Equipment set up for 500L fish only marine aquarium

Question:

Hello,
Firstly, thank you for allowing us to see your gallery and video of how a real marine aquarium should be set up.

I am currently starting to set up my fish only (Live Rock/ Live Sand) and or Reef aquarium. The indecision is beacuse I have a liking for Angelfish.

I would appreciate it if you could recommend a hightech specification and solution for my aquarium which measures 60 X 18 X 30 inch tall.

Kind regards and thanks,
Derek

Answer:

Derek
I think your choice to go for live rock is a good one as it will cope with much of your bioload and give a structure to the tank at the same time.
I think Live sand is a bit of a con and does not really add much to your system.

After that you will need a good protein skimmer and possibly something to control your nitrates in the future such as a nitrate reactor or Bio Pellets as a lower cost but not as efficient option.

You will need to feed the fish to keep them healthy and even with a good skimmer you will still have waste which will break down to form phosphates which will cause nuisance algae blooms. Rowaphos in a phosphate reactor will keep this under control.

VOLUME
Looking at your tank you have about 500lts of water and perhaps up to 600lts if you have a sump.

SKIMMER
If there is a sump then I would go for an APF600 which is an older but iconic skimmer and suitable for tanks up to 1000 lts.
If there is no sump then you will need to look at the MCE600 which is smaller but will still be OK at 500 lts if the stocking is not too high.

PHOSPHATE
Go for 500mls of Rowaphos in either a Deltec FR509 Fluidised reactor or other reactor. Use from DAY 1 to stop build up of phosphates in the substrates.

NITRATES
NFP509P Nitrate reactor. With this ideally you will get a PP32ML peristaltic pump to feed it a constant flow rate and it will turn your tank volume over every 11 days.

Or
Nutrfix pellets in a fluidised reactor

You will also need a good salt, lighting and water flow however this is not so important with a fish only system and there is plenty to chose from

This should give you a good start. It is not necessarily high tech but is robust and will do the job for you.

Good luck
Stuart