First saltwater tank advice

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Nazsenchuk

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Messages
21
Hi everyone! I've been keeping freshwater fish and plants for about 5 years and I always liked how saltwater tanks looked and I thought I would buy myself a 3 gallon picotope. It comes with a 50 or 40gph hob filter and i want to add an aqua clear and if the filter it comes with is a bit loud I might just go with a slightly bigger aqua clear. Any recommended size of filter I should use? I'm not going to use a power head. Thanks


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If you're looking for quiet, search for The Quiet One. I forget who makes it. Super quiet though.


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That's a power head right?


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I saw some on ebay for an unnamed company that puts out 50gph and one that puts out 80 for 5$. I'm on an extremely small budget:/
 
What are your plans for the tank? When I'm told that things are on a small budget, I usually say save up as you continue to plan out everything that you'll need.
It is possible to get away with only a HOB filter on the tank since it is only 3 gallons...but that will depend on what you are going to do with it.
 
By on a budget I mean I can spend as much as I want but I want to save as much money as possible


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I'm planning on having It be a reef tank


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I'm planning on having It be a reef tank


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Well, reef tanks are all about stable parameters and lighting. Thankfully, water changes make keeping parameters stable easy.
Most of your money will be spent on lighting. I'm not sure what could go over a pico to support corals besides a PAR 38 bulb in all honesty.
But since you want to keep coral, you will want to have a small powerhead in the system as corals need decent flow, all depending on what type of coral you want to keep.
 
I know for sure that i will get an aqua clear 30 for this tank and it has a 150gph rating. Im running 2 on my 25 freshwater and they aren't giving me any water flow really so i know i can for sure get my hands on a 50 or 80gph powerhead and i think they have an adjustable flow. i just dont know which one i should get. also I see people running a "moon" light before putting the tank to sleep. is that something that has to be done or can i just turn the 50/50 bulb off?
 
You don't need moonlighting. It isn't the same as actinic bulbs. Running actinic bulbs on during night would basically be like never having night time.


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Sweet! The tank should arrive Friday Andy hydrometer should come Friday- Tuesday and when it shows up that will be when I get my live rock and sand! I will post pictures!


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The finnex will be to yellow. It will really wash out the corals colors. I'd go with the corallife mini


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Say a compact florescent uses 5 watts and a led lamp uses 5 watts. which one is better?
 
Is the led made up of a single 5 watt led or 10 0.5 watt LEDs? It really depends on the wattage of the individual LEDs and the color spectrum


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all together the led light is 5 watts. I want to spend $40 on a new light. Any recommendations? I want a light that is a bit more bright/better than the 9w compact florescent
 
Check out amazon for a par38 bulb. I got one that was about $25 and I paid another $20 for a clamp. that would be perfect for a pico.
:)
 
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