally needs to be seeded for cycling and genuine live rock is the ideal catalyst for doing this. The Tuffa rock will also look too 'clean' and will take a long time to mature so patience will be a virtue here. I would suggest buying as much live rock as you feel comfortable with. If you are prepared to wait, then how much you buy will be up to you.
One piece will start the seeding process but more will make it quicker. This will also depend on how quickly/heavily you stock the tank when it is ready. A scattering of live rock will also help to break up the 'clean' appearance of the new tuffa rock. In time it will get encrusted in coralline algae and all sorts of other detritus so this is only a temporary issue but this will take many months to achieve.

You can add the live rock and sand straight into the mixed water but have the mixed water in the tank with powerheads and heater/s running in the tank for a day or so before to get it to temperature and to ensure it is fully mixed to the correct salinity/specific gravity. You will then need to temporarily empty some water to make room for the sand and rock OR only partially fill the tank in the first place which will be cheaper but will be guesswork as to how much to put in.
The die-off from the live rock will then feed the cycling process so no additives will be necessary.

Re: the heaters...I would suggest just having two heaters of suitable power output, any more than that is unnecessary complication and wiring...my own opinion only.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Mark

 

[ben1987]

You want bigger powerheads than that! you want minimum 20x turnover. If i was going ahead with something that size i would be tempted by a closed loop. Much better than having unsightly powerheads about

Live sand is a wate of money imo i dont see how anything can live with no oxygen. Arogonite sand is what you want

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Welcome to the forums

The sump should be fine if you are going for FOWLR. If you do decide to go for a reef system later you might want to remove most of what is in there and put in macro algae in chemical filtration. Your heaters and skimmer can go in here as well.

With the heaters I would go with the fewest possible but it is always a good idea to have more than one (then if one dies the other will be able to keep the temp up).

Sand: Arogonite sand is the best stuff. I believe you can buy Arogonite based playsand and you can also get it from some builders yards which will be a lot cheaper.

As Ben said you will need a lot more turn over for filtration. On the same note I would go for as much LR as you can afford to get and then fill in the rest with base rock. Depending on your budget it might be cheaper to get a wavemaker box rather then a whole bunch of powerheads, also gives much better water moment as well.

Good luck with it and dont forget to keep us all posted on how your getting on

 

[kimGeach]

Just a quick note to say thanks for the advice (managed to get the powerheads upgraded before they were sent!) great to know there's experiance out there willing to help out. Sure i'll have many questions along the way

 

[andywg]

You want bigger powerheads than that! you want minimum 20x turnover.

No you don't. 20x is a reef minimum. FOLWR need far less as the slow build up of some nitrates is far less of a problem, not to mention that some fish (such as frogfish) perform very poorly in such high flow tanks. I look at 10x as the figure to look towards on my general FOWLR tanks and will consider lower on frogfish set ups.

If i was going ahead with something that size i would be tempted by a closed loop. Much better than having unsightly powerheads about

The down side to a closed loop is the massive increase of power used for the pumps compared to Hydor Koralia or Tunze Stream powerheads and you have the added issues of drilling the tank a number of times.

And what happens if you cahnge the decor a bit and want to change the direction of flow somewhat? Redrilling is a pain in the backside, whereas pointing a tunze hidden by a rock is a simple task.

Live sand is a wate of money imo i dont see how anything can live with no oxygen. Arogonite sand is what you want

While the potential benefits of live sand are dubious, perhaps you should look up the meaning of anaerobic bacteria (such as those we cultivate in the centre of live rock and at the bottom of a DSB)