Start up help?

[vasilithegreek]

Hi..im new to this forum and new to the saltwater part of aquariums...Im switching from fresh/brackish water to saltwater and had a few question in starting my new adventure with saltwater tanks....The tank that i have is a glass 50 gal corner pentagon...i have 2 eheim 2213 canister filters which are a pain and would like to get rid of one...and a brand new seaclone 100 protein skimmer..1.)do u think 1 canister filter and the protein skimmer would be enough..and what would i need to do to the filter since i used it with the fresh/brackish water setup?
2.)How much sand should i put in my tank or what types of substrate should i use that would go with the sand?
3.)im going to use distilled water for the tank...is that good with instant ocean?
The tank is mostly gonna be fish,(2-4 percula clown, some kind of a wrasse?,mandarin goby, powder tang if i could get away with it,), i was thinking about getting maybe 25 of live rock and adding some neat coral and anything else..Any info would be great from anyone..thanks alot!

 

[ivanfj]

Hmm, I don't know but I personally have about 15 pounds of LR in my 20 gallon. So, if I were you, then I will get more 25 pounds or else your fish may have very few caves to hide. And hey, WELCOME TO THE SALTWATER WORLD As for wrasse, GREEN BIRD WRASSE and BROWN BIRD wrasse are cool. They are tireless swimmers. Choose one but not both.

 

[newreefers]

1)I don't know enough about this one. sorry
2) 1 to 1 1/2lbs of liverock/gallon. 4-6" deep sand bed.
3) I would use RO water.
Fish - percula clown - great choice of fish
mandarin - this fish will die in your tank - needs at
least 100 lbs of liverock that is well established with
a lot of pods.
powder tang - tangs get large - I would say at least a 125
your tank is too small for him.
wrasse - I have no experience with these. sorry.
For more fish choices, search arund on the web.
good luck

 

[nm reef]

Welcome to the reef forum and to the hobby...
Sounds like you've researched enough to ask the right questions but not enough to develope your system yet...thats a good thing to ask and learn prior to a blind leap.
Best advice I could provide at this point is to read/research and be patient. Below are a few great links with info on saltwater systems....best of luck to you and your system.
reefkeeping 101
Marine systems

 

[flamehawk]

First welcoma to the hobby and I applaud you for asking questions BEFORE diving in. You're off to a great start.
1) s/b ok. Clean out canister filter w/ warm water and replace all media. Some will say skip the carbon but I personally use a high grade no phophate formula all the time. e- amil me if you eant the name.
2)3-4 inches of sand w/b great. Suggest you get a hold of some southdown playsand at home depot. Get some established live sand form your local lfs and seed the southdown and you s/b good. Still let tank cycle it's normal 5-6 weeks to be safe.
3)I've never used distilled water although I've heard others say on this board that they use it w/ no problems. I used to use RO and when it got to expensive went to filtered water out of the tap w/ no problems. WOuld definately get some L/R. Rule of thumb is at least 1 lb. per gsllon. IMO 25lbs. w/b fine for your set up. NO Tangs. Mot enough swimming space. Most mandarins starve in captivity. To have any shot at all it's got to be placed in a very well established tank w/ alott of L/R. Sorry but your tank set up does not qualify. Perculas and small wrasse s/b fine. Might want to also check out a flame hawk and/or a royal gramma. ADD FISH VERY SLOWLY AFTER TANK IS CYCLED. WOULD RECOMMEND 1-2 small fish every 10 days until tank is stocked at a maximum of 1 inch of adult size fish per 3 gallons of water.
Keep in mind that since you account for water displacement caused by the L/S, L/R you probably will end up with about 40 g's of H2O not 50. 40 divided by 3 equals about 13-14 inches of fish. Calculated at adult size that's not many fish. After tank is well established( 6-9 months) you may be able yo push it to 2 inches per gallon which would allow 20 inches of SMALL fish not big fish like groupers, large wrasses or tangs. Small fish like percs, six line wrasse, royal gramma, dwarf angel( after all is well for about 6 months), etc.
Agree that you should read read read as much as possible.
Again wish you the best of luck and welcome. Feel free to e-mail me at coachp11@hotmail.com.

 

[jjboods]

I have a 55 with about 110 pounds of sand...100 pounds Southdown from home depot, 10+ pounds of LS from the LFS. I have about 50 pounds LR. All I have in addition to that for filtration is a protein skimmer in a sump. And I have 3 powerheads for circulation. My tank has been running for a year with no problems...except one spike when I added some additional LR.
I wouldn't get more than 2 clowns.
Tangs...lots of different opinions and I know the Tang police will be on me for this, but a Kole tang doesn't get very large and is great for algea...should be okay for a 50+ gallon tank. I actually have a Kole and a Hippo, but I know thatI'll need to upgrade when he gets larger.
Corals...now you're into a whole different ballpark....first things first...what type of lighting do you have or will you be getting?

 

[benj420]

Welcome to Saltwater. My only advice research, research, research. That, combined with a little luck, and you will be well on your way to a successful setup.

