Just wanted to introduce myself!

[Melonbob]

Hi! We a a family from northern ontario, and just wanted to introduce ourselves. We are in the process of starting our first SW aquarium. We have a 46G bowfront, and since we are completely green when it comes to this, we are listening to our local guy and reading as much as we can! At this point we have added our sand and gave everything a few days to settle. Then our local shop gave us a small bag of "grunge" from one of his aquarium, as well as two very small pieces of LR, to start cycling. He says he prefers not to add LR until the tank is cycled? Either way, its amazing to wake up in the morning and find tracks in the sand!

As far as equipment, all we have at this point is the tank, a 350 biowheel, a 36" coralife t5, and a powerhead. We will be adding over then next few weeks as the tank is cycling. Anyways, hello, and I hope to hear from all of you!

 

[Lance M.]

Welcome. It sounds like you are off to a good start.

About the lr, imo it's easier to add all of it at once when cycling the tank then slowly adding it. You can slowly add it over time but the cycle will take longer. I would suggest looking at the tank at night and trying to see if you have any hitchhiker crabs or anything else. If you find something in there try and get a picture of it or describe as best you can in the ID part of the forum. There are a lot of bad hitchhikers out there and it's easiest to catch them before you start stocking the tank.

What do you plan on keeping?

 

[Melonbob]

Thats what we are not sure of yet...... lol We are just starting into looking at what we can keep, but it will def be a reef with coral etc. The only thing we are set on is a pair of clowns, since we have a 3 year old and as you know every 3 year old wants a "Nemo"

 

[Lance M.]

Ok. So a reef with a pair of Ocellaris clowns. Is that correct?

I recommend getting tank raised clowns because they are hardier than wild caught and not likely to have internal parasites.

How many watts is your T-5 fixture?

And any idea on what corals you would like to keep?

I also do not recommend any anemone until the tank is stable. Most people who get clowns want an anemone so I had to include this.

 

[Melonbob]

It is a 36" 42 watt. No idea on which corals, but definately something easier to keep for starters. For sure an anemone, but no rush on that either. We're easygoing, so we can really take our time.

 

[Lance M.]

That's great! Patience is the key to success. If you could wait 9-12 months for an anemone, the minimum is 6 months but I prefer the 12 months to make sure the water params are stable.

Um for your T-5 fixture what is the brand/wattage? 36'' T-5's are 39 watts each. How many bulbs do you have?

 

[Melonbob]

It is a coralife 36" There is one 21 watt 10000k daylight and one 21 watt true actinic 03 Blue. I really don't know alot about this, so I'm always wonding if I'm being had, although the guy seems genuine enough. I want to support the local guy, but at the same time it seems as I can save alot of money online.

 

[cmor1701d]

I agree with Lance about adding all the LR now. Now would be a good time to put down a lot of BASE rock which will eventually (3-6 months) become LR. Check out Reef Rock from ThatFishPlace.com for an example.

Most anemones need a lot of light to survive. Clowns do not need one, but try to tell that to a 3 year old <g>. Supporting the local guy is always a nice idea, but once you check the online prices it's hard to do. Keep reading and coming back here to ask advice.

 

[Melonbob]

Exactly! I'm finding the light I just purchased for about half online. Take shipping into account, and I'd still save alot. Live rock is 10/lb here. I want to support him cause he's our main source of info, but I don't want to go borke doing it. The flip side of that is no matter what I buy, someone tells me I should have spent more money. I understand getting what you pay for, but I have financial limits too...... lol

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Welcome! I also have a 46g bowfront which started out because our 5-year old at the time wanted a goldfish. (Deep down, Mom & Dad wanted a SW tank for ages, and finally had justification!) And actually... telling the 5-year old "no anemone" was quite easy! She loves her Nemo!

Anyways... I just want to also chime in on adding all the live rock all at once in the beginning. There's nothing easy about getting 60-80 lbs of rock all at once and trying to figure out how to arrange it. But at least you have it all there, and can arrange... rearrange... and rearrange yet again until you have it the way you want it. Doing it a little at a time seems like it'd make it really hard to put together a decent aquascape. Plus... unless it's ALL fully cured, you risk introducing another cycle each time you add any amount of rock. And if you have livestock in the tank, that's not a good thing.

If you haven't picked them up yet, two good books are Paletta's "The New Marine Aquarium" and Fenner's "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist". Must have's, in my book. And before you go out and get your first coral, pick up Borneman's book on Corals. (Can't remember the title right now.) Great info on tons of different corals, as well as great info on how to keep them happy.

 

[Lance M.]

Melonbob: I'm sorry but, imo, that fixture won't do for corals, let alone an anemone. It's good enough for now but when you want to add corals you'll need to upgrade.

Pretty much every dry good you can by at a lfs (lights, filters, etc.) is a LOT cheaper when bought on the internet. I buy all my lights from the internet and even the replacement bulbs. The replacement bulbs are double the price at my lfs when compared to what I can get them as off the internet.

Another thing you can find out quickly in this hobby (if you do you research) is that the guy at the local fish store usually is just trying to sell you stuff and either doesn't know what he's doing or is tricking you into buying stuff. They usually get the general concept of fish keeping but if you go more specific they are lost.

