New Tank

[justin81]

I am looking for advice on setting up a fish only tank without live rock. I have a 90gal tank with 4-96watt Power Compacts. I don't have any filtration right now. Can I use a canister filter, fake decorations, weekly 10% water changes, and crushed coral for substrate. Has anyone had luck running a tank like this. I really don't want to spend a lot of money on live sand, live rock, and stuff like that. I just want the tank to look nice and have a few fish swimming around. I am saving my money to buy a new 150gal reef ready tank to start my reef in, and just want to set this one up to have some fish to look at. I can't live without a fish tank. What do you think?? Could it work?? The fish I was thinking about was a porcupine puffer, a humahuma triger, a yellow tang, and some sort of wrasse. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanx 8)

 

[JohnNLuc]

justin you COULD im sure run the tank like you stated but I see many things that will give you headaches in the future especially if you are thinking about keeping a porcupine, trigger or pretty much any of those fish. The canister will work but the media that goes in the filter will cause nitrate problems for you as well as the crushed coral which will trap food and cause it to decay in your tank and you can bet with a puffer or tang that will happen because both are messy eaters. A suggestion would be to Find some play sand (the old castle found at many HD) use that for a substrate and fill your canister with live rock rubble. But other than that I cant suggest much more because I think live rock should be in all tanks for filtration its not only pleasant to look at but it serves a great purpose as well. HTH

 

[MACATUA]

I would say ditch the crushed coral and use play sand, a lot cheaper and prettier IMO. Sure a canister fileter would be fine, deco's if you like them, and the water change regimen sounds pretty good. And the fish selection is alfully close to mine, so I would say sounds good!

 

[RocketSeason]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice!!!

Friend, If I could make a suggestion?

Go ahead and work on turning your 90 Gallon into a Reef tank. Alot of the items you will need for your reef tank can be purchased now and used later ( Live Rock, Sand, sump, etc.)

This hobby requires alot of patentence and money and unless you want to see alot of dead fish, you gotta take your time and do it right. Although you can do it the way you suggested, I would go ahead and do it right the first time.

I have a Canister Filter and I love it. It works well to keep the water clean and moving through the system. later, when I have enough Rock, I will take out my carbon and see what happens, but untill then, this works fine.

Crushed Coral is really kinda frowned upon now. big water quality issues can occour. Argonite Sand is what is needed although it can be hard to find cheaply. (look at the playsand season topic to find what you need.) Silica sand can be used if nessicary.

do a search for topics on here and do some reading on systems that others use!

Good Luck!!!

 

[justin81]

How about this.... I have about 3 big bags of Southdown sand that I can use to cover the bottom. The reason I thought about using the crushed aragonite was that it was easier to vacum, wich I know defeats the purpose of everything in reef keeping. So I will use the Southdown for the good of my fish. Instead of usuing the canister filter, would a hang on the back overflow and one of those wet/dry sumps with some sand and a little liverock instead of bio balls be more suitable? And have the fake decorations in the tank?

 

[tripper]

Just a little note from personal experience. I started my tank with CC and face decorations. I did not have any LR and just used a wet/dry filter. I had all kinds of problems keep my water parameters stable and lost many fish. I wish I had done my reading ahead of time, would have saved me a lot of $$$ and fish. Anyway, I took out the fake decorations and put in 90 lbs of LR in my 72G. I have had stable water parameters every since and healthy fish (until an unrelated ich outbreak). The point is, the LR will help your tank so much, I can't imagine trying to have a successful system without it. I'm still a bit of a newbie at this, but I would suggest the LR if you want to do this easier. HTH

 

[lando]

Hi Justin, WELCOME TO AA!! I started in much the same manner about 10 years ago. Tank, NO lights, dolomite substrate, the "revolutionary" Nature's Touch 3-way power filter by whisper, and fake decos. Long story short...water parameters were always terrible, a lot of fish died, and decos quickley become covered in nasty ugly algea. Not much to look at. As I rediscovered this hobby about two years ago I learned of LR. Now, personally, I would not do a tank without it. It is expensive, but you can add it a bit at a time. There is no substitute in bio-filtration for LR. If at all possible use it. Just my two cents. Good luck...Lando

 

[X the Outsider]

I have CC, and don't have problems yet. I just started adding cured live rock to my tank. I would put the live rock in your tank, becuase it does look nice. As well as acting as a natural filtration, and environment for your fish. I plan on taking out the fake decor in the next few weeks once I get more live rock. With the exception of some large rock, and one rock in which the jawfish have made for their home.

Anyways take your time with your tank, and do it right. Do as much research as possible before you get fish. Good Luck!

 

[justin81]

Well I got good news. I talked to the wife and explained to her why I needed to set this tank up with LR, a deep sand bed, sump, skimmer, and that I needed to spend the money and do it right, the same way I have done all of my other reef tanks..... complete money pits. She went for it.

So I am going out next pay day to get my sump with a built in skimmer, and my HOTB overflow. I talked to a friend of mine who works at my LFS and he is going to hook me up on LR since I have spent well over $5000 there over the years on my previous tanks. The hard part is going to be stacking the live rock in this tank since it is so tall and skinny. Same as a standard 55gal, just like a foot taller or so. Any suggestions on that. I thought about drilling the LR and using zip ties to hold it together.

 

[No_Floaters]

After you add the sand, place your LR in the tank to see how it looks, move it around until you like it. If you have to, you can drill holes in the LR with a masonary drill bit & insert rigid plastic tubing to hold it in place. If the tubing shows, no worries. The corraline will cover it shortly. 8)

 

[DeepCutta720]

I have a 20 gallon tank with 26 lbs of dry base rock (not live), no skimmer, 15 lbs aragonite 1-2mm substrate with 2 aquaclear hang on the back filters. RUns perfectly fine, all water params are stable.

Get 1 or 2 aquaclear 500's, clean out the sponge once every week, do a bi monthly water change and vacuum your substrate, dont get crushed coral, that will trap alot of crap. Makes vacuuming more of a chore. Get something that is 1-2mm and aragonite. Everything should work out fine. I had the same exact goals as you, have some nice fish, no corals. If you dont want live rock, get dry baserock. Its like $1.50 a lb. I wouldnt run all that light either unless you want have everything covered in brown algae. With your choice of fish I doubt you will be able to have snails to help with the aglae since they will be eaten. Id run the minimum amount of light possible to still enjoy vieiwing the fish, and only run it while viewing.