Getting New Tank, Gonna Need Help!

[corai]

Hi, I would like to ask few questions about a 40 - 50 gallon tank. Im interested in keeping Coral and building up good stash of Live Rock. First of im going to look for a good size tank, around 40 - 50 Gallon hopefully. What i need to know are the basics, Equipment, Test Kits, Medication, Water Treatment, Sand, Coral, Light "Day and Night", Live Rock, Clean Up Crew.
Im willing to put money into it but really dont wanna rush into this and make big mistakes.
So Say i buy this 40 - 50 gallon ive seen, what should i buy next? Filteration? Pump? Lights? i dont really know what order to do this all in, If someone could outline what i need first how ive put it blow i would more then greatful.
Step 1

• 45 Gallon Tank

Step 2
Step 3
Just to know how i should start, should i start the cycle before i buy equipment and lighting? When to add the live rock, and live sand, and how i start my cycle off.
If anyone can link me to other links and explain where to start, Itll save me alot of bother, and i want a nice looking tank in the long run.

 

[dmjordan]

Check out the archives and FAQ forum. There are alot of informative threads you can read.
I bought all the equipment first before I did anything.
1) tank, tank stand, filter, lights, test kits, salt, hydrometer (refractometers are more accurate), powerheads, heater, blue background, glass canopy, gallons of RO water, rubbermaid storage tote (for mixing saltwater for water changes), powerstrips
2) fill tank with RO water and measure salt with guidelines on box (bag) - do not fill completely incase you mix in too much salt
3) turn on powerheads, filter and heater and let run for 24 hours - I keep my temp at 78 degrees
4) test your salt levels (I keep mine at 1.026) add more RO water or salt to get in a good range - 1.023 - 1.026
5) livesand, live rock, raw shrimp
6) test water everyday and record your levels to monitor the progress of your cycle

 

[fgcu14]

I've got a 46 gallon in the process and I am getting all of the equipment before adding livestock. I would have everything running before starting the cycle with the exception of maybe the lighting.
My equipment includes:
46 gal bowfront
stand/glass canopy
tricklefilter (sump)
300 watt heater
protien skimmer
floresent lighting
2 small powerheads
full salltwater test kit
soon to get:
60 lbs live sand
50 lbs live rock
25 lbs base rock

 

[deeze]

Hey CoraI... those are some great questions and based on the amount of consideration your putting into your new hobby I'm sure you'll be successful. Here's a general outline of how I'd do it and others will probably have different opinions but the reefs I've set up are totally self sustaining besides feeding and light cleaning so here goes.
First I'd buy the tank and a cool stand... one that will hold a refugium of some sort down below. Basically you'll want a smaller tank below which will act as a place to put the wide array of equipment you'll need. It also serves as extra water volume which is good. Purchase both the main tank and sump as large as money will allow because little problems in a little tank can become catastrophic problems quick. Where as a large tanks can be much more forgiving. Mine is 150 up top with a 50 gallon sump below. Try to get a tank which is "reef ready" which means there is an overflow box built into the tank which will skim your surface and send the water down below via a hole drilled in the tank stand top and plumed to the refugium. You can tell this because the tank will have holes drilled in the bottom of them.
Set all that up and plum everything to one side or the other of the refugium... I'll guess you'll run your overflow to the left side of the refugium. Most refugiums are sectioned off to give you three chambers. The first is a good place to run your overflow, install a skimmer (foam fractionator), UV (Ultraviolet Sterilizer) ((if you choose to use one)) and will serve as a location to put other nick knack equipment. The center chamber of the refugium can serve as a small aquarium for live rock, live sand, weird creatures, calurpa and other sea grasses. However I should mention that I don't have sand in my refugium because it seemed to be to messy on my old 70 gallon. My main tank sand bed is 3" so I'm good on sand which acts as part of my filtration. the third chamber is a good place to add your return pumps and perhaps a pump to control alternating currents in the main tank. This can all be plumed by your imagination but please ask if you have any questions on the finer details.
But some good strong lights (if you want to keep and grow corals. I have 2 MH (metal halide) which are 250 watts and are the HQI type. My tank is 60x24x24 so you wont need that much. Lighting is a whole world which will need to research a little to find out what you want the display to look like. The two second summery is this:
** MH lights are fantastic and are usually recommended for coral keeping but they run hot and "may" require a chiller to keep the water cool. They do however give a fantastic shimmering effect in the tank and stunning coral growth.
** T5's or power compacts run much cooler and look great also but provide no shimmer. They "may" also prevent you from keeping certain corals.
Continued on next post...

