advice please!

[saltnewbie]

Tell me if this setup will be a good one for a 30 gallon tank.
A penguin 330 with a berlin airlift 90 protein skimmer
I am also looking for advice on what type of lighting to get.
I am looking to use 10 lbs of lr and would like to know how much ls to put in.Will all of these things combined help cycle my tank?
I read somewhere that you shouldnt turn on your protein skimmer during the cycle phase. Eventually after i have get good at dealing with saltwater i will go to reef tank. I also read your article of cycling a tank with a raw shrimp. Is that with the shell on or off?

 

[fishfreek]

To give a recommendation on lights we need to know what your intent is for this tank. Do yo want fish only? Do you want a reef? if you want a reef what kind of corls where you wanting to keep?

No need to recommend high output light if your just gonna go with a fish only setup. But if you want a reef we need to have an idea of what you want to keep to recommend lighting.

We dont want you to have to buy more lights a few months down the road.

I would say you all 10lbs of the lr and actually get another 20-30lbs of that stuff. This will become a substantal part of your bio filter.

Dont worry about the shell. Your goal is to have the shrmp rot. Everything will decompose just toss that sucker in. Make sure its raw and unseasoned.

 

[saltnewbie]

more advice

It will be fish only for a while.
So you think i need like 30 lbs of lr instead of 10?
I think after maybe 6 months to a year i might go to a reef
how many lbs of ls do need to get atleats 2 inches of sand in the bottom?
Do you think the filter and the skimmer are good for the 30.
Do i turn on teh skimmer during the cycling process?

 

[fishfreek]

Im not fully sure on the dimentions of a 30 gal tank but what I can tell you is there is a calculator at the top of the page on this site that will give you an approximation of how much sand you will need for a specific desired depth. Here is a link for you http://www.aquariumadvice.com/calcs_new.php

I would suggest a 3-4" sand bed, now that does not have to be all LS. You can get 2" of 'dead' sand and add an inch or two of LS on top of that. The dead sand will be live in a short time.

With a 3-4" sand bed and 30-45lbs of LR you wont need that filter. You will have adequite bio filter in your LS and LR. What you can use the filter for is to provide water flow. Water flow is very important as that helps with oxygen exchange and also keeps your tank void of some of the nasty canyobactera that lives in stagnet areas of the tank.

Using the skimmer during the cycling process is a mater of option. Some will say it will hurt your cycle and others say it will shorten it and yet others say it will lenthen it. I will tell you that when I ran a skimmer I did run it durring my tank cycle.

For a 30 gal tank you could get a single 96W Power compact 10K bulb and then suplment that with a normal output actinic florecent. The general rule is 3-5W of light per gal of tank capacity for a reef.

There is a very informative thread here in this site on lighting. It wont tell you what to use but more give you informatoin about different types and help explain why people debate it such.

 

[freshmaker]

Saltnewbie,

I've got a 40 gal reef and I'm running the penguin 330 and a protein skimmer made by Lee's. As Aaron said, protein skimming during cycling is a matter of opinion. I for one ran my skimmer during cycling.

What type of top do you have for your tank? Do you have a picture? I might be able to give you a few ideas if I know what your top looks like.

Most reef keepers would have a heart attack but I went to Lowe's and picked up two 36" florescent light strips. The kind you would hang in a garage. Screwed it to the lid of my tank and I'm using 30 watt florescent 50/50's. I've been running this setup for 2 years. If you'd like to see a picture, check out my web site.

 

[michealprater]

ive found a pound of sand per gallon always worked well for me.

 

[fishfreek]

ive found a pound of sand per gallon always worked well for me.

In a standard sized tank 1lb of sand per gal of tank capacity should give you close to 1" of depth.

But if your talking about a non standard tank as in a tall tank or a long tank then this calculation might not work.


For example a 29 gal high tank and a 30 gal long tank would require almost the same aount of sand if you use the 1lbs per gal rule but I belive you would find you would get different depths of sand in the two tanks that way.