beginner needs help with reef tank

[spyder9669]

i want to start up a 30 or so gallon reef tank for my daughter. i know its alot of work and all that and everywhere i look for information its basically technical crap that i can't understand. can anyone give me some plain language on the best way to go for this. this tank as of right now is going to include clownfish, and a cleaner shirimp. i would also like to have a few other things in also, so hopefully someone can give me some advice on other fish to include. also, if anyone can help me out with what equipment i will need to get this thing going that would be great. i already have a 10 gallon freshwater tank, so i'm not completely in the dark about this stuff. any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mbrands]

I don't have a reef, so I can't help much as far as lighting or anything. As for the fish, look at the those sold on this website. Each individual listing shows "reef safe" yes or no. Keep in mind the sizes listed are the size when shipped and NOT their adult size.
Good luck!
Mike

 

[lion_crazz]

Hey, I can try to help you with what you are looking for. I don't know what type of corals you are looking to do, but if you are just looking to do cheap, pretty, and hardy corals, a 130-150watt power compact fixture will be a good light fixture for your 30 gallon tank. The entire issue on the light is that you want about 4 to 5 watts of light per gallon of water. Also, you want the intensity of power compact or VHO (very high output) lighting.
Next, you will want to get a hang-on protein skimmer for the tank. This is essential to help you keep the tank clean of wastes. Though it will not do the entire job, it will definitely help.
You absolultely need 30-45lbs. of live rock, preferably closer to 45 because this will serve as your natural filtration.
As a mechanical filter to simply move the water around, I would get a cheap hang-on the back filter to remove floating particles, plus you will need a powerhead to move water around in the tank.
As for a substrate, I would go with aragonite, as this is pretty easy to keep clean.
For a salt mix, you want to go with the more expensive salt mixes, as they will help put good elements into your water, such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and strontium. I would recommend using Oceanic salt. It is only about $20 extra than the leats expensive salt.
Other than that, I think I covered just about everything you will need to know to get this thing started. A reef tank will require a little more work, but you will get a beautiful tank in the process.
Please let me know if there is anything I can help you further with or even clarify. I know this is definitely a very complicated and complex hobby to get into.

 

[ty_05_f]

I suggest going for a bigger tank. I started out small (25 gallon) and I upgraded to a bigger tank about a year later. So I pretty much invested alot of money that couldn't be transferred to the bigger tank for instance the lighting and filtration.

 

[spyder9669]

thanks alot for that information lion_crazz....as for the live rock, just in case i decide to go for a somewhat bigger tank, and that is a long shot, how do you calculate how much live rock you need for an aquarium? also, i have heard that "live sand" is a must insead of artificial sand.....is this a fact? thanks again to everyone else for the suggestions!

 

[ivanfj]

I wouldn't go as much as 45lb of LR, but instead start with 20-25lb. A lot of times I find when you buy corals like GSP, mushrooms, or zoos, they all come in a fairly good size rock and you would always end up with more than you started with. There's nothing wrong with going more, don't get me wrong on this. I just want this to be a heads-up since the tank is not too big and you want to leave some room for the fish and your corals instead of jammed-packed with LR. Absolute LS is not essential. It's better but it's not a must. With LR, your argonite sand would eventually turn into LS. As for lighting, it depends on your budget. If you have a lower budget, then go with some aqualight compacts. However, those fixtures would limit your choices on the corals. If you have a higher budget, then you could look into something like T5 or even a pendent MH. As for salt, I've used Oceanic and Kent and I find Kent having a little more elements than Oceanic, but Oceanic does desolve much much much quicker.

 

[sula]

at the top of the page, use the search button, and search on "saltwater 101" for user name 007 - there are some great threads which will give you an excellent basic understanding of next steps.

 

[lion_crazz]

For a reef tank, you want 1 to 1.5 lb. of live rock per gallon of water.
I understand what you are trying to say ivanfj, but unless he was going to jam the tank with three or four corals right off the bat, the 30 to 45 lbs. will really help him cycle the tank, plus serve as his natural filter and stabilize his tank.
If it were me, I would probably go with a bigger tank, however, being that it is for your daughter and you probably do not plan to continue to evolve the tank into something larger, I think 30 gallons is a perfect size tank.
Live sand is absolutely not neccessary. There is no reason you need live sand in your tank. With a light bioload of fish, there is no reason you should have a single problem with aragonite.
Again, if it were me, I would just get a compact flourescent light fixture that puts out 130 - 150 watts of light. This will be the cheapest light you could put on your tank, but it will have no problems doing the job that you need it for. It will allow you to do keep and maintain hardy corals. The lighting that ivanfj referred to is for the more difficult and expensive corals.

 

[spyder9669]

does anyone know why every fish on this site is sold out??

 

[birdy]

They are on a break for Christmas.