Plant tank to Reef tank?

[whitedove359]

Hi everybody.
I from Michigan Aquatic Plant Group. This is / was my tank...150 Project :-) - Michigan Aquatic Plant Group

I already tore it down and I want to start over. However, I am sick of freshwater tanks. And keeping live plants. It gets boreing after doing it for two years. No one every walks into someones house and is like "wow, I like your plant tank with your Cardinal Tetras!" People dont get too exited with they see even some of the most beautiful freshwater tanks. But when they see a reef tank...there eyes get huge, and automaticly people seem to respect and listen to people more when they say they have a salt-water set up because people automaticly tend to think that just because you have salt-water, your the guy they will listen to when your just some employer in the fish department at petsmart (me). anways sorry for the little rant.

I already emptied my tank of the fish and water. I want to clean it all really well. I got tired of battleing Cyano Bacteria. It was my fault though because in recent months I got lazy, So I stoped doing my weekly 50% water changes, stoped fertilizeing the plants, never replaced my light bulbs after a year, stoped testing my water...yea, I kind of let the tank go...

So, yes, I want to convert this tank into a reef tank. I already put 6 grand in to the tank when it was just a Discus Planted tank. I think I already have most of the stuff I need for the tank, but I could be wrong, So tell me what else I need. I already know I need to buy a proteen Skimmer. And I dont know the kind of bulbs I need either.

150 Gallon
3 sunpod DE metal halides 150 watt each (what kalvins do I need?)
20 LBS CO2 Tank
Factory drilled overflow
Berlin sump
Fluvl E-heater
pH Controller
25 Watt Aqua Step UV Sterliser

Am I corect in asumeing that it should not be all too dificult to convert this tank?


some "plans" I have for the tank are... obviously its going to be a reef. But I want it to be also "low-matainence" (If there is such a thing (which there isent) in this hobby). I am not planing on makeing this tank good enough to be in an aquascapeing contest or anything like that. I have a busy life with Church, Work at Petsmart, College, and 2 Corn Snakes as it is.

To be honest, I kind of already know some of the fish I want. Ever since I was little going to the Rain Forest Cafe I have always liked the those Yellow Tang, and ever since Finding Nemo came out, I have always liked clownfish. HOWEVER, I DISLIKED THAT MOVIE. DID NOT MUCH CARE FOR IT. I JUST THOUGHT THE NEMO FISH (clown) LOOKED AWSOME. But, Yes, I want some clown fish. sevel differnt species actualy. I am looking at wanting a total of more than 5 fish in the tank, but less then 10. I like some of the cool shrimp too. Im sorry I dont know the names of these animals completly yet, or anything about Corals, But I plan to learn. No matter what, I need to save my money and sell off my driftwood and flourite gravel to people. Im hopeing I wont have to spend no more then $500. I Want to be paitent with the tank, and not start seting it up until about October (with out fish still) (asumeing I still to go through with it).

These are pictures of my tank with the 14k bulbs..I dont know about you, but I just think it looks awful...the tnak is bare bottom right now (with freshwater)
Im not sure if others would agree but isent this tank bad? I feel like everyone is saying get 14 K bulbs get 20 K bubls..and others say 10 K bulbs are whiter and make the corals grow faster but the higher the kalvin the healthier the corals...I dont have room to put other lights in the canopy because the Halides take up so much room...
Does anybody else think I should look for a halide bulb that is in between 10 and 14 K? or should I wait until I have the tank filled with coral and live rock and stuff, then should I decide? will seting up the rest of the tank make a differnce in how the light looks? I dont know. I just thought I would get peoples opinion...
I just think it makes the water look poluted and its an eye soar in the room because the lighting is so differnt. to put things in perspective...this is a 6 foot 150 gallon tank, and the ceiling is 8 feet high. as you see, its from the ground up, and almost touches the ceiling. That is a 52 inch TV in the room...just to put things in perspective. This is in a basement.
The last pic wil be with the tank was with live plants. that way you can see the kind of lighting differnce this makes as a perspective thing for you..I just think the 14 K is too much. or , it could be im just not used to it...h btw...the bulbs when it was a plant tank were 6700K

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/lighting-help-151135.html

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/SDC10584.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/SDC10579.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/SDC10578.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/SDC10577.jpg

its a black backround btw

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/DSCN0300.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/IMG_5182.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/IMG_5562.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/IMG_5568.jpg

http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo313/coralife205/IMG_5531.jpg

[MizTanks]

Hi Whitedove! Your in for a real treat here at CR!

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Welcome to CR. I bet you won't be bored with SW in two years! If/when you have questions don't hesitate to ask... that's what we're here for.

What are your stocking plans for the tank?


Tom

[whitedove359]

wow thats unfortunet, everything I typed never got posted....

[jimsflies]

Did you copy and paste it from msword? If so, there is a bug with vbulletin with the character symbols used in word. Copy and pasting apostrphes and quotes almost always cut off the post. The best way, assuming that is what happened, is to email it to yourself as a plain text email which should remove the quotes and apostrophes (a few other symbols also cause issues too). Then repaste it here...you should be able to edit your post above to correct it.

