In Need Of A Whole Lot Of Wisdom Here...

[TaraBrad]

Hey all,

Never posted much here before, and not for a really long time anyway. Anyway, my girlfriend and I are in some serious need of assistance.

Firstly, I'm a freshwater guy, and have been for a lot of years. Then, about 2 years back, when my daughter was born, I gave up fish to focus on parenting. Now that we've got through the rough early stages(sleeplessness, etc.), we've purchased(second-hand, from a friend) a 75 gallon setup with the intent to do an FO saltwater setup. Anyway, the trouble begins here.

When the tank arrived, with stand and basic lighting, we received a white-spotted bamboo shark and a Pacific blue tang with it, and about 25 gallons of cultured water, and several pieces of rock. Originally base rock, this stuff has been hanging out in an established reef for some time, and I've got all sorts of good, bad, and ugly stuff living on it. Chief among these are pest anemones, which I've determined to be Aptasia. Anyway, the setup, right from day one, was a pretty half-assed affair(gotta be honest here). It was delivered at 10:00pm, 2 days before Christmas, and we just set it up, over 3 hours.

So I've been checking it out ever since. It's got a pair of ancient submersible heaters, which, while ugly and lacking the clips to hold them to the side of the tank, are doing the job. There's a strong powerhead creating a strong current in the tank. Again, while unattractive, it's doing the job. So my major problem right now is filtration. The tank came with a Fluval 404 canister filter filled with pieces of live rock. Shortly after set-up, the clip on the side of the filter snapped off, dumping about 30 gallons of water onto my living room floor. Fun, fun. Anyway, in the financial crunch that is Christmas, this is just being looked into now.

So, I've been looking into getting this thing fixed up, but I understand that filtration for saltwater is a very different monster than freshwater, and that's my biggest problem at this time. From my reading, it seems to me that most people seem to run sumps on saltwater setups. For us, with the way the stand is set up, combined with the fact that the whole system is already wet, makes this a non-option for me, and I'm stuck for another idea.

Secondly, I live within a stone's throw from Gold's in Calgary, which can be a real problem for fish that just seem to "find their way home" to my tank. When we took our Pacific blue tang to Dennis, as it was definitely showing signs of needing a new home, we ended up coming back with a small(3-inch) powder brown tang and a coral beauty angelfish. Anyway, I'm not worried about future care of the fish in the tank, since I've been doing my homework on the species, but I know that the hardware here is going to cause grief.

After filtration, I'm concerned about two other things. The first would be the Aptasia infestation, which has taken over nearly the whole tank, and how the easiest way to go about cleaning that up is, either through the addition of livestock or some other type of removal. I've heard that peppermint shrimp will eat them, and I'm wondering about throwing a couple in there(temporarily, as it's still supposed to be FO). I've also read that copperband butterflies will eat them, but that they're terrible feeders otherwise. So any wisdom there would be appreciated.

Finally, we come to this shark. It came with the tank, a freebie. It's a really cool fish, healthy, female(so I'm told), hand-feeding, frozen diet, and has been housed previously with small fish, but hasn't caused any casualties. She's pushing 18" long, and i hear 40" is expected. So obviously a standard 75 is a bad home for her, even now. So I'll be looking for a new home for her. Anyway, I've also got a list of hardware that I'm searching, if anyone's trying to unload some stuff.

1) New stand, 48x18 footprint, that could house a sump that may appear in the future.

2) Glass tops. I'm using egg crating now.

3) New light fixture. I'm not growing corals, so I don't need anything fancy. The one that came with the tank is falling apart(home job).

4) Filter. What to buy, what brand, what my best bet is for this kind of operation.

5) Protein skimmer. Do I need one, and can anyone recommend a specific unit, preferably HOB as I have no sump to stick it in.

Anyway, I know that a lot of this is our fault, just not doing things properly right from day one, and I'm trying to remedy it. So come on in, pull no punches, and share your knowledge. If you're trying to unload some gear, I might be buying, and if you want a shark(and can house it), I might be selling.

Thanks a lot to any who can help me fix this disaster of a situation.

Brad

[jvision]

I've seen many FO tanks set up with large canisters. Fluval's FX5 will give you the greatest possible volume - I'd probably mod it with a prefilter of sorts and take out the trays, filling the canister with as much LR rubble as possible. I think you can get over 15L of filter volume. Here's a site with FX5 Mods.

I once had a CB Butterfly that ate mysis shrimp once the Aptasia was gone, so that might be a viable option. I'm not sure if the shrimp will survive with the shark and the angel.

I've heard that Gold's has some of the best price on glass tops - ask Dennis when you're there next. As far as SW equipment goes, sign up on CanReef.com - there's lots of stuff in the Calgary area for sale all the time.