sharuq1 Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Just going over what you wrote and trying to answer a few of your questions: Long tanks are more suitable for most fish and corals (better light penetration and more surface area), tall tanks are suitable for seahorses. I would not bother getting "the hood" for the tank unless it is for saltwater (lighting). If you don't want to start out with metal halide or t5 you could always use a coralife fixture. These can be had for a good price used. As a side note t5's are only as good as there reflectors. The best reflectors I know of are the tek brand and aquactinic brand. The AC70 could be used as a small refugium or would be good to place in chemical media (carbon, etc.). Could also use a filter pad but would need to change it probably every 2 days or so. I would recommend getting a skimmer. It is not a nescessity per se for a 30g, but will provide oxygenation and filtration. It's amazing how much crud you can get out with a skimmer that you would not even know was there otherwise. A good place to get base rock is bulkreef supply. Some people have also tried using tufa. Just be careful that it has no red in it. (metals etc.=contaminated). LR can be found at a much better price (and usually pre-cycled as well) from locals like on canreef. In some case you could get LR for the price of really goof base rock if you keep your eye open for people getting out of the hobby. Another good place to buy LR is Golds' and Red Coral. You can add another clown later, just make sure it is a bit smaller than the one you'll already have. This will eventually make the little one male and the big one female. I'd also recommend RO as matter of personal preference as you know there is not bad stuff in it. People do use tap water with success though. One concern with tap is spring run off as well as phosphates/nitrates that are in it (can give you alot of pest algae later). A 30-70gallon tank is in the range of nice size to start out with. The extra gallons provide a bit of a buffer for tank parameters, which is a big plus starting out. I had a canister filter running on my 48g until changing over to my 120g. It had nothing in it except algone or sometimes carbon and about a gazillion sponges and feather duster worms stuck to the sides. Every week I had to change out the water in it as it tended to accumulate detritus. I would also recommend buying a refractometer instead of a hydrometer. Much easier to use and usually more accurate as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosshog Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Pico tanks aren't that bad. You just need to go really slow with them. My daughters have a 5 gal pico and it's the nicest tank in the house. I'm using an ac110 on it just a bit of overkill, it's actually choked back just to keep the water in the tank. It has about 8 pounds of LR, several zoa colonies, about 30 mushrooms, and some ricordea in it. It's lit with 2 13watt pc fixtures. Gets little maintenance, daily top offs, and a gallon or so water change every 10 days. Should be a pretty nice tank when it all grows in. I run a small skimmer in the AC also. Don't let all the horror stories about salt discourage you, it's really not that bad. Once you get used to it and settle into a routine it's not much more bother than freshies. A 30 gal fowler would probably be a good place to start. It will get your feet wet and be less costly than reef right off the bat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharuq1 Posted July 16, 2008 Report Share Posted July 16, 2008 Agree ^ Don't get discouraged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted July 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 (edited) Pico tanks aren't that bad. You just need to go really slow with them. My daughters have a 5 gal pico and it's the nicest tank in the house. I'm using an ac110 on it just a bit of overkill, it's actually choked back just to keep the water in the tank. It has about 8 pounds of LR, several zoa colonies, about 30 mushrooms, and some ricordea in it. It's lit with 2 13watt pc fixtures. Gets little maintenance, daily top offs, and a gallon or so water change every 10 days. Should be a pretty nice tank when it all grows in. I run a small skimmer in the AC also. Don't let all the horror stories about salt discourage you, it's really not that bad. Once you get used to it and settle into a routine it's not much more bother than freshies. A 30 gal fowler would probably be a good place to start. It will get your feet wet and be less costly than reef right off the bat. Wow, you can fit all that into a 5 gallon :w00t: I would never have known. And an AC110 on it too, how does the filter even fit on the back? lol I guess picturing it in my head is more difficult. I won't get discouraged. I will have to get my RO system up and running then. Just haven't put the darn thing together yet. Ebay was wonderful for that kind of stuff, saved at least $50 buying one from there. I will maybe take a look for protein skimmers and refractometers on there as well. I have seen many things at Golds, I will probably check with them for alot of it. I don't know where Red coral is, but im guessing on the other side of the city. I did read about the tufa, but I think I might just go with the broken coral rock instead. I don't want to keep corals right off the bat, so lighting isn't the most important thing for me. So if I do buy a tank that "comes" with the hood, I will use a coralife bulb in it. I want to stay as simple as possible then upgrade to harder things later on. I am one of those cautious people when getting into the unknown lol. I was also wondering, if setting up a fluidized bed filter would be beneficial to the tank if I do have live rock. I have also seen people keep their live rock in their sump, is that better to do when you do go for coral tanks and such? Edited July 19, 2008 by firestorm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosshog Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 When I added the AC I think I added about 20% to the water volume. It is a pretty neat tank though. It actually has lots of room for more softies. Gotta love little girls and their little princess tanks!