New Puppy up and Running! (kinda long)

[Toooloud]

Ok so i had issues.. and had to remove my fish and corals.. had the need to seperate the two! "" Long story""



Basicly i have been running a 72 gallon reef tank, 140 pounds of live rock, 200 pounds of live sand.. Corals many too many to name and fish ( Naso tang, 2 clowns, Yellow tang, and PJ Cardinal) i understand this is what can be a heavy load when full grown.. But where all very small and only going to be in this tank for no more than 14 months, as we are buying a house and setting up a custom 300G tank.

So anyways..

Was hospitalized, and during the hospitization no one could care for the tank.. the beautifull gal im living with loves me very much and loves the fish, but what happened was i was in the hospital for a very serious heart attack.. and from what i can see she started to over feed.. and the nitrates and ammonias raised and killed the Yellow tang, What she did was she fished out my fish and took them to my LFS where they held them.. The would not take the corals.. Why i still to this day do not konw!

But what happened was the tank spend 3 1/2 weeks.. with Ammonias and Nitrates Way and above the levels on the cards, Killed everything in the tank.. and most of the live rock..

So Came out of the hospital, and had no money.. due to the TONS of meds im on now, So i was able to aquire 40 pounds of live rock, So what i have done is setup a 72 gallon tank for my Corals only, ( Friends and family felt very sad for it.. and to donated the rock and some new coral frags, " Leather toadstool, exenias, Green strip mushrooms, Green Hairy mushroom, green stars and polps.. ) and 120 pounds of sand, Seeded from a 5 year old tank.

So this is what i have now amd looking for assistance..
-------------------------

Fish only tank.

Becosue i do not have the live rock to support my tank with Fish and Corals.. I am running a 90 gallon tank(48x18x24) with a Eheim canester filter.. now with the filter its being cleaned out every Sunday and Thursday.. and am able to maintain a 10ppm for nitrates and everything eles is ...

Ammonia 0, Nitites 0 , Ph 8.2 , SG 1.024, Phosphates 0 , Silicates 0, Cal 420, DKH 12 ,

the tank is running with about 40 pounds of Lava rock, that will be used for a fresh water tank once i get 150 pounds of live rock in about 8 months or so.. and running a Bare bottom ( easy to clean, and pick up uneatten foods )
Lighting is 2x 40 watt NO's one Actinc and 1 10k..

Fish are.. 5 inch Naso tang, 2 percula clowns, 1 PJ Cardinal and a Green Chromis
Circulation is Surge 6000 ( 870GPH @ Zero head) going to run a 40 inch 3/4 inch PVC pipe as a Spray Bar. and a 150 watt Heater


and The Coral Tank
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Running a 72 gallon (48x18x18), With a 65 Gallon Sump, and a 10 gallon Refuge that is full of Micro Algae(grape Calupra)

This tank has now , 45 pounds of live rock (premium Fugi) , 120 pounds of Crushed coral substrate.
Filtration is the 65 gallon sump, using a corner overflow with a 2 inch drain hole and im using a Little Giant 4MDQSC ( giving me about 800GPH ), 150 watt heater.

Ligthing for this tank is, 3x 175 watt metal halides all ushio 6500k bulbs. 2x 48 inch 40 watt Actinics, and 2x 36 inch 30 watt 10k Bulbs.. For a total of 665 watts of lighting @ 9.24 WPG, I do have 2 4 inch Fans installed into the canopy one blowing in and one blowing out.. with full alluminm reflectors.


QUESTIONS
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(1) what kind of clean up crew should i be running? Im looking at about 20 snails and 20 hermits in each tank .. So when i get all the live rock over the next 8 or so months then i will have 40 of each in the one tank..

(2) Can anyone see any issues with Running a Barebottom tank?

Will post Pictures of the progress soo far!

The new 90 gallon fish only tank, Still settling..

http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/540/1169shot1-med.jpg
The 90 gallon, Its housing some live rock while it get the plumbing done in the 72 gallon reef tank..
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/540/1169shot2-med.jpg


and the 72 gallon coral tank, Needs to be cleaned still. :)
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169tank_72g_.jpg
My custom overflow box, tank is painted on the back with Latex paint.. ( this way i can peel it off and change the color when i want to.. )
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169overflow2-med.jpg

And the overflow hole, ( 2 inch )
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169overflow.jpg

And will post more pictures as i go.. with the installed Sump and plumbing!

[OrionGirl]

If I understand right, the corals are in a tank by themselves? If so, you could cut the total number of snails and crabs in there--shouldn't be as much debris. Not a big deal, but you will need to supplement the food for these guys, I am guessing. The fish would be fine with that number, easily.

Bare botton tanks are really easily cleaned. You will need to do more water changes to control nitrates, but monitor it and just change as needed.

Glad you're back on your feet. It's scary when things like that happen.

[Toooloud]

Yea things are getting better.. and they are much better now..

I do have Small Bi-Color Blenny in the coral tank, and yes im just running corals becouse i do not have the biological filtration just yet for fish and coral..

I do feed the tank a blender mush, to ensure the corals are getting the foods. they require..

here are the updated pics.

Ok so here is the 90 Gallon fish only tank up and running..



http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169fofinal.jpg

The its bare under the tank now, thats where i use to keep the Sump system when i had the 72G reef going..
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169fofinal2-med.jpg

And here is a shot From under the tank. :) Right now there is some rock in the tank, Just becouse i dont have the 72 up and running yet.. still working on it..
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/1169undershot-med.jpg

And then here we go with the 72 i just started it!
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/photos/data/1/116972g-med.jpg