Ok Now What?

[DaBear]

I'm starting a reef tank, the plan is to have some soft corals, inverts and fish. The tank is a 30 gal cube, approximatly 20 inches square. And this is what I have so far, 1 - sea clone skimmer for up to 100 gal. tank, 1- cascade canister filter for a tank up to 150 gal. 1- digital thermometer. 1- 295 gph power head. 1- 20 inch flouresent light with a 100% true actinic 03 blue tube 1- metal halide fixture with a 150 watt 20,000k lamp. The tank has a glass canopy. 75 lbs. of live rock 3 different types. Residents so far are 6 hermit crabs, 10 snails.
Now the problem, if I turn on the M/H light for a few hours the temp goes well into the 80's.
Now the questions do I have too much live rock for the tank? Would a larger tank disapate the heat better (well duh) or would a chiller solve the problem?
I'm reading in some places that I really don't need the canister filter, ture or not. I can buy a 46 gal bow front but now we start with possibly changing lihgting fixtures, wife----not a good route to take.
The tank seems awfully full, how much rock do you need, for a reef tank?

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, you definitely went big and didn't stay home . For a 30gal tank, the reccomended amount of LR would be 45lbs on the upper end. 75 IMO is overshooting things bigtime. There's nothing wrong with that much LR, just that such a large volume of LR does sort of take up most of the real estate of the tank. If I were you... I'd gut that canister filter and fill it with LR instead of that man-made media. And if your rock pieces are too big, thats what they make hammers for

Your lighting however concerns me. A 150watt MH should be more than enough, the flourescent is probably overkill. Also, how close is the halide to the tank? Couple inches? Standing the halide off the tank a little and rigging up fans both to blow on the bulbs and on to the top of your water will help with your heating issues. I dont know how well any of that is possible in your situation, but that will help. A lot cheaper than a chiller both in the short and long term.

 

[DaBear]

Darn tried to edit my post and lost the whole thing!

Ok, first lighting. I was shooting for a 24 hr lighting scheme, Lunar , dawn, full sun dusk. By way of using timers for the three lighting systems. LEDs for the lunar ( haven't bought yet, waiting for the wife to look the other way) the flouresent strip for dawn and dusk and the M/H for the full sun. This after I solve the heat problem in the tank.
Heat, the fixture is 8" above the tank. Here is a link to the fixture on the tank. http/www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod...2&N=2004+113352 . The fixture has a fan blowing on the lamp already and with the glass canopy I don't think that the fans would work too well. The tank is in the living room so looks are a issue. So I'm leaning towards a chiller. When I came home from work today the tank was at 80.3 degrees and the M/H had been off for 22 hours. I'm looking at a nano chiller that is suppose to cool a 20 gal tank 10 degrees. Now even if I take out 20- 30 lbs of live rock there is really only about 20- 25 gallons of water don't you think? Will this chiller keep the tank at 74- 78 degrees, and yes I realize you don't know for sure, but looking for opinions. It's a pacific coast nano chiller, I think that the canister filter should be enough flow for it considering the it only needs a flow rate of 75 gph. I just want the tank to be perfect when we put the first coarls and friends in. So the question is do you think that the nano is enough for this tank?
The wife is kind of talking to someone I can't see, just told her I'm starting a fish only tank to use up the live rock that I have leftover from this tank. Poor girl. Said something about 6 tanks and 3 parrots. So the issue of the live rock is settled already we start a 20 gal fish only, and drive the wife oer the edge.
By the way I was trying to add to my post my family is from Kenmore and I lived on Grand Island when I was little, so hey there homey.
I'm kind of using this as a sounding board because every time I try to talk to someone at the pet store they all have a different opinion.
Thanks for the help Bear

 

[Locke]

Hey, congrats on starting up a reef tank.

I reccomend getting a very very good book.

IMO, I follow the rule of thumb... 1lb of live rock per gallon. You could do about 1.5lb and that would be fine as well. 75lbs of live rock in a 30 gal. tank is just overkill. The reason why your tank is heating up so much is because you don't have enough water for heat dispersion. I think that you should have about 35- 40lbs of live rock. You should go back to your lfs and get store credit for the rest.

Take out the flouresents because even to me that is over kill, UNLESS, you're going for some clams or other photosenthetic corals that needs a lot of light. Still though, IMO, you should take it out.

I think that you should use the canister filter, it will definately make the tank clearer and healthier. That's what I have on my 20gal. reef tank.

SB

 

[DaBear]

Yes clams were on the list before I ran out of room ( Live Rock)