15 gallon setup

[shep77]

I am loking to sstart a 15 gallon tank in an attempt to see if SW is really what I want to do. Right now I will be limited to FOWLR but need some suggestions as to what to start with. The tank itself is old and is more vertical than horizontal.

 

[laddy]

Start with live sand, live rock, a raw shrimp and an amonia test kit. Do you have any equipment as of yet (heater, filter, etc.)?

 

[shep77]

Sorry laddy, yes it is fully equipped and has been running as a FW tank for the last 2 years. I had wanted to do corals in it, but because of its age and unique size, I do not think I could find a powercompact hood that would fit resulting in me trying to build one myself. Right now it only has a low watt, lime 15 or 20 flourescent

 

[laddy]

Shep--
I believe I know what kind of 15 you speak of.....lighting would be an issue if you wanted to go with corals, that is, if you didn't want to retro fit your hood. FOWLR is a really good way to break into salt, and pretty easy if you take it slow. If I were you I'd wash the tank out before I beganI'd suggest a nice LS layer (like 2" which you can get at your local fish store, or at a mega chain), and a couple pounds of LR (more if you can afford it). Start the cycle with a piece of raw shrimp and measure for amonia after a day or two. If you run a search on this board for starting the cycle you'll no doubt get a nice thread--and more detail than I am capable of writing.

Before you add livestock you'll want to go through the initial amonia spike, followed by increase in nitrites, then an increase in nitrates. Unfortunetly during the first six weeks of the tanks life the most exciting thing is watching your levels come down

 

[bigarn]

Also be sure the tank never had anything added to it that contained copper. If it has, don't use it for saltwater... copper can be deadly to saltwater animals.

 

[shep77]

Thanks so much. No, nothing has been used in there involving copper. The tank I speak of can be found on the net but I am not sure if I am allowed to mention the company. I am also looking at maybe doing an official NANO tank so that I could also do corals and an anemone which I would really like to do.