New FOWLR Tank Setup - Help Greatly Appreciated

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Nokraden

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Jun 8, 2004
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Murfreesboro, TN
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Hey everyone. I am new to the boards, but I hope to be here for a long time and eventually contribute. But today I am a consumer. Me and my wife are setting up our first saltwater tank. We have just completed the wet run and are in the process of making RO water (Kent Marine Deluxe Maxxima 35 Hi-S) to begin filling the tank.

Here is our current setup:
90 Gallon Tank (48" x 18" x 24")
Eheim 2217 Canister Filter (264 gph)
2 200W Tronic Heaters
2 Maxi-Jet 1200 294 GPH Powerheads

We are thinking about adding the following, but would like to run it by anyone here who knows more then me(I would say basically everyone):

Select Lalo Live Rock 30 lbs
Tonga Branch Live Rock 24 lbs
Select Fiji Premium Rock 45 lbs
Florida Crushed Coral 40 lbs
Indo-Pacific Black Sand 20 lbs
Bermuda Pink Sand 20 lbs.

We were going to use the live rock to cycle the tank since some of it will be uncured when we get it. Once the rock cycles we are planning on adding the cleaner crews.

To control detritus we are planning on adding
3 - Fancy Serpent Sea Star, Tiger-striped
3 - Sand Sifting Sea Star
4 - Sea Cucumber, Tiger Tail

To control algae we are planning on adding
25 - Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
45 - SW - Turbo Snails
65 - Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab
2 - Peppermint Shrimp

And then finally after many weeks of torture we are planning on adding our fish(one at a time of course). Here is the list of fish we are currently planning on keeping:

2 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Coral Beauty, Dusky Angelfish
3 Green Clown Goby
2 Royal Gramma, Fairy Basslet
1 Yellow Tang

Does anyone see any major problems with the system? Also, we were wondering what order would be best to introduce the fish in.

We are planning on taking each step very slowly. The entire process is amazingly fun just by itself. Who knew watching RO water drip out could be fun...LOL Thanks for any help you can give.
 
To control detritus we are planning on adding
3 - Fancy Serpent Sea Star, Tiger-striped
3 - Sand Sifting Sea Star
4 - Sea Cucumber, Tiger Tail

All of those better match a deep sand bed, which 40 lbs of coral and 40 lbs of sand will not get you in a 90 gallon. You only want 1 sand sifting star per 100 gallons of tank also... A deep sand bed would render your cannister filter redundant, and I stopped researching cucumbers when I found out that a dying cucumber can release sufficient toxins to wipe out the rest of the tank. Nothing wrong with the serpent stars, though, as long as you target feed them from time to time. On the whole, crushed coral isn't something that you want a lot of, for two reasons: it traps detritus particles easily (raising ammonia and nitrates) and a fair amount comes from people destroying reefs to make it.

Besides all that, hermits and several snails will take care of detritus.

To control algae we are planning on adding
25 - Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
45 - SW - Turbo Snails
65 - Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab
2 - Peppermint Shrimp

I'd personally suggest fewer hermits and a greater variety of snails. Ceriths/bahas, nassarius, nerite, etc. However, I haven't read as much about shallow crushed coral bottoms such as you want to use. They've apparently fallen rather out of favor in recent years.

2 royal grammas, unless you are absolutely certain they are a mated pair, may try to kill each other. Otherwise, add the gobies and gramma first, followed by the clownfish, tang, and angelfish in that order. (Least aggressive to most.)

I'm sure that others will have more to add...
 
Alright. I am so glad I posted here before I got too far into things. Thanks for the information. I have already made what looks to be two costly mistakes....
I bought the RO unit for $250 and then after reading the boards found out that the $90 one off ebay is a better option.
I am going to go read on Deep Sand Beds some more, but I really would hate to have wasted money on the canister filter (It has already been opened and run for a few days during my wet run) I do think the sand looks nicer though...so I may have to think about it.

Ok, the cucumbers are out since I was not a huge fan of their look anyway. I got my cleaning crew quantities from a website that sells them. The reason I was going with the package was because I was not sure of the quantity of stars, snail, shrimp, and crabs needed to clean the tank effectively and thought the package might have been easier. There were quite a few different snail and crabs that I liked a lot more than the hermits and so I will do some research and create my own package.
 
Nokraden,

This is the package I had been going to buy for my 45 gallon that is cycling, but it looks like it's discontinued now, so I'll be making a similar one from scratch:

10 Nassarius Snails, 10 Astrea (turbo) Snails, 10 Cerith Snails, 5 Mexican Turbo Snails (xl), 10 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs, 10 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs, 10 Dwarf Red Tip or Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crabs, 3 Peppermint Shrimps

I'll probably trade the Mexican turbos for a few extra turbos and ceriths. I might add a serpent star to the package too.
 
Select Lalo Live Rock 30 lbs
Tonga Branch Live Rock 24 lbs
Select Fiji Premium Rock 45 lbs
Florida Crushed Coral 40 lbs
Indo-Pacific Black Sand 20 lbs
Bermuda Pink Sand 20 lbs.

Hello, I'll just add a little. I wouldn't go for the black sand lots of time it's volcanic and you really don't want all those trace elements going into your water. I don't know if price is an issue for you or not but as far as the sand goes I'd just use play sand from home depot or wal mart. If you can get white arogonite "sp" play sand do it will help buffer your water a little. also as to the live rock personally I'd just get enough of the pretty stuff to cover up some cheap old calcium based porus base rock. You can't see it anyway and it will eventually become live rock anyway especially if you add it during the cycle.
hth
chris
 
Thanks for all of the advice!!!

Well after reading I have decided to forgoe the other substrate and go with sand only. Locally we do not have the good sand so I got a play sand recommended ont he boards. I added 100 lbs of it to the tank. And finally after 3 days it is almost clear again...LOL I am also planning on getting about 25 lbs of live sand to go with the regular to give me about 2.5 - 3 inches of sand.

As for the live rock the only store we have here sells base rock at $5.99/lb and premium rock for like $10.99/lb. I saw online I can get all premium live rock for $4.00/lb including shipping. So I figure why not get all good stuff.

We are waiting for the tank to settle and stabalize and then we are going to start the cycling with ammonia. I just can't stand the idea of smelly shrimp for a week. As soon as that is ready we will add our live rock and sand.

Then I am going to work on my cleaner crew. I will probably model it after yours maxilaria since I like the thought of diversity of the species.

One more question, for my tank size are the fish I listed going to be too crowded. I have read so many figures on how much fish per tank that it gets confusing.
 
Nokraden, you want at least 3" of sand across the whole bottom. It is possible that adding livesand and live rock will push you up to 3", but if you don't have enough depth, you might not get rid of Nitrates very quickly, which could eventually become a problem.

I loathe the smell of seafood and stagnant water, and I never noticed the smell of the cocktail shrimp at all. I don't think ther's any harm in using ammonia, though.

I'm still a little shaky on how many fish is too many, myself, so somebody else can answer that.
 
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