Freshwater to Reef conversion, a little info / Help?

[agover]

Hi All,

Im just in the process of switching from freshwater to salt/reef. Ive been doing some research but im still a little confused.

What I have as of now:
1x38Gal Tank
1 Emperor 280 Filter
1x200w submersable heater
1x Power Compact 2x96W (1x10,000K,1xAcilite) + Moonlite Conversion Kit (got it on sale for $170cdn which looks like an ok deal)

I realize going forward im going to need I think:
1) Protein Skimmer
2) Live Rock
3) Live Sand? (maybe)
4) Sump/Refugium? (are these the same thing?, are they even needed?)
5) Power head/s

In regards to the protein skimmer Ive seen a few brands recommended, but in each case Ive also seen complaints.
So far it seems that Aqua-C and CPR BAK-PAKS seem popular, while SeaClones are not (I really dont want my apartment on fire, like one story I read).

So for protein skimmers my question is:
Which brand provides the quietest solution - I read a number of times that the bak-paks can be a little noisy, but havent seen too much on the aqua-c's.

Also for the bak-paks will a single unit handle a decently populated reef or will I need 2?

As for CPR it looks like they have a combined refugium/protein skimmer called an aquafuge which hangs on the back of the tank. Has anyone had any experiences with these?

Is there any where I can find out recommended quantities of live sand/rock for a 38g tank? I read someone recommending like 40lbs of sand and 30-50lbs of rock - is this accurate?

Finally the thing thats confusing me the most is power heads. I understand what they do, what I dont understand is the requirements. Dr. Foster's site mentions something like 4x the tank capacity per hour needs to be moved - is this accurate? If so then I should be able to pick up a 300 or so gal and it should be fine. My problem is that all the images of powerheads ive seen show the output to be a single grated pipe - yet when ive seen reef tanks in stores they tend to have a spinning head on them - is this a conversion or do I have to buy a specific type of powerhead?

Ive read through the book I bought at big al's on setting things up, but the powerhead thing really wasnt well explained.

Any suggestions/Advice?

Thanks

Adam

 

[wayne]

Good questions. From the top.
Live sand is not necessary. About the only thing you need to decide is deep bed or thin bed. As you appear likely to have a 'fuge, I would go thin bed in the main display.
Sump refugium are somewhat similar and can be the same. They are external tanks plumbed to the display. A sumps is a place to store kit and sometimes 'to do something'. A 'fuge is a place where a desired biological act takes place that you can't do in the main display. Some people have fuges as a part of the sump, others as a separate, other plumbed tank. I personally have my kit intank (no sump) but do have a fuge attached.
CPR bakpaks are quieter than remoras (or for europeans deltec mce -600's) though slightly less effective. All are nice though. You'll need a single. No idea on the aquafuge though I like the looks of the hang on fuge's.
How much sand? In weight you can find online calculaors, but I don't think you'll need tons. I would try to get some super fine oolitic or aragonite number, but we can discuss that later. How much rock depends on what sort rock.. American have a habit of using much more rock than europeans as their 'rules of thumb' are skewed by very dense rock you see. Basically if you get very light porous rock you'll need less as it works better, plus it will usually look better,

Powerheads - more is better. 4x flow for a reef is not enough, you want at least 10x, and well placed. The need is to keep water moving to supply food, remove wastes from the inverts , and also you need to keep organic debris in suspension to allow the skimmer to pick it up and remove it. I have about 20x and wish I had more. Not enough flow usually causes algal problems where crud accumulates. You don't need the spinning heads, just plenty of grunt dorected to gether to make the flow tumbling and turbulent. I would get 2 of the 300's.