First Try:37 gallon

[Riot84]

So I'm setting up a 37 gallon tank I've had in my garage for about a year and I've decided to make it my first saltwater tank. So far I've got the back glass painted black and I have a heater a topfin 40 I'm gonna run as a filter and an aquaclear 110 that I'm gonna use as a refugium. I plan on using oolite aragonite dry sand and a powerhead for water movement. How strong of a powerhead should I get? I plan on starting the tank as a fowlr tank but would like to add coral at some point(probably in the fairly distant future). Also I have a 24in 50/50 bulb for it right now. I plan on upping to LEDs before I add any coral. Any suggestions, comments or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Riot84]

Still several weeks away from having this tank up and running but when I get it together my cousin is giving me a 4 stripe damsel to cycle with. It's the same one he used to cycle one of his tanks several months ago. He told me to wait til the diotomes start to build up then add 3 or 4 nassarius snails to clean up. Any opinions on this?

 

[Riot84]

Got sand, salt mix, a hydrometer and an aqueon 500 circulation pump this yesterday. Rinsed the sand all day and got it in the tank. Still clouded pretty good so it's water changes and waiting for now. :/

 

[Quinn]

Never have been onto saltwater, but sounds cool.

 

[Riot84]

Thanks. This is my first saltwater tank myself so im being as diligent as I can with reading up on things and asking advice from this site, my lfs and my cousin who has had several. Water change today after work will hopefully clear it up enough for a decent pic and I'll post if I get one. Just has the sand bed in there right now tho. :/

 

[Riot84]

Ok. Water cleared up a pretty good after 4 water changes and I added salt. Probably jumped the gun on that one since I'm gonna have to take water out to make room for the rock next week but at least I under dosed the salt so it's not too bad. Hopefully gonna get rock and probably another circulation pump next week, the 500 doesn't seem to be enough. Gonna just get a little bit of live rock to seed the tank and fill in the scape with dry rock. Also gonna put some live rubble rock in the ac110 I'm using as a refugium.

 

[Riot84]

Added some salt cuz the sg was a bit low at 1.021 so that's why it's cloudy but I got bored of the empty tank and put some rock my cousin gave me in there. Not sure how much will stay and if any of it does it'll prolly be in a different spot but here's the first pic of the tank.

 

[Riot84]

Added some more live rock, had a few hitchhikers including a pretty nice zoa, and the 4 stripe damsel my cousin had. Some pics!