Brand Spanking New!!! With a lot of questions!!

[sweatervest13]

Hi All,
I am brand new to the salt water hobby. I have a few years experience with fresh water (ciclids). I was super lucky to get a lot of stuff from a friend who has been in SW for years. Here is what my setup looks like so far.
29g tank
2 powerfilters (1 marineland penguin 150 [new purchase], 1 old jank filter brand and size unknown)
1 powerhead (Top Fin 50 150gph[ new purchase])
1 heater (unknown)
15 lbs of live rock (cured premium Fiji)
My substrate is crushed coral (put it down first then bought live rock, then had to make sure LR was on the bottom of glass, so I had to remove some CC to make sure it was stable). The tank has been up and running for two weeks and is working on cycling. After reading many posts on this wonderful site I am learning that my buddy that is helping is a bit of a MacGyver (sp) and has given me a bit of advice that is a bit off track.
My first mistake is tap water (in the future I will be using RO from the grocery store) with i used to fill the tank. Can this get me by or do I need to start all over?? What are the other essentials that I need to have a good healthy tank? I am going to start with FOWLR and then maybe after a while go reef. What is a good stock list for my 29g? The wife likes clowns. I am sure I will have more questions on the set up and how to make it a success. Any help would be great!!!
Thanks.

 

[flower]

Welcome to the site!
Just swap RO saltwater when you do water changes and you should be alright. If you want to go pure RO saltwater and take no chances with hair algae..now is the time to do it.
For picking out your critters...I added pages so you can see the info they offer.

 

[meowzer]

WELCOME.....I started my 225G with tap...and usesd it for the first 6 months before I got an ro/di unit
Ithink it all depends on your water though....my tap is pretty good as far as tds goes.....Do you have any clue about yours? ALTHO at this point I would just plan on getting ro for all future adds and changes
I see you do not have a protein skimmer listed....you should start shopping for one....especially if you eventually want to go reef. you will be limited with the amount of fish you can keep in a 29G..so try to think of what you want....besides the clowns
You can probably keep the 2 clowns, and 2-3 other fish about the same size or smaller....
What lighting do you have?
I would also get a little more live rock
OHHHH...how about a pic????

 

[sweatervest13]

Thanks!!
I do plan on going RO the rest of the way out. Stupid question... RO is the stuff that I can get at like Walmart "Culligan water" (ps. I know what RO is just dont know if the Culligan water at the grocery store is RO)??
As for the lighting I just have the old unit that was used when the tank was FW. My buddy gave me a nice bulb but it does not fit my hood. SHould I get a different bulb for my florecent??
I do plan to get more LR with in the next couple of weeks. Will adding this later mess with the cycle? Or once I have cycled am I okay to add more? Also I am thinking that I should get a test kit. After research looks like one that does the PH and the three I am tracking for the cycle. The lady at the LFS said that my CC substrate is a bad idea. I dont really want to start over. So....

 

[andrew1113]

crushed coral is kinda a bad idea. some people like it but some hate it i prefer the finer live sand that u can get at your lfs i would say keep it since u already got it if u dont want to take it out and get the other stuff but idk u should wait for more opinions on the subject

 

[dc2mlbsm]

Crushed coral should be swapped out for sand since it traps a lot of detrious which will lead to a lot of nitrates in your tank

 

[sweatervest13]

I think that I am going to use this 29g to cut my teeth. I would have loved to start with a nice 120g but $$ is tight right now. So, maybe next year (Tax returns baby, bought new house so I am getting that $6500.00 credit) I will up grade and start fresh with sand not CC. Sounds like the CC can work but is just a pain in the behind. Will I have to do water changes more frequently because of the CC??

 

[sweatervest13]

BTW. I just have to say that this site is sooooo cool. Everyone is so helpful and friendly. My hat goes off to all those senior members that take time out of their lives to help all us newbies. A big THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[dc2mlbsm]

Yes with cc u will have to do more frequent water changes and use something to suck up the detrius from the CC...upgrading and starting fresh with sand sounds like a great idea. We help cuz we wanna see people succeed in this hobby

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