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted July 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 When I added the AC I think I added about 20% to the water volume. It is a pretty neat tank though. It actually has lots of room for more softies. Gotta love little girls and their little princess tanks!!!!! Yeah I bet it did. My eheim canister I have holds alot of water too. Haha, and I wonder who looks after her princess tank....YOU? Do you have pictures of her tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosshog Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 No pics, and the wife is away with the camera. Four and two year olds really aren't a bunch of help at tank cleaning time. It is kind of fun though, until Mom see's the water all over the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2manytanks Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Hi Firestorm. When you're at Gold's, talk to them about lights. If you don't want to go with MH at first it's really not a problem if you're just doing fish a few soft corals and your tank isn't too deep. Since you're talking about the possibility of buying a tank with a built in hood, remember that not every system is going to be able to support the VHO flourescent lamps, it's not necessarily a matter of just changing the bulb. Talk to the guys at Gold's - they have some good lighting and good prices. As for Nano's, I have a 12g one that is consistently our most impressive tank. It holds 2 perculas, a dragon goby, a green clown goby about 30 button corals, 2 pulsing xenias some small bubble tip anemones and one large bubble tip. Everythng just thrives in it. It has about 10 lbs. of live sand and about 10 lbs. of live rock. The bubble tips do so well in it that I quite often have to remove some and transfer them to my larger tanks. The only change I have made to this tank from stock is to remove the bio-balls and put ceramic media in instead, I could do without them, but they certainly don't hurt. I have to do water changes a bit more often than in the larger tanks, once to twice a week, but it only takes 5 to 10 minutes, so no big deal. The lighting however is marginal, I've found that only the darker anemones can make it for very long in this tank, I assume it's because they have larger populations of zooanthellae (sp?) to gleen the most from the available light. I know some people don't like to have sponge for filtration, but it really is great for taking the particulates out of the system and as long as you clean them frequently, I believe they really help out a lot. As for having a substrate, that's a debate that's been going on for decades, even the depth of substrate is hotly debated, I'd suggest you do some good reading on it, there's lots on the internet. I chose to go with live sand in all of my tanks, and try to get an average depth of at least 3 inches. Different types of bacteria populate the sand at different depths, basically the top level dwellers remove ammonia and secrete nitrites, which are eaten by the next level down which secretes nitrate which is eaten by bacteria that dwell still further down. A good population of worms and other critters will help keep the sand stirred allowing water and nutrients to flow within. Sand sifter stars, dragon gobies, clams, sand dollars, etc. can also help keep your sand stirred up and clean. If you decide to go with sand but don't want the expense of useing all live sand, I would suggest rather than useing all dead substrate that you use at least a part live sand. Your tank will get a faster start with the susbstrate already partly populated to help remove wastes, and the sand that isn't live will become live more quickly than waiting for creatures from the rock to populate it. Remember that your live rock is going to have to cycle too, and the sand can help eat the wastes from your rock while that is happening. Personally, I find I have to spend way less time actually cleaning my tanks because of the sand, anything that settles on the bottom is consumed. Anyways, it's all opinion, do lots of reading and listen to everyone else, find what's right for you. Your own experiences will be different than ours, there's a thousand ways to do things and millions of ways to combine creatures that will have different results. One thing for sure though, it's fascinating, even those first weeks when all you may have in your tank is live rock that you're cycling - you'll find yourself spending hours just watching those rocks, and discovering new creatures coming to life and springing from what just days ago seemed to be nothing but barren, stinky rocks. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted July 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Thanks Bill, I will certainly be going to Golds for some things. They are my favorite place to shop for cichlids, and seeing all the salt water they have, I will probably go there for most of my salt water needs. For lighting, I most likely will end up buying a separate fixture rather than going with a hood. I don't like hoods all that much, and for the price it would be worth it. Especially if I will be having to upgrade to different bulbs in the future. It is a huge decision whether I will go out and buy an all in one nano cube, or whether I buy a 30gallon tank all by itself and customize it by choosing the equipment I need for the set up I will be doing. Lighting might not be a huge factor right away, since I have decided to start off with live rock and just a few fish. I will probably also use either live sand or crushed coral, and the live rock I get I will get some that is dead, and some that has already been cured, and I will leave that for however long until the rock has all been cycled. I never thought of the fact that live sand will help in curing the live rock faster, so I might take you up on that and buy live sand instead. So when you clean live sand, you don't need to siphon it? Or do you still treat it like you would sand in a freshwater tank? I know for all my sand substrate I normally vacuum the top, then I sift my fingers through to release the gases, let it sit for 15 minutes and vacuum the surface again. Is it different with live sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calgaryreefer Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 basic hardware includes tank, skimmer, lights, filters, pumps. livestock includes live rocks, sand, and a couple of months for water to be ready. and everything else is just waiting and having fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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