Sorry about the problems, I have been searching for a better solution for nearly 10 months and haven't found one yet. There is a couple new versions of vbulletin available now and we will be upgrading. I'm holding out hope that this issue may be resolved with one of the updates to the forum software itself.

[whitedove359]

jimsflies, are you the Admin for the whole site? You sound like it. I copyed and pasted from another forum(s) from post. I figure my best bet to learn is to join multiple forums and ask the same information and copy and past everyting that way I can reach a wider range of people and everybody knows the same thing. I coppied my post from Michigan Reefers and The Reef Tank forums.

[cg5071]

with all that equipment already you are 1/2 or more on your way. lol. alot of people would say that is the blue you want your reef tank to look like, or close. being used to 6700k it will look strange to you. but a 10k light even looks very yellow on a reef tank, not very pretty. exactly like you said above there are reasons for peoples color choices in lighting. it may depend on what you want to keep coral wise also that will make some of the decisions for you.

welcome and i like your FW tank alot :)

[whitedove359]

Thanks. I just got back from the store and put a depostie down on a custom made sump...only 140 bucks for the entire thing. and its glass... 45 inches long, 16 high, and 14 wide....however, the skimmer im buying of craigs list...125 bucks... is called an SWC 200 Skimmer. I was wondering if anyone on here knows the dimensions of that. I emaild the guy, but waiting a responce. I need to call the store back in so I can give them the dimensions of the skimmer so they can modify the sump chambers / or hight, if necisary.

[jimsflies]

jimsflies, are you the Admin for the whole site? You sound like it. I copied and pasted from another forum(s) from post. I figure my best bet to learn is to join multiple forums and ask the same information and copy and past everything that way I can reach a wider range of people and everybody knows the same thing. I copied my post from Michigan Reefers and The Reef Tank forums.

Yes, that would be me.

Out of curiosity, was the original post you made on the other sites typed in MS Word? The special characters don't always cause an issue, and sometimes won't cause an issue until the post is edited again. (I know cause I have put together a lot of the feature articles on the site and deal with it all the time.) I moved your thread to the Reef Discussion forum rather than the meet and greet forum...I'm wondering if that might have caused the MS Word symbol issue to trigger.


By the way, welcome to CR. You have a welcome thread here (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9341) that looks like you might not of have seen yet.

[whitedove359]

Sorry i forgot about where the thread was. I have no idea what MS Word is.

[Sir Patrick]

The SWC 200 should be 14"x9" and 21" tall. As long as it fits in your sump, you should be very happy with that skimmer! Does it come with a pump?? That skimmer retails around $300 new w/ the pump- Sicce PSK-2500 pump.

Looks like you are off to a great start already. When ya get this tank up and running- you will never look back!

[Sir Patrick]

Cyno bacteria....hate to bust your bubble, but-

Cyno is the STD of saltwater!! Yeah- we have it here too....but there are ways to battle it! Looking forward to helping out with your transition! I made the transition about 12 years ago- and have never looked back.

[whitedove359]

Ive herd that the cyano in a reef tank is actualy a good thing....

wow so that skimmer really is good? Im only getting it for 125$ off of craigs list.....Is the skimmer top of the line or at least near the top of the line? Just curious...would it be benificial to have more than one skimmer on a tank? How important wil a calcium reactor be? i already have the co2 tank and regulator and ph controller (though i have no idea how that relates to a clacium reactor i just do). Is the calcium reactor something i must get BEFORE I set up the tank...I also have a UV sterilizer...the only thing is i need to replace the bulb..but I have herd you dont want a UV sterlizer on a reef tank...(to be honest, I havent felt like they have done anything for me....)

[cg5071]

you dont NEED a calcium reactor right away. it may be a good thing to think about for the future and where you would place it in your stand. those would come into play more if you wanted to grow alot of stoney corals. with just a few, you can meet your calcium needs just with waterchanges.

2 skimmers wont be needed.

i leave a little cyano in my tank (or dont worry about it) in the not so visible areas. i dont know that it is good for anything.

most people dont use uv but they can be usefull i guess. but they do kill good stuff along with the bad so if you arent trying to clear your water up you should be ok without.

[XSiVE]

Very nice planted tank, I like how you had it set up.

As for the Cyano, If you keep your calcium and alkalinity levels in check and have a decent amount of water flow, say, somewhere around 20x tank volume per hour or more then you probably won't have any issues with Cyano in a reef.

Unless you're going into serious stony corals, I would suggest using a 2-part dosing system over the calcium reactor.. it's kind of overkill for someone beginning with reefs and it will definitely add to your costs.

[whitedove359]

whats a 2-part dosing system?

So your suggesting I dont get the calcium reactor, at least I don thave to unless my tank is all set up and running after a while?

[cephalotus]

The 14ks look good I run 20ks. But the sump is kinda small I would go larger or add a refugium and loose the sterilizer. Buy lots of test kits and decide later if a reactor is needed.I love the old discus tank, discus are probably as hard to keep long term as most marine fish your off to a good start. Good luck we are all here for you.

[whitedove359]

Im selling the sump back to the store.. I bought a custom made. 45 inches long, 14 wide and 16 high. I am getting a swc 200 skimmer from craigs list.