 

[deeze]

Another great tool is Reverse Osmosis (RO) which you should use to fill the tank. They can be great because they provide 100% pure water and can be used for household use as will as water changes. You can get great ones for around 100.00 on the big auction houses.
Once all that's installed you're ready to add the RO water to the tank and fill up the main tank full and get the salt levels right. Then I'd buy half live and half dry sand (or all live sand which will speed up the cycle. Rinse the dog poo out of the dry sand or you'll have a never ending cloud of silt in your tank. I just dumped my sand into a 5 gallon bucket and stuck the hose in it and walked away for about 30 minutes. Just make sure the flows not high enough to knock the sand out. As you put the bags of sand in the tank the water will overflow and begin to fill your sump. let that settle a little and then add your live rock. You may need to either run a pump up top suction-cupped to your tank wall to keep things moving or fill the rest of your sump up with mixed RO seawater and turn everything on. I use this stuff called "Cycle" from the pet store which will shorten the cycle drastically. It also helps if the live rock is pre-cured. If you live in Florida I can give you a great contact for really good looking live rock for about 3 bucks a lb. Keep in mind that the system I've described is a Berlin system and the live rock is basically your main filtration so all lots. The key I've always found is to create everything as close to the actual ocean you'll have much more luck.
A computer device called a ReefKeeper or something similar can be very useful to. Mine controls 8 devices so I can have some morning lights on at 8, main lights from 9 till 7. They usually have a button you can press called "Feed" which will stop the return pumps and right/left current for a set amount of time while you feed them... keeps the food from blowing all over the place. The key is water movement water movement water movement... My tank is 200 gallons and I turn over that whole volume 11 times an hour so get good pumps. Also moving that much water can create a loud overflow so you can do a search for "Durso Stand Pipes" which will cut the noise down my 90%. They get placed in your overflow and they are quite amazing.
I'm sure I’ve left several things out so please ask questions and I'll be glad to help. Sorry to throw so much at ya... I must have been in the mood to type phewww
Once you get hooked... you’re hooked. It's great fun.

 

[corai]

Wow thanks very very much, That has helped me so much, Im taking it all on board, and have few more questions if you dont mind helping!

About all this sump? Do i really need it? will it affect my fish? will water changes every week just be enough to keep it clean. And the live sand, if i wash it with a house hose, will it kill all the living creature in the sand? Once agen thanks so much for the description on what i should do it really does clear your mind and give u a great idea on how to do this.
Agen will you need base rock? or will live rock just do. Base rock = Dead Ocean rock right? :notsure:

 

[fgcu14]

Originally Posted by deeze
It also helps if the live rock is pre-cured. If you live in Florida I can give you a great contact for really good looking live rock for about 3 bucks a lb.
I live near tampa fl could you give me that contact information?

 

[deeze]

Hey again CoraI... glad you're getting the idea.
Let's talk about that sump (refugium). The reason you'll like it so much is because you'll find as you go along that you will need to plum many things into your system to make it run right. Let's say you get all set up and everything’s running good but then you decide to put some corals and other strange and fascinating creatures in it. You'll learn pretty quickly that you'll need a protein skimmer and probably also a UV sterilizer. Well, you won't want to hang them off the side of your display tank because they will look ugly and also be small and ineffective because that's pretty much the only way the hang on types come. If you have a sump you'll be all ready for it... just plop a skimmer in the sump and you're done... hang a UV sterilizer on the side of the sump with a pump to run it through and you're done. You get the idea. Here's a picture of my sump... it's a poor picture because I was using it to discuss another topic but it'll give you a good idea of what one looks like:
In the picture you'll see a nice juicy protein skimmer plumed into the side of the refugium along with my overflows running into a bucket. The bucket thing you see is a custom modification I did because when I decided to build an extra tall tank stand and the fact that I'm turning over 200 gallons 11 times an hour I had a bad bubble problem with the rush of water draining to the sump. This is something you won't have to worry about at your stage... this is only because it's a large tank and everything is pretty much custom in one way or another. I also have a UV sterilizer hanging right where the blank spot on the refugium is but it wasn’t installed at the time I took this pic.

Oh, and you don't want to rinse your live sand... only rinse your dead dry sand. It's very powdery and pored directly in your tank will be a bad bad cloudy thing.
Some people get "base" rock because they're trying to save money on setup. I'd try to get nice Fiji live rock if you can. The idea is usually to stack it up with tunnels and caves for the fish to swim through and hide if they feel threatened. I have my rock up against the back wall but the fish can swim from one side of the tank to the other on two and three levels all throughout and behind my rock... it's pretty cool. the base rock is usually much smoother and doesn't provide as much surface area as live Fiji rock (not as knarled) and I think it's noticeable even though it's on the bottom back of the tank. Remember, the live rock does 90% of your filtration.
You won't need to do water changes evey week either... maybe every two weeks to a month. Don't listen to me in the next sentence. I usually only do water changes every 2 or 3 months.. Sometimes longer. (ok we got past that part...ha). My water seems to almost always be very very healthy. Nitrates at 0, ammonia at 0 and so forth.
I just add the proper dosage of OceansBlend to replace trace elements once a week. Oh, and I feed the fish... that helps... don't over feed, I usually feed them 4 to 4.5 times a week. They are from the ocean and used to not eating every day ten times. Just keep an eye on them and don't starve them.

 

[deeze]

Hey fgcu14... you don't know how lucky you are! I made a special trip down there just for my live rock... what a long day. Go to Life Oceanic (5815 US Highway 41 North Apollo Beach 33572). He usually has a couple of thousand lbs of live rock and you can go in the back and hand pick it out of giant vats. He has the biggest protein skimmer I've ever seen... it was about 15 foot tall and about 6 foot in diameter.
It was like Christmas when I went. It's only 2.99 a lb. He usually has great Tonga Branch for 4.99 a lb. too. Very nice facility and the amount of cured live rock he has is amazing. Ask for Tom... he's the owner. Tell him the computer guy from Jacksonville sent you (I fixed his pc when his register broke with 6 people ready to check out) and he'll probably give you a discount.