[NEW] 30G FOWLR Tank :)

[SaltyTony]

hello My name is Tony and here is my current Build.

Tank : 30 Gallon Glass
Light : Coralife T5 36W 30" 10,000k daylight & T5 Blue 03 Fluorescent

plan on buying a

Skimmer : AquaC Remora w/ MaxiJet 1200
Power Head : Hydor Koralias 1 ( 400 GPH )
Heater : Rena SmartHeater 150W

Also 25-30 Pounds of Live Rock and buying 2-3 inches of Live Sand.

i was wondering if the lighting is good and if the product im thinking of purchasing is good enough for a 30G tank or useful at all. also im not sure if i need an canister filter.

Opinions and Tips would be very helpful since this is my first Saltwater tank and i want everything to go correct!.

[match55]

for a FOWLR, the light u r using is more than enough,
good choice on skimmer and power head (thats what I m using heheh XP)
as someone might suggest don't need of live sand since they r in a bag for whoever know how long, the bacteria might all died.

but I used LS n LR and so far my tank is doing good.

I will suggest you do a planning on what livestocks you want, then think about how u should do the rocks, if u r gonna get fishes that like to dig burrows, remember to push the rocks(at the bottom) all the way til they touch the bottom of the aquarium.

have salt water ready before u buy LR and LS, after u pull the sand and finish your rock work, put 1 or 2 HOB (if u have extra, if not just need to wait a little bit longer for the sand to settle.) to clear the water a little bit.

since LR most of the time will have some die off, u might not need to put raw shrimps to cycle your tank,but recommanded to get 1 for a 30gal tank. then just let the tank cycle, do water test every couple days until u see the nitrate raise, then your cycle is done, and u r ready to slowly intro fishes to your tank.

during the cycle, u can put cleaning crew if u want, but should be better put them in after.

[SaltyTony]

thanks for the advice match and will i need more lighting if i want to go reef? and if so what kind of lighting? and when placing the rock into the tank, i noticed alot of people used PVC Pipes for the base rocks, whats the reason for that? and is it necessary? or its okay to put the live rock onto the bare glass floor of the tank? im just scared it would crack it XD

[match55]

Originally Posted by SaltyTony

thanks for the advice match and will i need more lighting if i want to go reef? and if so what kind of lighting? and when placing the rock into the tank, i noticed alot of people used PVC Pipes for the base rocks, whats the reason for that? and is it necessary? or its okay to put the live rock onto the bare glass floor of the tank? im just scared it would crack it XD

Current USA Nova Extreme Pro T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture, 6X39 Watt, 36 inch
someone in here suggested this light to me, this light will let us have most of the SPS, but if u want more, then you will need MH light.
you can go check my 46gal build, I used PVC before but I don't really like it, so recently I change to no PVC at the bottom.

the PVCs r use to raise the base rocks a little bit, so water can flow under the rock and hopefully bring some of the non eaten food/dirty stuff out.
but recently someone had suggested me just make bridges from rocks than using PVC, so I just push the rocks that r sitting on the sand all the way so they touched the glass bottom.

PVC is not necessary if u r making bridges, if u r planning to use a lot of base rock covering most of the sand bed, then u might want some PVC to raise them a little.

just make sure u have lot of cave/hole for them to swim through or maybe hide.

oh and remember no light during cycle to prevent diatom/algae grow like crazy

[SaltyTony]

thanks alot

i will be definetly taking alot of pictures from the beginning once i start my purchases. currently still have my empty tank and lighting system. just waiting for the packages to come from marinedepot there only 20 miles away from me.

[match55]

haha cool
I got my skimmer from marinedepot too XP

I will wait for the pictures. ^^

[SaltyTony]

I decided not to pruchase the Hydor Koralias 1 ( 400 GPH ) but buy two maxi jet 400's so i can circulate the water from both directions. also because the skimmer comes with a maxi jet 1200 already so two mini powerheads would be useful. good choice? or bad decision?

[mdaniel2882]

Originally Posted by SaltyTony

I decided not to pruchase the Hydor Koralias 1 ( 400 GPH ) but buy two maxi jet 400's so i can circulate the water from both directions. also because the skimmer comes with a maxi jet 1200 already so two mini powerheads would be useful. good choice? or bad decision?

The Koralias are a MUCH better choice. If you want 2 try the NANO. it pushes 240 gph the maxi 400 only pushes 106 gph

[thominil]

The light you have is fine for soft coral but not much else. The light that match suggested would allow you to keep almost anything you want. I'm supposing that this is the standard 30g, so MH would be overkill. I honestly have to tell you that the maxi-jets suck as they take up quite a bit of real estate and don't move much water. The hydors are my favorite. I have to hydor koralia 1's in my 20g high along with a maxi-jet 1200 running my skimmer which I am about to chuck seeing as my skimmer is the terrible seaclone. Keep in mind that you will want to have at least 20x-30x turnover per hour in your tank. I would also get another heater, maybe a 50w just in case your Rena heater fails. HTH.

[melosu58]

If you go reef get a T5HO system. I dont think that one you mentioned is a High output system.