[NEW] 30G FOWLR Tank :)

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SaltyTony

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
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57
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!.
 
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.
 
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
 
SaltyTony said:
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
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
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?
 
SaltyTony said:
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?
Click to expand...

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
 
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.
 
If you go reef get a T5HO system. I dont think that one you mentioned is a High output system.
 
thanks for the advice guys!, i called marinedepot and had my order changed for the hydor again :). i guess i will be using FOWLR for a bit and maybe change to Soft Coral later on. im not a big fan of hard corals anyways :D..

more advice on what im missing? do i need an extra type of filter or im good since im using 25-40lbs of rock and a really good skimmer? more Help people xD :) ( i love this forum, it has brighten up my eyes to see that salt water fish keeping is tons of fun and a wonderful thing)
 
Is the fixture I posted above the same one you have? If so, I would not add any coral. I was thinking that the fixture you said you have has 2x36w T5 HO from your description, but now that I see there is no HO in the description thanks to melosu and that it is just 2x18w, I now think that it is not good for any coral. I would stay with fowlr until you feel comfortable to move onto reef, then get the nova extreme pro.

Do you have test kits, a refractometer, or thermometer?

You should be fine with just the rock if you seed what you have in there now with live rock.

Hope this helps.
 
yeah i have that light, i can wait a while for my tank to be cycled and have its algae growth for a while before switching over to reef or soft corals. yeah i will be purching a full master test kit and a thermometer. im not sure if i should spend buy a refractometer or a hydrometer... and if so what type of refractometer is decent for a low price?.

i will be also getting 2 Koralia NANO 240GPH
 
There are refractometers on ebay that you can grab for $20+shipping. I would get 2 koralia 1's as the nanos won't push the amount of water you will need. 20x-30x turnover per hour is best. With the nanos, you will barely be getting 16x turnover per hour. In my 20g nano-reef, I have 2 koralia 1's pushing the bulk of the 55x turnover per hour in there. HTH.
 
while cycling my tank with live rock and sand

am i suppose to leave my skimmer and filter running also?
or just leave the heater and Power head running without the filter and skimmer?

also should i add 1 cocktail shrimp?
 
I would run the filter. Running a skimmer during you cycle can slow your cycle, but the skimmer needs to go through the break-in period to remove all the oils on the inside which can take a few days to a few weeks so it may not do much during the cycle if you have it on. One raw, unseasoned shrimp should do you fine for your cycle. HTH.
 
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