First FOWLR tank, all help needed

bdaniel5278

bdaniel5278

New Member
Well i finally decided to try my hand at a salt water fish tank. I have a 36 gal bow front tank, as of right now i have about 25 pounds of substrate and about 26 pounds of live rock. I just added a clown fish yesterday and he seems to be doing great. The tank has been running for about 3 weeks.
My concern is with my filtration. Im using a Agueon power filter that came with the tank kit. Im just hoping this is sufficient filtration, i have seen a lot of people talking about sump systems with protein skimmers or wet/dry filters, and lots of other options. More and likely this tank will stay fowlr. So any advice on filtration will be much appreciated.
heres a couple pics



 
A

adam57

Guest
The Koralia power heads are really nice, I have four of them. They have nano evolutions. They use less electricity and have 240 gph and 425 gph. I would get at least the 425 if not and 240 to go along with it. They are slightly higher priced but look great, have a magnet to stick them wherever and work well.
 
coralman05

coralman05

Member
the power head leads to more water flow = more filtration throughout the whole tank.. if the tank starts to not look clear or starts to build up silt on the rocks its time for a power head or a bigger filter. I would say a Aqua clear 70 power filter ( good choice).. i would definitely do one of those if not both man
 
bdaniel5278

bdaniel5278

New Member
ok i got my powerhead on the way, ordered a Koralia evolution 550. So that should get my water movement better because i defn dont have enough.
 
mr. limpid

mr. limpid

Active Member
I would be more concern with cycling your tank has not cycled yet and you added a fish. You need to test your water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. when they rise and fall back to 0 then your cycle is done (it will cycle). please do not add any more fish until it done cycling and I hope your clown makes it, it is a damsel a hardy fish.
Good Luck
Also more live rock will help with filtration issue, never too much live rock.
 
bdaniel5278

bdaniel5278

New Member
well i guess if my clown dies i will blame the guy at the LFS i told him how long it had been running and what was in it, then he tested my water and said i was good, so i was just going by what he said, thought he would know more about it then i do.
hope my little guy survives the rest of the process by what your saying....
 
mr. limpid

mr. limpid

Active Member
Just remember LFS are out to sell fish, some are good guys others are questionable or don't know. Everyone on this site are hobbyist and will give good advise based on there experiences or what they have read. In saying that. you'll need test ammonia levels so that don't get to high or they will kill your clown. Not sure what test kit you use I use API, reading are thus 0; .25; .5; .75, if they go higher than .75 start doing water changes to low to about .5. Your tank will still cycle, just will take a little longer. high nitrates are less lethal then ammonia, clown should be ok during this cycle. Please do not add anything to your tank until all your readings are at 0.
Enjoy your new hobby and don't stop asking questions.
 
bdaniel5278

bdaniel5278

New Member
thanks for the advice, i do have a PH test kit, nitrate test kit and ammonia test kit, so i check the levels daily, they seem fine so far, but i wont add nothing for a month or 2. I also am keeping up my 20% water changes about every other week
 
cranberry

cranberry

Active Member
If the rock has already been established with bacteria, you may never see an actual cycle. New to you, doesn't mean it's new rock. A lot of people have been selling off rock to LFSs as they get out of the hobby, so there's a lot of established rock to be had.
 
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