A Real Newbie Question here

[IXTA]

I've been involved with the freshwater community for some time here at AAdvice but now I want to make the migration over to some saltwater stuff.
I just got a forty gallon tall for my wrought iron stand, OOPS, is there ANYWAY to protect it from Corrosive salt? Or I am just better off buying a wooden stand. Pix here http://www.foto.ixtabai.com/varios/salt/salt.htm

I tried to find REAL NEWBIE information for beginning setups here but the site layout is hard. Anyone send me links to discussions and advice on the following...

1. I hear tall tanks (like my 37-40 gallon) does not work too well due to circulation of water probs. True?

2. I bought the new aquarium book by Paletta and I want to do Live Rock.
difference between the Haitian Caribean rock on Live aquaria.com and the fiji? Pros and Cons? I tend to spend alot of time on roatan/cuba/Quintana Roo coast and want to make an Caribe style tank.

3. How many pounds of LR, Sand?

4. Am I ok with just a skimmer or do I need another filter?

5. How many submerged water circulators? one on each side of rocks, one up high in back?

6. Oh Almost Forgot! Lights! I want some decent lighting but don't have the 500$ for a massive outfit. I would like to handle some coral in the future though, anyway getting around it or is my VISA doomed.

Jeez, Freshwater is cakewalk..

Anybody know of any saltwater hobbyists in Wenatchee Valley Wa. area>?

Any other info appreciated.
thanks
IXTA

 

[Electrobes]

well hey man you're in luck! I wish I was a little more ahead in my tank as I recently started my own saltwater tank a few weeks ago, so I cannot give you the most accurate info ever. I have a 45 gallon tall. But lets see if I can answer some questions. First off, are you hoping to do a reef tank? As for me I am not.. I am doing a macroalgae tank with single valentini puffer (max size about 5 inches), and some other invertabrates that I hope the puff won't eat! 8O - okay then.. lets see what we can do for you.

1. yes it is true, I also have this wee bit of a problem but this is assuming you have semi-below average filtration and circulation in your tank. There are remedies, but also if you plan on having a huge stock of fish, then there will be some trouble.. but if you midly stock up your tank... it should not be a problem.

2. From what I read mixing LR shouldn't be a problem, and from others I even hear it could be beneficial.

3. The general rule of thumb is a pound of sand per gallon, and a pound of rock per gallon (if not necessarily a reef) as well. but this is too general.. I'll get more specific. First off it depends on what tank you are doing.. like I am what you would call a FOWLR tank. Since I am not doing a reef, I don't believe I need as much LR or sand, plus I do not have a DSB which a lot of reef people perfer. I stuck to the a pound of sand per gal rule because it looks nice, even in a tall tank like mine. As for Rocks.. I would say add until you think its fine... for me I have about 25 pounds of base rock, but will be adding about 10-15 pounds of LR. The reason for this are two fold.. one its a lot cheaper to get base rock and seed it with LR, though it takes time for the base rock to turn into LR.. but like I said much cheaper, and the other reason was that I don't have a reef tank, so I am not in a hurry to make everything live. Also what you semi have to understand is that LR is used for filtration too. You don't need a killer filtration system if you've got a decent amount of live rock (a pound per gal is decent?). Water movement is a plus though. But like I said.. it all depends on what you want as a tank set up... as for filtration its common place to find reef members with a sump, you'll see why later.

4. As I said above if you've got anough live rock in your system.. most people actually perfer just using a skimmer with it, but if you do not have madd live rock then another filter will be needed. Even with a bunch of live rock.. to remove the baddies from water a lot of saltwater people use sumps.. which also add madd water valume to your tank. But I assume you do not want to spend a butt load of money on that... you could consider DIY methods. Sumps are great filters and add a lot of volume to a tank which is a GREAT benefit to any tank. I do not have one, but wished I did.

5. Water circulators are a good idea in general, but you don't need to over kill. Currently my XP3 is doing the job.. I even had to limit the current some because it is powerful.

