new pump

[ecr111]

Hi all,

new to the site, but not the hobby.
This looks like a good site, so...

I have keeping marine for about 35 yrs.

When I bought this house I put in a 125 reef. What with work, kids and all the rest it got to be too much work.
After a year I gave the 125 up and made a 25 gal reef that works well and doesn't require so much maintenance.

I am going to make a salt fish tank out of the 125 ( it has been sitting in the study for 5 yrs empty, but I just retired and have some time).

One of the things I didn't like about the 125 was the little giant 1200gph pump. It was so noisy, that I couldn't stand to be in study.

Now the question.

I haven't been keeping up with the new tech and was hoping I could find some help here. I picked up MFaA last week but it's hard to know from the ads.

What would be a good pump for a fish only tank. The input of the pump sits on the outlet of the wet/dry.

I think I still need a lot of water movement, but it must be very quiet. I am going to move the tank into the living room.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help.

Regards,

Clay

[ecr111]

Ok,

I guess I'm really out of step.

After reading the group for the last hour, I see that things have changed more than I thought

FWIW, I now keep a 25 gal reef. It has a gorgonian, polyps, mushrooms and a bubble coral.

It has been going for 5 yrs.

I added fish and an anemonee 2 yrs ago; a 6 dia in. (was 4 in when I got it) long tentacled anemonee with a 3in. moroon clown (less than 1 in.), a royal gramma and a spotted hawkfish (getting too big-3in) along with a dozen snails and crabs.

The tank is one of those plastic all-in-one with the wet/dry in the back.

I feed the fish daily and let the inverts eat the water column.

I have 48W of daylight/UV flourescent, 3in. of Fl beach sand and a canister filter running carbon. I add trace elements and vitamins and change the water ocassionally.

The only animal ( except for snails and crabs) I have lost was a fire goby I tried to introduce to the tank but the the the royal chased it out onto the floor.
The gorgonian is at least 10 years old and has been in my last 3 tanks, its about to grow out of the water, although it seems to grow sideways in this tank.

So...

should I use the wet/dry on the 125 for a fish tank, or should I go with a sand bed and rock or carbon or both or what?

Thanks,

Clay

[OrionGirl]

I'm not much help when it comes to hardware advice--I do the research, my SO does hardware and maintenance.

For setting up the 125--what do you want in there? Sand beds and live rock are great biological filtration, but they work best for reef systems, because you can have the full assortment of clean up critters--shrimp, crabs, hermits, stars, worms, etc. If you're looking to get some larger fish like angels, or into some aggressive fish like triggers and puffers, the cleanup crew becomes a buffet. Not that it isn't possible, but it requires a bit more work to find compatible critters that you don't have to constantly replace.

So, if you want to set it up as a reef, you may want to upgrade lights (not sure what you have--the lighting on your 20 is pretty much bare bones for any photo synthetic critters, and the 125 is much deeper, so lighting far enough down requires more output). Sand and rock is not only efficient, it's easy--you don't have to do anything to keep it up and running, and you get the benefits of all the life that comes in on the rock.

Can't say much more without knowing what direction you want to go. By the way--congrats on the anemone. Very few people can keep one around for more than 6-12 months.

[ecr111]

Thanks for the reply.


I am going to make a fish tank out of it.

I'm thinking angels, tangs maybe a wrasse or 2 and a school of damsels with a large piece of plastic coral for the damsels to colonize. Maybe this sounds like a mistake, but I've always had reefs and don't really know how a fish tank should be set up.

I had it set up as reef before with sand, rock and a large wet dry. I had 400W of light on that.
As for the 20. 48W might not seem enough, but the inverts are happy and growing.

I guess my question is; do I need the wet/dry and sand and rock. or just the sand and rock or just the wet/dry and sand on the bottom.

I'd rather not run the wet/dry but my tank a large spill colums in the back plumbed to the wet/dry, so it may be a pain to not use it

BTW, this is the longest lived anemone I've ever had. The amazing thing is that it likes to move every once in a while and about a year ago it got to close to an intake a had the outer ring of tentacles, about half an inch, ripped off and it grew back in about 3 months.

Thanks for your help

[OrionGirl]

Well, I'd really recommend doing some research on all those fish. You have a big tank, but many angels can get to be 24 inches--and they will be cramped. There may be aggression problems with a pair in the same tank, as well. Of course, this doesn't apply to the pygmy angels--they will not outgrow your tank at all. Tangs need lots of swimming space, and only some species can be kept in groups. Damsels, contrary to their behavior in the wild, do not do well in groups. They are some of the most aggressive fish out there, and can abuse fish much larger than themselves. A school of damsels will likely beat the heck out of a tang--they compete for the same food source. Wrasses are excellent jumpers, so you'll need to make sure the tank is tightly covered.

For filtration, if you have built in overflows, then you'll want to use them. You can pull the media from the wet/dry and use it as a sump--nice place for keeping heaters and other equipment. Not a big deal, not a problem. Trying not to use it could cause a flood. If you just have the drilled holes, with no built internal overflow, you can easily cap the holes and just go with the sand and rock, with some powerheads for water circulation.