Ashley's New Adventure _ 46 Bowfront SW reef

[lilladybug05]

Alright so my husband and I have decided we want to give a go at a SW water tank. After many year of FW tanks. SW just seems so much more interesting and rewarding.
So I have been reading and reading and reading lol and we are picking up our tank this Sunday which has been a FOWLR for the last 10 years. (46 bowfront) Its coming with some equipment and some inhabitants which I will be giving to the fish store or trading for some live rock. Because in all reality I'm not ready for live animals in this tank lol. I need pet rocks first.

I do need some help though, although most of the equipment is coming with this and has been bought new within the last 6 months, I don't have a whole lot left to purchase, but I would like some input before I start putting hundreds of dollars of what may be useless equipment in to this. I want it to be my pride and joy not a nightmare.

Here is what comes with it....

Glass top/with light, Fluval 304 canister filter with all media, 2 Hydor Koralia 4 turbo pumps 1200 GPH, WON Pro Heat II 250w Digital heater, and Prizm Deluxe Skimmer.
I have about 30 lbs of live rock. 4 fish included. Immaculate Puffer, Niger Trigger, Maroon Clown, and Spotted Hawkfish. Misc crabs,snails also in tank.
Test kits, Sea salt, cleaners, and more will also be included.


Obviously I need a new light considering this is a regular ol aquarium light. Because I do want to keep some soft and LPS corals ( no SPS)

So here is what I was thinking for the lighting... is this enough? I really want to stay away from MH and having to get a chiller.

Coralife Lunar Aqualight Compact Fluorescent Fixture 96 Watt coralife 36 inch lunar aqualight 36 lunar aqualight

I would like to add 25 lbs more of live rock.... 30 lbs of rock comes with already along with sand and he says he has more sand I can have.

Combo Live Rock: Combination Box Live Rock from Aquatic Connection Live


What else would be super important to have ? and if these supplies above are not sufficient what should I consider getting?

Thank you for the help
Ashley

 

[Gti_Leo]

if you want to house corals may i suggest a bigger skimmer, the prizms are to small for a 46g reef. i's also suggest T5HOs over the power compact, you can get individual reflectors on T5s and the bulbs are much cheaper.

some would also say take off the glass top, going with out a top may have more evaporation but it gives better gas exchange, keeping the water column more stable

 

[mr_X]

those fish will all have to go. none of them are reef safe and most of them require much larger tanks. judging by the stock list i don't think the previous owner had much salt water knowledge.
i agree on t-5 fixtures. a 4 lamp fixture will work well for you. btw, metal halide doesn't necessarily mean you will need a chiller. i've used them for years without one.
where is that sand coming from? how long has this system been set up before you got it? has the sand been in the tank the whole 10 years? you might want to remove the existing sand bed and start over with new sand. in some cases when you move a tank and disrupt an established sand bed, you can release a lot of detritus and cause issues.
at least i would put the sand in buckets and rinse it out completely so to avoid this.
i would also consider drilling the tank and adding a sump. this is an easy task and will make your reef keeping experience more enjoyable. if you are willing to consider this, this company:
Complete Overflow Kits - Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff
sells everything you need.
as for the live rock, you could just purchase dry rock cheaper and it will become live in a short time.
something like this perhaps-
Dry Rock

 

[Gti_Leo]

mrx you're awesome man, my girlfriend just sent me a text message this morning telling me her brother wants $250 for his 70 freshwater. i said all i need is the stand and tank cuz i'll prob end up putting a sump. so those overflow kits just came at the perfect time

 

[Henry405]

This is probably a dumb question and I think already know the answer BUT, can you drill a hole in a tank without draining it? My tank has just cycled and I'm really considering a sump just to be extra clean. Maybe drain the water down a bit and drill the hole?

 

[Gti_Leo]

no you can't, you'd release glass shards into the water as you drill through. you could lower the water level but then you'd have to worry about the glass in the water, not a good thing.

 

[Henry405]

I guess Ill just have to look for an overflow box than

any recommendations?

