looking to start a reef tank out of a 60 gal hexagon tank?

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fox3794

fox3794

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 26, 2009
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norton, ma
a few months ago i took down my freshwater set up in the 60 gallon tank, and am thinking of starting to get into salt water and ultimately having a self sustainable reef.

so im fairly new to salt water, and basically the only equipment i have for this project so far are the tank and stand. the light is certainly not strong enough, and i am wondering what would be a good light to use for corals/anemone? will the tank be too deep to grow the corals with, or would a t5 be sufficient? also what would be good starter corals/anemones?

as for protien skimmers i am quite clueless as to what kind is necessary for a 60 gal, and is there any other equipment i would need?

also for filtration, i see on youtube that many people with reef tanks have a sump set up, are canister filters not ment for a reef tank? sorry if thats a stupid question, i would like to set up a sump, but i am not too familiar with them, and have never used one. any information as to why people use them and how to set one up would be much appreciated!

if i left out any important things for setting up a new saltwater tank please let me know!

thanks,
drew:nilly:
 
T-5 will be fine for Soft corals and most sps corals - HOB protein skimmers will be hard to find for hex tanks however with a sump it will be no problem to fit one inside it. Sump - more room for mechanical + granular filtration need to scrub the water in a reef environment - also ease of access to these equipment's.

Good starter corals - mushrooms good, starter anemones BTA ( bubble tip)
 
sweet thanks for the help, im going with a sump made out of a 20 long, is it likely that a 60 gal. hexagon tank would have tempered glass? ive read only non-tempered glass can be drilled?
 
I personally prefer the use of HOB overflows rather than having a tank drilled. Drilling it almost always reduces the value of the aquarium when you go to sell it later down the road. Eshopps is a solid brand for HOB overflows, not to mention their prices are hard to beat. Make sure you don't buy a overflow that requires some sort of pump to keep air out of the U pipes, like CPR ones. Reason being when the included Aqualifter pump fails air will collect in the U pipes and eventually stopping the siphon, thus causing your tank to overflow from your return pump continuing to pump water into your tank.
 
Amaroq said:
I personally prefer the use of HOB overflows rather than having a tank drilled. Drilling it almost always reduces the value of the aquarium when you go to sell it later down the road. Eshopps is a solid brand for HOB overflows, not to mention their prices are hard to beat. Make sure you don't buy a overflow that requires some sort of pump to keep air out of the U pipes, like CPR ones. Reason being when the included Aqualifter pump fails air will collect in the U pipes and eventually stopping the siphon, thus causing your tank to overflow from your return pump continuing to pump water into your tank.
Click to expand...

I would have to agree actually, that makes sense. I have an eshopps PF-300 and it's great. The only upside to having a drilled overflow Is that you don't have to worry about the syphon breaking which could cause in a few gallons of water on your floor.


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