Starting 29 gallon reef tank

[spoonman]

As everyone has said. That's a lot of fish for a 29! Lol I have 2 percula clowns, a purple firefish and a tail spot blenny. As for lighting, I like my 4 bulb FISHNEEDIT t5HO fixture. Aquatraders.com has very cheap fixtures. U definitely want 4 bulb though.

+1, I have a 29 with a pair of percula clowns, a pygmy angel and a wardi goby. That is the max I would do. Then you can go with several corals to fill it out. My build thread is in my signature if you want to check out what I went through putting this together.

 

[TigerBarbs]

Yep you can check out my 29 build thread too if you want. Between our 2 threads, you should have tons of info to help with yours!

 

[Khij159753]

If it were me with a tank that size make the main focus amazing corals and give it a lot of flow with some yellow polyps, frogspawns, xenias, etc and for fish have all the focus around an angler show specimen to give your tank a very unique feel. It may not be for you though but I know what my next reef project is lol

This sounds interesting. What do you mean by have all the focus around an angler show?

 

[TigerBarbs]

He meant the angler as the "show" specimen

 

[Khij159753]

Okay so all corral then some inverts and 1 species of fish?

 

[TigerBarbs]

If you do an angler that will be it. And you'd be limited on inverts cus the angler would think he's being fed lol.

 

[Khij159753]

Oh! An angler is a fish haha. I Was confused. I kinda like the idea of a pair of clowns, some bangaii cardinals and maybe a bleny? Any other suggestions? Also can someone give me a complete list of stuff I'll need for the tank?

 

[TigerBarbs]

You could do clowns and a blenny and one more fish if it's small. I no nothing about cardinals except theyre a little aggressive.

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. I just kinda like how they look, and how they hover in the water. Anyone got a list of things needed for a 29gallon SW aquarium?

 

[Jlsardina]

Live rock
Substrate
Heater
Reef lighting
Chemi pure elite
Skimmer (seems personal preference on smaller tanks)
Test kits ( ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kh, calcium, phosphates, iodine, magnesium, strontium, etc)
Ammonia source to cycle the tank
Power head
Phosphate media
Sump HOB overflow box, return pump (drilled tank?)
Timer for lights
Surge protector
Glass algae scraper (mag float or hand held type)
Hydrometer or refractometer
Drip line
5 gallon bucket for water changes
Reef Salt
Ro/di water and maker (not necessary if you buy locally from LFS or grocery store)
Net
Cup to thaw food

Just to get you started

 

[Khij159753]

Live rock
Substrate
Heater
Reef lighting
Chemi pure elite
Skimmer (seems personal preference on smaller tanks)
Test kits ( ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kh, calcium, phosphates, iodine, magnesium, strontium, etc)
Ammonia source to cycle the tank
Power head
Phosphate media
Sump HOB overflow box, return pump (drilled tank?)
Timer for lights
Surge protector
Glass algae scraper (mag float or hand held type)
Hydrometer or refractometer
Drip line
5 gallon bucket for water changes
Reef Salt
Ro/di water and maker (not necessary if you buy locally from LFS or grocery store)
Net
Cup to thaw food

Just to get you started

I feel like that's a bit overkill on the Necessities. Do I really need a sump? What's phosphate media? Isn't live rock the ammonia source? Every single one of those test kits? And what dies chemi pure elite do?

 

[Mrc8858]

for the most part you will need all that and more but the iodine and strontium test kits arent really needed if your doing weekly water changes. the phosphate media though is good to have but your rodi water should have 0 phosphates to begin with so also with proper water changes you shouldnt have an issue with that either

 

[Khij159753]

Well like I said earlier all I have is a 29 gallon tank that came with a small filter, a fluorescent light, and a heater. I have 20lbs of LR and LS a thermometer, salt mix, and some cheap-o test strips. I'm planning on gettin a better light and probably a better filter. 20lbs more LR and 10lbs more LS. Better test equipment near the end of the cycle, a couple power heads, and maybe a skimmer. Does that sound like a good start? Will I need more before I add a CUC? I'm gonna start after my cycle with just a CUC and probably a pair of clowns. I'm going very slowly and my small paychecks are helping me go slow. Anything I NEED to get that I didn't mention before I start anything?

 

[Mrc8858]

Nope you could start a fowlr system with everything you have of plan on having.. don't know if you said refractometer or not that's a must

 

[Khij159753]

FOWLR also include inverts? So everything specific and fancy stuff all is for the corrals? And I have a hydrometer. Those are the same thing or interchangeable?

 

[Readingexcalibur]

Hydrometers are hard to read and tend to lie about their results. Refractometer is a calibrated instrument, usual pretty accurate!

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. Well the hydrometer I have seems to be working and changes reasonably so I'm gonna trust it for now but thanks and I'll definitely look into getting a refractometer after I get some of the more needed things first.

 

[Khij159753]

So my LFS sells Fiji rock for 8$ a lb. I already bought 20lbs. Is there another option to possibly minimize cost? Also if I decide to place corral on that rock... It's not very flat or has any big area where it would easily go. Can I place a corral on it even though it's all branchy and there is no place with a flat part?

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I'd you have 20 pounds of already LR (cured) you can use base rock (normally 2$ a pound) and it will eventually be "seeded" buy the LR.

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. About how long will that take? Is that a good option or would you recommend just buying the cured LR?