 

[Gti_Leo]

sometimes an over flow box is a better way to go, specially if you want to resell the tank afterwards.

you can make DIY overflows, just google them

 

[SteveFishman]

Also they keep your sump from flooding during a power outage

 

[lilladybug05]

Thanks everyone for all of the advice We picked up the tank today and did trade in the fish to the lfs for some new live sand. I did take all the existing sand and rinse it all till the water ran clear and just put the ro water in. I have to wait a few hours as my husband is sleeping in that room right now to finish the rest of my tinkering. We do plan on making a sump just haven't gotten around to all that yet, we needed to see how big the stand was before we started to make that. I would have to get overflow boxes as this tank is not reef ready. But we will do that. I did find a light on ebay that has metal halide, power compact and led lunars for 200$ total of 442 watts. Which Im sure would be plenty of light. and I may ditch the lid.
Thanks for the info on the dry rock I will definatly be looking into that. We have quite a while of waiting for all this to cycle anyway as I really dont want to rush anything and would like to take my time.

Also how do you all feel about the UV sterilizer ?? good product or waste of money?

Its funny cause the guy I bought all this from has been running salt water tanks for 20 years lol. I thought some of it was too small also. Ohh well I will upgrade slowly. The rock he had was awesome and the tank and stand are wonderful so I'm happy with the used purchase it may not have saved me a ton but it did save me a little.

 

[lilladybug05]

Here is the lighting link... tell me what you think good deal or stay away ??
36'' Metal Halide Power Compact Aquarium Light 442 watt - eBay (item 260749887417 end time May-08-11 12:52:18 PDT)

 

[Gti_Leo]

sometimes buyign a used aquarium is the best way to go.

as far as sterilizers, i'd say don't worry about it unless you have a serious ich problem or aglae problem. just do regular watcher changes and watch your water perameters (nitrates and phosphates low)

 

[SteveFishman]

I just bought that same light in the 24 inch form!!!!!!

 

[lilladybug05]

How is it working for you Steve ? do you like it

 

[lilladybug05]

Here are the first pictures of at home more on my profile

 

[mr_X]

i would open the fixture up and inspect all of the connections to make sure nothing is loose, or soldered improperly. many of those chinese knock-off fixtures which are not UL listed can be a fire hazard. a 250 watt lamp over that tank should allow you to keep whatever you want. you might want to change out the lamp down the road to something that puts off better color also. the bulbs they send with those things are also "no frills".

you don't need a UV sterilizer.

 

[lilladybug05]

I actually ended up switching to 6 x 39 watt T5 fixture with lunars.

In the process of doing an HOB refugium right now, I was gonna do the sump but im so afraid of having it overflow ... since the tank is in my bedroom and I already did an oops and spilled a few gallons and it leaked through my ceiling... I couldn't handle another spillage problem.

I did order the dry rock from Marko and also some grunge from garf.org to seed the tank.

I plan on getting some cheato (sp) and mangrove trees for the refugium. With the mangrove trees would I use mud then sand for the trees or just sand?
I cant believe how expensive this has gotten already and Im not even started really lol .
Ohh well best to have good stuff now to hopefully avoid disaster later.

I think I have cyano on my existing rocks and some weird white stuff ( in a separate post in identification thread) no clue what that is , can I scrub my rocks before the others come I would hate to contaminate those new ones with bad stuff.
Sorry the long rambling , just trying to do this right the first time.

oh and right now

Ammonia .25
ph 7.8
nitrite 0
nitrate 80

did a 15 gallon water change yesterday and I think Ill do another one this weekend and then hopefully the new rock with be here and I can start to cycle that.
I think the ammonia was from a pencil urchin the guy had in his tank and said was dead so I put it in my tank and I think it was alive prior to the trip and died in the process of transfer so I took that out today.

 

[mr_X]

the grunge was a waste of money. mangroves don't filter enough to warrant using them for filtration. they are more for looks than anything. a conversation piece. you can use sand to root them if you like. chaeto will work better and i don't suggest you add that until you get some sort of bioload.

leave the lights off while you are cycling. leaving them on is just gonna cause you trouble and any photosynthetic creatures that were alive on the rock thus far, will live with just ambient lighting until the cycle is over.

you do not want to be doing water changes at this time. you want to be building a bacteria colony.

 

[Gti_Leo]

that sucks that you had leakage from a water spill. be careful when you do waterchanges

 

[lilladybug05]

awwwwwwww really why is it a waste, sounded like it had good stuff in it.

Ok so Ill x the mangrove, wait on the cheato and refugium

really I thought that I should change the water cause my nitrates were ridiculous like 160 now they are 80 , should I wait till after the dry rock cycles? It wont hurt anything living on the live rock in there to have super high nitrates?