6. Ahhhhhh I love this part because I just completed my DIY set up recently and couldn't be happier! For about 70 bucks you can get two 65 watt bulbs of PC lighting but they are at 6500K so it may make your tank a little yellow (the higher the K the less yellow and more white crisper it is). I also didnt want to spend a lot of $$ for something I wasn't too interested in (reef tank), but did want a fair amount for the LR and my Macroalgaes. For my 45G tank I have 2.8 watts per gallon. I think JustDIY (an awesome member here) is putting this project up on his website. But I would make sure that this lighting is what you want... I don't know if it would be useful for a reef tank (not sure is 6500k is ANY good at all, plus you would have to add an actinic to counter the yellow of these bubs, also having an actinic is just nice anyway), but for a FOWLR, I do not believe it to be a bad choice at all, but it does take work to do (sodering, wiring, etc). I had a lot of fun and couldn't be happier with what I got. The only thing that I would do different, saving me madd money) is to just get the bulbs and ot the entire set up like I did.. which were 30 bucks a piece, as opposed to the 12 buck a piece replacement bulbs that I could have gotten and the mogul sockets on top of that. But anyway don't wanna write too much on this because it may not interest you - Basically if you go for corals.. you will have to spend madd money either way you look at it IMO. Then again it depends what corals you would want and what they need, apparently I could raise a very select few, but like I said not my choice. Also remember that lighting won't just do for corals.. you will need supplements, patience, and some other things (they can tell you more about it), and corals themselves will cost money too (One of the minor reasons (madd cost) why I decided against corals, but the main being I liked the challenge of beautifying my tank like a reef using only macroalgaes ). The DIY lighting I used will do well for LR (dunno if I said this, been typing a lot).


HTH!!

 

[Electrobes]

remember to ask the other reef peeps out there! the more info to compare against each other the better!

 

[IXTA]

thanks, I was looking at the reef possibility and I do have a 10 gallon that I could use as a sump.
will use..
50-55 lbs LR,
55 pounds sand, will mix a little live sand with regular. I might build a Plenum..but will research more.

http://www.thereefweb.com/plenums_old.htm

I only will get like three fish. Later on will investigate low light corals, etc.

Have any pix of yours?

This Sump thing, I hope it does not flood over because I live in an Apt.
Any say about the saltwtater treatment of that stand, I think I may get rid of it, not really stable and when the tank is full of water, even less stable.
thanks.

 

[Electrobes]

I never liked those stands.. make me nervous as heck. Sumps really can't over flow.. the only thing that could overflow would be an overflow box (haha the irony). So far so good on your set up. man you know what? I will start putting pics in my profile.. I just bever do it for some odd reason.. but then again my tank still lacks the LR that I will be getting this wednesday (new shipment), still need a protein skimmer (which I plan on making when I get home for winter vacation), and a stand as well (mine is ghetto, so it will be replaced soon to match the DIY canopy I made). Once the cycling is finished, and the rocks placed I will start compiling my list and data on each macro algae to see which will fit the best and be the prettiest.

Plenums are fun but good idea on the research... when I first started the aquarium thing I wish I had done more research.. but of course impatience ends up costing a lot more than its ever worth!

When you set up your tank are you going to do a fishless cycle (I did and I believe most perfer it). There are many ways to do a fishless cycle, but you prob already know that. Make sure you get SG correct, and pH. People of course have diff opinions about SG levels... I would say around 1.023 (after averaging what everyone else says). pH should be around 8.1-8.3. I would definately do this if its available. My LFS has something called "Go-Juice" which cycles your tank very quickly. I wasn;t in a rush, but it had ALL the backteria the tank needed and worked very well for me. It was expensive.. about 5 bucks an ounce, and I needed 2, so 10 bucks.. but definately worth it. Also when you start to cycle.. don't keep the lights on for too long.. only for some hours of the day... the reason being of an algae bloom which can be a nightmare to fix.

 

[IXTA]

I hear I can cycle a tank with Store bought Prawn at the local Safeway. I probably will get another stand. But the proces will be slow, will post build up pix later when I get some cash, i'm trying to build a PC too so am collecting hardware for that too.

If you haven't already here is my fresh collection
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1741&thumb=1

 

[biotoxin]

better to just get live rock and let it cycle for you. That way when you add lr later it wont restart a cycle from the die-off. The little shrimp trick is ok but id do it the other way.

 

[IXTA]

thanks for all the info, I have decided to just do a fowlr tank and get some of that cool fake corral. (sorry purists) I may even put all my fresh fish from my 50 gal and put them in the 37 and turn the 50 into the salt tank, will see more posts from me when I get started. TANKS allot!