25-30 gallon reef tank.......

[spyder9669]

hi everyone. i want to start a 25-30 gallon reef tank for my daughter. she loves nemo so i plan on having 1 or 2 clownfish and whatever the blue fish is from the movie i'm still trying to figure that out.............so anyway i only have experience with freshwater fish so if anyone can give me a good idea on where to go with this that would be great. what all do i need to make this thing work?? thanks for the help!!

 

[equalizer]

Hi,
You can get the clowns but the regal tang is not going to work in a tank that small.
Clowns will be enough IMO for a tank that size.

 

[capschamp]

instead of the tang which would need a large tank for the swimming room they require, you can get jaques, the cleaner shrimp that is in the tank at the dentists office. mine was lively and active before he died

But before you start: search this site for cycling the tank,
you will probably want about 20-40 pounds of live rock, if you are going to use tap water you will have algae problems down the road, also do a search on protein skimmers, you will need one of those. you will also need test kits for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and ph. most of all be patient. your daughter will pester you cause its gonna take a couple weeks for your tank to cycle before you can put livestock in. not a cheap hobby thats for sure, but its fun
there are lots of "experts" here, and all are very detailed at how there experiences have helped them and others. Use what works best for you after reviewing the opinions.

 

[ivanfj]

I would suggest you go as big of a tank as you can afford. Give yourself a starting budget and see what's the biggest tank you can get out of the budget. Equipment wise, if this is reef tank, you need to really look into lighting and protein skimmer. These two I would suggest you spend a lot of time doing research on b/c you may want them to be an one-time investment instead of having to upgrade in the future. Liverock and livesand are also important, but you can get away with half base rock and half liverock, and also half livesand and half dead sand, so that way you save a few bucks here and there.

 

[greatfullreefer]

I have to agree, a Blue Tang (Dori) needs a minimum of a 125 gallon tank.

 

[steveoutla]

A little piece of advice.......don't do a 30 gallon. I would do a minimum of a 75g. I made the mistake of getting a 30g thinking it would be great for the kids. Within 2 months I had a 55g and a 30g because I thought 55g would be enough. Now I'm making plans for a 90g so I can get all of the fish that I want.
I am also going to make another suggestion. DON'T listen to a local fish store. Research a reef tank on here to make sure you get the right filtration. It will be more expensive to start but it will be a lot cheaper than all of your corals and fish dying.

 

[dacia]

I have a 30 gallon reef. It is working beautifully. I have button polyps, mushrooms, star polyps, lots of inverts, 1 tomato clown, and 2 blue chromis. Here is what I did to get it started:
1. Start with the tank only. Add sand and then water with salt solution. The sand will settle after a week (before then it looks like a sandstorm that you can't see through).
2. Add a heater, protein skimmer, your filter of choice, and a couple of powerheads. Don't forget to choose PC, VHO, or MH lights if you want corals. For just fish, the lights that come with the tank are fine.
3. Add live rock. For a 30 gallon reef, you must have at least 30 pounds of LR.
4. Cycle the tank. I use pure ammonia to do this. It generates all the good bacteria without hurting any fish or stinking up the room with cocktail shrimp. My 30 gallon reef cycled completely in a week doing this. Be sure to test the water daily. Also, even if the water appears normal (cycled) one day, test daily at least a week afterwards to be sure there will be no spikes. DO NOT add additives to the water during the cycle as this can slow it down.
5. Add cleaner crew (inverts). I have a serpent star, cleaner shrimp, fighting conch, emerald crab, and tons of snails. These will keep your tank clean of debris from fish and their food, but add them before fish to reduce algae, diatoms, etc.
6. Add fish slowly. 2 clowns for a 30 is great, and I would caution on getting more than that. Maybe something small like a lawnmower blenny or firefish. BUT, definitely NOT Dory. Too small of a tank for her.
7. If you want, you can add some corals, sponges, etc. Sponges don't need special lights, but corals do...so do research on every specimen you concider.
For a tank of that size, I recommend an HOB skimmer like the CPR Bak Pak 2 or the AquaC Remora. I have the CPR, and I put the heater inside. My filter is just a cheap HOB that I use with carbon, phosphate & silicate magnets. It works rather well. I use Maxi-Jet 900 powerheads. Be sure NOT to have them spray bubbles in the tank. In FW, these bubbles are pretty, but in SW they can cause disaster with certain things such as sponges. I also used 2-3 inches of sand as substrate. Snails, conchs, other things crawl around in the sand and make your system complete.
The most important thing you need? PATIENCE. Don't ever rush a reef. It always leads to disaster. Good luck!

 

[spyder9669]

thanks for the input everyone! i'm going to be bumping it up to 125 gallon. i was going to do this in the future, but i'm going to do it now so i can have a better selection of fish. i am wondering how safe it is to buy fish from this website?? how do the fish survive when being shipped from florida to a colder climate like PA??

 

[big911dog]

sweet. bumping it from a 30 to a 125....wanna adopt me?

i'll promise to clean the tank and walk the fish dad!
Dacia had some good advice. I'll RESPECTFULLY disagree on one point. put the LR in BEFORE the LS. having the LR directly on the bottom prevents problems down the road should you later choose a digging critter like an engineer goby. I didn't use ammonia. I found the dieoff from the LR was plenty to cycle the tank.
good luck with the new family project and Welcome to the BOards!

 

[cadbury]

Never fear, the Tang police is always near..........

 

[robchuck]

Originally posted by spyder9669
thanks for the input everyone! i'm going to be bumping it up to 125 gallon. i was going to do this in the future, but i'm going to do it now so i can have a better selection of fish. i am wondering how safe it is to buy fish from this website?? how do the fish survive when being shipped from florida to a colder climate like PA??
That's the spirit!!!
Regarding your question about having fish shipped to a colder climate: swf.com is about the best in the business at packing their livestock so that it is prepared to handle being transported in various climates using heat packs or ice packs. I have placed several orders shipped to the midwest with our host in December and January and received healthy livestock each time.

 

[jacknjill]

dacia
what did you mean when you said you just dumped pure ammonia in? do you mean like you bought it in a bottle at the store or some thing? just wondering because me and my dad are getting ready to start a tank and im having trouble getting him to understand the process of cycling, one fish at a time, etc.

 

[jimmy g]

JacknJill,
The cycle take about a month or so (maybe longer or shorter depending on the system). You will get an ammonia spike if you are adding uncured rock. If its cured from the local fish store you can add a raw shrimp and let it disolve, you can get it at any grocery store. The ammonia will then be converted to Nitrite. Nitrite is still pretty toxic. This is done by bacteria that will develop on the rocks, sand and other surfaces. After a few more weeks the tank will deveop another bacteria that will break the Nitrite into Nitrate. After all you Tests are back to 0 you can begin adding livestock very slowly.
Hope this helps,
Jim

 

[jacknjill]

yep it did thanx