Bob replies...

Dear Elizardo,

I'm saddened to hear about the loss of your aquarium inhabitants. Have also heard about other losses from a few other hobbyists spread throughout the southern portion of this country due to these hurricanes. In fact, over the past twenty years have experienced so many power outages in my area that when I built my office on the back of our home a few years ago, added a solar and wind generated powered system. It was large enough to run the aquarium's important equipment and if needed the refrigerator, TV, and some house lights. It has come in handy on several occasions! It has reduced my power outage worries, and your generator will do the same.

As for your questions, the plenum and the shallow bed and rock in the main system should adequately handle the biologically aspects of your new system. In fact, if you visit my website (saltcorner.com) and view my 180 system, it had a 60 gallon interconnected plenum system below it. It worked well!

When it comes to calcium reactors, have tried several different brands and have found those containing the most media and/or having duel reactors have worked the best for me. I've also found that either

CaribSea ARM or the German KORALlith the best media to use. And where calcium reactors are concerned, the 'trick' with these reactors is to find what CO2 bubble rate at what effluent drip rate produces an alkalinity effluent rate about 3 times greater than the aquariums desired alkalinity. Then stick with that bubble and drip rate, occasionally measuring it and tweaking as needed. As for brand names, I would suggest the Mini-Cal from Marine Technical Concepts, as that was the only brand that consistently did well, and I tried many different brands.

Both the UV sterilizer and ozonizer are not what I would call necessary equipment. They do provide a degree of insurance if that's the right word. They are nice to have, as is insurance, if something goes wrong. And if you can afford them, then have them, but suggest holding back using the UV unless there is signs of disease, as it will reduce valuable microorganisms that can serve as a useful foodstuff for your corals. Where the ozonizer is concerned, it's a useful way of maintaining good water quality/high Redox/ORP level, i.e., near 400. However, I suggest not using more than 5 mg/hr of ozone per 25 gallons of flow rate. Any amount up to 5 mg/hr of ozone can enhance foam production. Higher amounts of ozone oxidize the very organic material the skimmer is designed to remove thereby short-circuiting the adsorption process. I have a small inexpensive booklet on the subject that is listed on my website if that interests you.

You will need to improve your lighting and depending on just what coral species you plan on maintaining, wattage will have to at least double. Energy Savers has some new lighting systems with built-in moonlights that are quite interesting. Also, you may want to contact the folks at Sunlight Supply and discuss your needs with them as they have a personalized and friendly demeanor that you may find very helpful.

As for increasing the capability of your skimming, if you're satisfied with the present model skimmer, another placed at the opposite end of the aquarium should suffice. However, if you want to move to one unit, then the model type noted would be a good way to go. Suggest contacting Jason Kim, the owner and discussing your needs and the space where it will be placed. Also, if this is the model type you select, get the John Guess fitting placed on the unit. It's the perfect fitting to hook the drip line from your calcium reactor to so as to blow off any excess CO2/help increase the pH of the water returning from reactor.

When it comes to live rock, I generally recommend nothing more than about one pound per gallon. If the rock has been live, and is now simply dead, I would first place it all in a plastic garbage container and allow it to cycle for a week to ten days so any excess dead organic matter can be reduced before going back into a new aquarium. As for new rock, the flow into the country continues to change daily, so I prefer not to recommend any sources. If there's no local shops, then search the web for a place that guarantees their products.

My chiller was an Aqua Logic 1/4 hp drop in, and it functioned perfectly for my 180 + 60 gallon system. So you should be okay there.

When it comes to phosphate and silica removal, there are several brands that I have personally used. They are ROWAphos from Germany, Phosban from Two Little Fishes, Phosphate + Silicate Magnet from Marc Weiss Companies and most recently a liquid two-part product from CaribSea called Phos-Buster. All have worked exceptionally well. The first three products are a fine granulated media and needs, in my opinion, to be used in a dedicated canister filter. I used a Fluval model that had three internal baskets. I filled the lower basket with activated carbon, in a sack of course, and also cut up a Poly-Filter into small pieces. That filled the first basket. In the middle basket I placed a layer of filter fluff and spread about five tablespoons of any of these ferric hydroxide phosphate removing materials (iron-based products). Then cover the media with another shallow layer of filter fluff. Then did the same in the top basket, and then changed the media when the first sign of any phosphate reading appeared on the test kit. That worked well for me. Recently, I tested the CaribSea product, and that also worked quite well. In my opinion, the ROWAphos was the best of all four, however, quite expensive. Any would really do!

If the water in the old tank is stagnate I would not use any of its sand or rock until it is thoroughly cleaned and recycled. You can do so by placing it all in a container as explained above. Stir the sand in this container daily and use a powerhead to move the water in the container. After about ten days, both should be reusable.

And keep in mind, both frogspawn and elegance corals are medium light, medium current corals

I hope this helps, and keep me posted.

Bob