 

[glinton]

Welcome to the hobby. It is an incredible one (and addictive!!)
For your first question, I would go with only live rock and no canister filter at all. If you can afford it, live rock will be your best bet. Your live rock will harbor all the necessary microbes you need to break down any wastes in your aquarium. Plus, once your tank is cycled, you can buy hermit crabs that will eat up all your fish poop. Just make sure you do your water changes (I find that a 10-15% change every week works very well).
What I did is bought some dry base rock to start and then "seeded" it with live rock. If you buy all live rock it can be very expensive. The live rock right here on this site is really good, from what I have heard (and reasonably priced).
Six-line wrasses are cool. My next purchase will be one. But make sure you wait long enough for your tank to cycle before you buy any fish. If you need more info on cycling a tank, do a search on "cycle" or "cycling a tank" in these forums. There is a ton of info out there on it.
A good book is "Natural Reef Aquariums" by Pollock. It helped me a ton.
Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to ask on these forums, there are a lot of people with some really good advice here. I would have made a lot of mistakes if I wouldn't have had this forum.
Have fun!

 

[jonthefb]

welcome welcome welcome. and congrats on researching before settign your tank up!.
1. did you ever use the canister filter in your fw tank while it was being medicated? and did you ever run copper in the tank? if you did i would reccommend ditchign the idea of usign the canister filter, and maybe look at gettign another tank, because if you did medicate with copper, theres a chance the tank, although empty could still be holding some of it in the silicon seals. if you plan on doing a reef set-up, copper is very harmful to inverts, and coral, and will more than likely kill them. anyhow. if you never medicated or ran copper with the filter then sure you cna use it just clean it up nicely under hot water. as far a live rock and sand go, these are goingot be your primary source of biological filtration. i would strongly reccommend gettigna 4-6 inch deep sand bed, and 1.5 to 2 pounds of live rock per gallon of water, thi way you maximize the surface area that the denitrifying bacteria can colonize, and you are also maximizing your filtering potential. i have a 20g that i run with a dsb, rock and a hang on back skimmer and it works perfect.
2. a good snad calculator is: length of your tank(in inches) X width of your tank(in inches)Xdesired sand bed depth(in inches X.0579=the number of pounds of sand needed to achieve your depth!
works great, and dont be scared by the number, its gonna be high!
3.if you plan on using distilled water, make sure you test it for the same things your gonna test your sw for, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, phosphates, etc. a lot of people had used distilled water and when they tested for phosphates, the number was off the charts which caused the growth of a lot of nuisance algae in the tank!
anyhow, i would also reccommend gettign yourself a good book, and reading it cover to cover before beginning. thhis hobby takes patience, however if you set your tank up correctly, and learn about things before you put them in there, your tank will be one of the most rewardign investments youve ever made!
good luck, and post away!
jon

 

[vasilithegreek]

WoW...thanks for all the replies so soon..There is so much good advice and questions and hopefully i can answer most...I had my fresh/brackish water tank up for 3yrs with no complaints from my fish or me
I never treated the tank with copper and i had a seprate 10 gal tank for it to be medicated.. I would clean out the canister filter and use new media for sure.I was thinking for the bed i would use
get about 30 pounds of the hd sand and then about 40-50 pounds of live sand, and probally about 40lbs of live rock.
I want to try and find a lfs that sells RO water but i dont think the ones around me do..How much would the RO water cost from the lfs
The percula i want to add..the others i was just wondering about..I would like to add a goby though any suggestions about a good goby or a Pearly/Yellow Head jawfish
I would also like to put a couple featherdusters in,a couple of polyps..and i would like to find a Anemones that would host the clown fish..i have a good compatibility chart http://www.marinedepotlive.com/lib/m...mbioticMap.htm
And then also a good variety of crabs and snail to clean up...
I was also wondering my family has a resturant and i was wondering if i could use jumbo shrimp,scallops and crab legs for a varied diet for the fish or wont they eat them...i use the shrimp when i had my fresh/brackish setup with my puffers and they loved it.
Ive been doing my research on this for the past 2mnths and the past 3yrs just looking along the way but its always good to get advice from more expierenced people like u guys....thanks alot for the reply again and welcoming me into the forum..hopefully i can contribute in the discussion and put some picks up starting my tank for u guys...thanks again

 

[vasilithegreek]

oh yeah if any one wants to contribute to my tank like some free live rock or sand that would be great lol

 

[jonthefb]

vasili, i get my ro/di water from wal-mart, at the culligan machine. i think its 12 cents a gallon so its real cheap! im not tryign to shy you away from distilled, just make sure you test it before usign it. as far as ro in a lfs, i think itd probably go for like 30 cents a gallon.
pearly/yellow head jaws are my fav. fihs. i have a small one in my 20 with a perc and they are the only 2 fish in the tank.. jsut make sure that they have a really deep sandbed, and a lot of room that is sand, menaing dont just pile tons of rock on your bed, make sure that you have some nice open areas.
with the seafood youve go ton hand,all i would say is that you can definately use it just be sure to add a citamin supplement to it before feedign. and a great idea if you wanna keep corals is to blend a bunch of the food up add a vit. supplement, and some phytoplankton, zooplankton, and spirulina, and you have a nice coral cocktail!
good luck
jon

 

[vasilithegreek]

Thanks for the info guys....yeah i think im gonna try walmart for the ro if its that cheap...i was looking at distilled from walmart it was .50cents a gallon...and since ro water is supposed to be 99.9 pure ill probally get that and still do test...
Hey skilos ti kanis..yeah its nice to see a greek on here...i like your tank it really nice...i didnt think that there were greeks in alabama..haha.....