Wow lr $10 a pound. That's a lot and yet again you could find it cheaper online, and probably better quality.

And like Kurt is pointing out, books are your friends

 

[Melonbob]

Can you point me in the direction of what I should be getting as far as lighting? I realize that you get what you pay for, but I also want to be able to afford the rest of this tank as well. Thanks for the help. My tank is 46gal bowfront, and measures 36" wide

 

[cmor1701d]

First of all Welcome!

Doing it right sometimes takes steps to get there. I'm on my third round of lighting. I started my tank as a FOWLR and just had the 40w NO (normal output) strips that my lfs included in my tank purchase. Later I wanted some mushrooms and softies and upgraded to 2 - Coralife 36" fixtures with a 96w-10k and 96w-actinic compact fluorescent (CF) bulb in each. Now I have a 72" fixture with 3-150w metal halides (MH) and 4-96w cf actinics. It was on sale at the time. I should have spent the couple hundred extra and gone for the 250w MH setup

Most of the people here have a bunch of items laying around that were upgraded. No matter how well you plan that's just part of the hobby.

You need to decide on what you want to keep in the tank and then make the light purchase based on that. Take some time. Look at other tanks and make a list of what you like. Then check for compatability and needs, both lighting and feeding.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Can you point me in the direction of what I should be getting as far as lighting? I realize that you get what you pay for, but I also want to be able to afford the rest of this tank as well. Thanks for the help. My tank is 46gal bowfront, and measures 36" wide

I've got the same tank (Oceanic) and there are the lights I have...

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=620

Gives you about 4 watts/gallon and is enough lighting to do just about all the LPS (large polyp) corals, mushrooms, leathers, and zoanthids. These are pretty much all the corals out there except for the SPS (small polyp) corals which are the acroporas and associated varieties. (These are the "branching" hard corals you normally think of when you think about corals.)

Unless you know for a fact that you want to do SPS corals, I'd highly recommend this light. Very quiet, three separate switches for the actinic/daylight/moonlight so you can control them separately, and a nice compact looking unit.

I *think* it may be enough light for lower light requirement anemones, but I'm not sure. I'm not planning on going that route, so I've never researched it. Perhaps someone with a BTA (bubble tip anemone) can chime in on that.

Agree that it's nice to support your local fish store, but when buying the startup stuff, you'll easily find hardware online for AT LEAST 50% off what your fish store sells it for... including shipping. The only thing I bought locally was my tank and stand itself. Everything else came online - even the rock and sand. However... I have bought just about everything in my tank living from one or two fish stores, where I also buy food, test kits, and misc supplies. I don't really feel guilty about it because the stores know they can't compete against the online folks. That's why many of them (at least in my area) don't really stock a ton of hardware. They seem to focus on those things that people need in a hurry - heaters, powerheads and pumps, medications, test kits, carbon, etc.

Agree with cmor1701d... it you stick in the hobby for any length of time, you'll end up with several "spare" items in a cupboard somewhere. It's just part of the learning experience. But shelling out the money upfront for a quality skimmer, good lighting, and quality live rock can really help start you off in the right direction. Skimping on things up front can actually cost you more money in the long run with increased maintenance costs, livestock death, etc.

 

[Lance M.]

On anemones, the fixture Kurt pointed out will be "ok" for a bta, but more light would be better. I wouldn't keep any other anemones under that.

You could also look into 36'' T-5 fixtures, Current has a "Nova Extreme T-5 w/ lunar lights" 156 watts would be ok for hardy corals and a bta, but I wouldn't do a lta or any sand/bottom dwelling anemones.

If your willing to spend some extra money there are the SunPod HQI units. The 36'' one with two 150 watt MH's would be good ($450). If you wanted a tank specific to anemones, then the one with two 250 watt MH's would be a better choice ($600).

 

[Melonbob]

Well, my wife is going to return the lighting tomorrow, we only picked it up on Friday, and we are going to look for something a bit better online. Unfortunately, our budget is tight at the moment, Melissa was in a car accident a month ago and hasn't been back to work. chances are we will probably look in the classifieds and ebay for something in the 150-200 max range. If anyone sees any finds, please let us know! Thanks for all the help. Also, we are looking for live rock that will ship to canada, if anyone can point us to someone reliable, it would be great!

 

[cmor1701d]

You don't need the lights until your ready to add corals and your anemone. That should not happen for quite a few months. Don't rush into buying something now. Wait till your ready and save until then. Words I wish I could live by.

 

[Melonbob]

Yes, but you do need some lighting to cycle your tank and take care of your live rock etc. don't you? If I need lighting, I may as well return the one I have rather than be stuck with it. Other than that, the only lighting I have is the single 36" flourescent I was running freshwater with that came with the tank

 

[Lance M.]

Technically you don't need any lighting at all during the cycle because during the cycle your establishing bacteria to convert NH3 into NO2 and then finally NO3. You want lights to keep anything photosynthetic on the lr alive though and the fixture you currently have is enough to accomplish this until you decide to go with corals/anemone.

 

[Melonbob]

Thats how I figured it, but seeing as I haven't bought my LR yet, and Melissa should be able to return it tomorrow, I may as well shop for something that will suit us better