Returning from the hobby after 10yrs off. New Questions and Confirmations

[Faralon]

Long story short...I had a FOWLR setup 10yrs ago. Since then I've gotten married, moved out of the parents house, had kids, new houses...and just this weekend got the ol' 80Gal tank, Wet/Dry, Protein Skimmer out of the parents attic, cleaned em up and ready to put them back to use as a Reef tank.

Equipment:
80 gallon tank: 48.5" wide, 25.5" tall
Amiracle Wet/Dry: 24"x12"x14" - It'll hold 17.5 gallons before it overflows.
Amiracle Protein Skimmer: 19" tall, 3" diameter



Mission: Reef
Questions:

1. From what I've read, Wet/Dry's and Reef don't play well together anymore due to the nitrate factory via the bio balls. So, judging from the pictures, do you feel that Wet/Dry can be converted fairly easily to a Refugium? I probably have access to a 20gal long tank I can convert if that would be deemed easier?

2. Protein Skimmer. Judging from what I see people using these days, this sucker looks to be a bit out dated...It still works, so I'm going to use it for now since I'm not made of money.

3. Talk to me about lighting and entry level corals / inverts to put in the tank. I love crabs/shrimp, and of course the snails/hermits to clean. What type of lighting should I need for the depth of the tank?

We'll get more involved in the future, but thats it for now!

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

-Rob

[thegrun]

1. Acrylic is easy to work with if you are handy, I would rework the sump to make it a sump/refugium.
2. The skimmer is very old school, it will function for now, but an upgrade in the future will help.
3. I'm a big LED fan. In the long run you will save money going LED, but has a big up front cost. Here is a website with some easy to care for corals that are good to start with: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/cor...5-Easy-Corals/

Good luck with the new (old) tank, i got back into the hobby myself 5 years ago after a 10 year break. Welcome to Reef Central!

[Dr Colliebreath]

I was out of the hobby for a long time also. The biggest changes in the past 10 years seem to be the availability of many good protein skimmers and in-tank powerheads for water movement rather than using a really big return pump. I have a Vortech MP40 powerhead and really like it. LEDs are another development but they are just getting going and are still pricey.

You are correct that you want to skip the wet/dry and rely on live rock and perhaps a sand bed for biological filtration.

I am using my power compacts but will be switching to leds soon. I haven't decided which ones I will use.

You should be able to convert the wet/dry to a refugium easily.

You could start with some soft corals like mushrooms and various types of polyps (green star and toadstool) and expand from there. I started down this path but added some butterflies that went after the corals, so I am limited on corals.

I have 6 shrimp - a fire shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, and 3 peppermint shrimp. I also have 2 emerald crabs but I don't see them much.

I agree that your skimmer should do for now but you can improve your skimming with an upgrade.

Good luck and enjoy.

[doctorgori]

There seems to be a few of us returning back in circulation from the 90's
...you might wanna consider swapping that skimmer out, anymore skimmers are waaay better than back in the 90's....even this below avg Reef Octopus I got blows the doors off of my "expensive" Red Sea Berlin skimmer from the 90's

here are some changes that sorta shocked the heck outta me:

Remember the Berlin System?, now its "Balling" "Balling Lite" and all sorts of German/Frenchy/Euro methods of adding "probiotics", drugs, microbes and other stuff I don't understand or can even pronounce, this is to make SPS's et get all manner of guady colors .... sorta like Lucky charms,,,, I'd say these tanks look almost tacky if I wasn't so jealous

edited to add: Algae scrubbers have gotten sophisticated; no more sumps full of caulerpra, seems they have been engineered with spray bars and CFL's to make them uber efficient: so much so that people claim skimmers aren't needed

GFO, Vodka dosing and/or Bio-pellets garner serious consideration ...I'm using both GFO and pellets and life couldn't be easier

because of the above^^^^^ its now ok to actually feed your corals

...Iodines out, Stroniums on life support and we are down to Mag, Calcium and Alkalinity ...all other additives & snake oils have been debunked by resident pHd's, engineers, chemist and other people way smarter than I am (on a personal note; I still think Reef Plus works no matter who debunks it)

...all that BULLdookie about gazzillion K's in lighting has been debunked, turns out lower K lighting does grow corals faster, so long as you don't mind brown ugly corals

.... crushed corals out, dead rock is in, so are lifeless reef tanks full of bright SPS but devoid of anything interesting thats too small to be photographed for TOTM ...seems you make 2 "islands" of rock, connect them by one bridge and keep your sand artificially white: you got TOTM

Those big arse LPS pieces you used to get for $30 back in the 90's ?(Bubble, Frogspawn, elegans, et) ...***etabout it.... expect to pay $80 +

Same goes for mushrooms ...its an outrage, as fast as they grow people flat out gouge you for them 10-20 for 2 three heads

...and those green/brown polyps...now they come in all manner of colors and got "designer" names to market them... prices are often silly

OTOH sps prices have fallen .... frags everywhere, easy to grow them also (relativley)

....acans abound, so is the varietys other brains, et

Powerheads cost $400 and do all kinds of stuff....Controllers have become cheap enuff for the avg reefer, and LED lights are uber cool and uber trendy

hope that helped
Oh P.S. Avoid mentioning you just got a Tang of any type for your 55G tank ...you would be better off wearing a siberian tiger skin to a PETA convention