Finally made the jump!

[Hatonhed]

As the title says I made the jump lol. I placed an order to get the 46 going. I'm asking for opinions on this one. I have a 46 bowfront. Odyssea 4 bulb t5ho with two 6500, a blue plus, and a purple plus. ( another blue plus and possible a coral plus soon to come to replace the 6500) Two hydor koralia evo 850gph pumps. A single aqueon heater, will be upgraded to two smaller ones later on. 50 lbs dry rock to be seeded with 5-10 lbs of live from the LFS. 40-50lbs sand. I have a fluval 306 canister, Should I even run this? Also I will be adding a skimmer later on as funds allow. I was looking at an aquac remora hob. So does anyone see any majors flaws in this setup? Thoughts? Ideas? I'm
Too excited for my own good right now lol

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Moe_K]

Hey Bill.
Looks pretty good so far.
You probably won't want to run the cannister filter, but it's good to have around in case you ever need a quick filtering of the water.
Something goes wrong and you may want to run carbon in there.

You will need a very good protein skimmer. I don't know that brand or model you posted. Many people run Octopus skimmers.

What are your goals, a garden style reef tank with a little of everything, or just specializing in SPS or LPS corals?

 

[frank180reef]

Agree with Moe,u don't Need the canister but do want a good skimmer

 

[Hatonhed]

I plan to start fowlr and eventually add a few soft Corals and maybe some very basic hard corals. Is it safe to say that it's ok to get this tank going as is? It may be a few months before I can see a skimmer and I don't want to doom myself from the start!

 

[Hatonhed]

What model octopus would you recommend for my setup?

 

[Moe_K]

I plan to start fowlr and eventually add a few soft Corals and maybe some very basic hard corals. Is it safe to say that it's ok to get this tank going as is? It may be a few months before I can see a skimmer and I don't want to doom myself from the start!

Yeah, you can start the tank as you've described. You're looking at 6-8 weeks of cycling time, right? No need to add any fish in this period. Just let the microbes work. The canister filter might be a help in running carbon as you go.
When the ammonia drops, followed by a nitrite drop, followed by your nitrates dropping off, then you're ready. Add the skimmer as soon as you can, and remove the canister. When the cycle is complete you can begin adding your fish and easy coral. See how it goes. Use the cycling time to really plan out your fish list, and figure out which on that list are the most timid. Add the most timid first. Lastly add your reef bullies. Planning is key here, so you don't have to pull one of the early added aggressive fish to add a more wimpy fish.

Learn from my mistakes. Heheh.

 

[Moe_K]

What model octopus would you recommend for my setup?

Anyone have a skimmer recommendation for his 46 gallon tank?

Bill, are you running a sump? I'd guess not, since you want a HOB skimmer.

Back when I did my 55 in 2000, I used the CPR Bakpak II. It was decent. I don't even know if they make those anymore.

 

[Hatonhed]

I went ahead and ordered the reef octopus bh100 skimmer. And to answer your question yes, very very slow stock after the initial cycle. After the cycle completes I plan to add a very small cuc and wait a while before adding the first fish.