First salt water tank

[zmechanic]

Hello,
My name is Margaret,
I want to start a fish and live rock only salt water aquarium.
I have been breeding and raising fresh water discus for 3 years and just sold all of my tanks and fish.
I need help with aquarium substrate and live rock.
I have no experience with salt water what so ever.
my concern is what substrate is best for maintenance, appearance, and performance.

 

[deejeff442]

welcome. i have heard discus are very tough to keep . but saltwater is just awesome. argonote (spelling?) sand for sure. be forewarned you are going to get 1000 ways to keep a tank so dont get overwhelmed. i can just tell you my way. i am old school.i dont run skimmers,hang on filters or uv sterilizers. i just like alot of rock and alot of flow. ideally a sump tank either a drilled tank or overflow box. this adds more water volume and hides pumps.heaters so the display tank is all fish and rock.i dint know much about freshwater or brackish but in salt nature needs to take charge .meaning time for bacteria to grow .cycle the tank.look at the 101 sticky it will help. now are you buying another tank what size?

 

[zmechanic]

Here is what I have to start with.
220 gallon marineland tank with tops and stand.
proclear 300 wet dry filter with large overflow and two return pumps.
That's its.

 

[deejeff442]

good start for sure.although a wet dry is outdated as far as i am concerned.only need one return pump. you could put the other in the tank with a couple splitters for water flow.where do you plan to get the live rock? where do you live?you will need more power heads for flow in that big of a tank. dont know your budget but i have a 250 gallon and run 2 mp40's and love them.also 2 korilia #4's .i would lose the bio balls in the wet dry and replace with rock rubble if i were to use that set up.

 

[zmechanic]

Quote:
Originally Posted by deejeff442 http:///t/395941/first-salt-water-tank#post_3526433
i have heard discus are very tough to keep
50% water changes daily.
I had 6 x 29 gallon breeder tanks
4 x 50 gallon grow out tanks.
2 x 75 gallon grow out tanks.
1 x 125 gallon for A AA grade discus the (best of the batches)
All breed and raised on R/O water.
really nice fresh water fish but to many water changes.
I Just want a real nice tank to enjoy.

 

[mohawkninja]

Quote:Originally Posted by zmechanic http:///t/395941/first-salt-water-tank#post_3526456
 
50% water changes daily.
I had 6 x 29 gallon breeder tanks
4 x 50 gallon grow out tanks.
2 x 75 gallon grow out tanks.
1 x 125 gallon for A  AA  grade discus the (best of the batches)
All breed and raised on  R/O water.
really nice fresh water fish but to many water changes.
I Just want a real nice tank to enjoy.

I have a friend who kept discus, they are beautiful. I think that reading a saltwater book is your best bet. After you read a good book, post on the forums if you have any question.

 

[geridoc]

The Marineland 220 is almost exactly what I have in my living room (mine has corner overflows built in), looks like the same stand, too. I'm a little old school, so I do use a bioball system similar to what you have, with a single Supreme mag 18 for return. One mistake I made was to use the pump submerged, and along with the submerged skimmer pump there is just too much heat, so I have to use a chiller. Drill the sump and use the return pump inline so that there will be less heat transfer. If you are going to house fish only, then bioballs are fine. If you are aiming for a reef, then the ad;vice to switch out the iboballs for rock rubble is a good idea, but for fish bioballs are fine. How are you going to get the water to the sump - you will need some kind of overflow system. For a tank this large live rock is going to be a major expense. I would consider using a substantial portion of dry rock (much less expensive) and maybe 25% lr to seed the tank with lots of neat organisms. In my tank I built two rock islands, one at each end of the tank, leaving the center with little rock to interfere with fish who want to swim a great deal (tangs, etc). Everyone seems happy with the caves and nooks on the periphery,. and the large fish (an emperor angel (15 years old), a blonde naso tang adolescent and an adult desjardini tang) have plenty of unimpeded space to roam. The word is that this site has nice live rock and sand. Keep us up to date. A build this size is always interesting.

 

[deejeff442]

i see a dual overflow box in the pic. dont get me wrong i ran a wet/dry for maybe 10 years with bio balls. never really had in issue. its just that they are out dated but will still work..now the sump fuge macro it the thing to do.if you have that set up go with it.i never had a heat issue with the pump in the sump. now if its a fowlr you dont need metal halides and can do led or compacts to keep heat down. external pumps+ ovewrflow box= noise

 

[zmechanic]

If you look close at the top left of my pic I posted shows the overflow. It came with the wet dry. Its does has two down tubes. I don't think I can return the sump, It all came in a package deal, tank, tops, stand, sump with 2 pumps and overflow for 1900.00 delivered.

 

[deejeff442]

heck i would use the 2nd pumpto mix saltwater for changes. you still need more powerheads for that tank for sure

 

[zmechanic]

I am really grateful for all the input.
But my main concern is substrate for my fowlr.
I was told at my lfs to use crushed coral it gives ph buffer. But I read that it is bad (it holds to much nitrate and stuff)
I want this right the first time.
what I use for water is a aquaticlife 200 GPD R/O unit. I use R/O right to reclaim the minerals. water is circulated with a pump in a 55 gallon barrel plus air pump.
PH is stable at 6.5
 
 
 

 

[yannifish]

That's the pH of the DI water? If that's the pH of your mixed saltwater, that's way too low. You want to be around 8.3.
Argonite sand looks nice and is a natural substrate, but I don't think crushed coral is bad. Someone please correct me on this if I am incorrect.

 

[zmechanic]

That is the ph of my DI it is stable at 6.5
Will that be a factor of what substrate I use?
I am in no hurry to get my tank up and running I just want to buy what I need.
I figured to ask people that been doing this for years.
LFS just want sales and most will sell you what they have.

 

[rahl187]

Hi all!

 

[deejeff442]

sand for sure. you would have to clean crushed coral over time.

 

[mohawkninja]

Aragonite all they way. Crushed coral gets dirty.

 

[grant778]

Agreed. Get sand or aragonite. I unfortunately made the mistake of using crushed coral and the tank therefore doesn't look as nice as it could because the substrate is always dirty.