Newbie with saltwater & reef tanks tanks

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Precious_Scarface

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
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173
Hi i need some help to get started on a Saltwater reef aquarium i already have a 29 gallon freshwater with a common pleco an albino bristlenose and a albino clawed frog with 2 common goldfish a shubukin goldfish a black moor and 2 comet goldfish ( iknow it a little over stock but im waiting on my other tank cause one broke so i had to put them together) i had my tank for 1 1/2 year and only 2 fish died at the begining.. Now i wanna make my daughter a little ,as small as possible, fishtank and i was thinking that since i have a fresh water i should make a saltwater reef aquarium !! So any advice on how to get started ??
 
I wud go for a mini marine tank u can get one wit filters etc for bout £70-£150 depending on wat u want. But wit tht u can hav live rock in wit a fish and a cleaner shrimp wut sum crabs.
 
Ok i was thinking either 10 or 20 gallon comes with HOB power filter light and heater
 
Get a 20 gallon, hang off back skimmer, heater, lights, sand, rock and a nemo. You know she wants a little nemo...

Start slow. Set the tank up with the sand and rock. Add the salt water and let the tank cycle for a month. If you put nemo in right away he'll probably die. It's boring and your daughter will be bugging you for a fish but you want the amonia to be gone.

I started with a 14 gallon biocube. Its an all in one so set up was easy. I put in a clown and a blue damsel that looked close enough to dori for my kids to think it was nemo and dori. You could add some soft coral for movement plus kids think live coral is really cool.
 
Oh I see. Most saltwater folk would add a protein skimmer to their tank. Its the best filtration out there but for a small tank you could get away without it if you keep up on your water changes.

What do you envision in this tank when its up and running?
 
I want like a rocky setup with maybe something like a small coral just something easy and hardy something similar to one of those pictures
 

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Well the best advice is to know what you want going in. If you don't want to take care of live coral then any stock light will do. If you plan on having coral, you'll want to make sure your lights are good enough to keep them alive. T5's are popular and the best option price wise. LED's are great but a bit pricey still.

Second, how many fish? Fish eat and poop and this creates waste. The more fish the better the filter. If you just want rock and say 2 clowns a hang of back filter like the ones that come with aquarium kits will do. Lets say you want 2 clowns, a cardinal, a blenny and a cleaner shrimp. Now you have 5 fish eating and pooping. This will build up nitrates quick if you don't remove the waste. Nitrates cause algae and are not too healthy for the fish. If you're going with the more fish you'll need a skimmer. You can buy a good hang on skimmer for about $200.

That second picture you posted is a fake insert. It may be what you're looking for because nothing is alive therefore nothing can die. If you put a couple of clowns in that tank your standard filtration and lights would be perfect.

I'm just putting this out there cause I learned the hard way. I went cheap at first and tried to cheat. Like I had crappy lights and bought some coral to try out, figured they would be ok. They started dying and I felt bad so I upgraded my lights. Ended up costing me more in the end cause I basically bought lights twice. Same with my filter. I had the basic sponge and charcole filter. Worked fine until I added more fish then my nitrates were through the roof. I either had to remove fish or increase the filtration. So I bought a skimmer. In the end I had a box of useless equipment and a tank with a bunch of upgrades...lol
 
I want something colofur but nothing alive and 2 clownfish so i made a couple call just now and here are the prices:

A pound of live rocks ( for good bacteria)- 13.99$

Base rock (will eventuallu turn into live) - 3.99$/pound (36$)

Power heads x2 - 156$

20lb of live sand - 49.99$

10 gallon tank full equiped (Light, HOB Power Filter, Heater) - 39.99

Nemo Fish - 50$
 
10 gallons is you small for a clown. You need a 20g. And also that's way too expensive for powerheads. You want about 20x overturn for just fish.
 
Yeah i buy it locally but the clownfish im gettin is gonna be 2 " inches fully grown i made ny research so a 10g shoul be enough
 
I'm sorry a ten gallon isn't enough. It really isn't. Just get a 20. It's barely more money and won't cost you a lot more in total at all. Seriously. I have kept a pair in a 20 and think that that I'd the absolute minimum. I've done my research and have done this for over a year. They need 20 gallons.
 
So i would just need 1 power head for a 20g ?? Cause it for my daughter she loves fish thats why i wanted a 10g with 1 or 2 fish .. Ok so i seen hagen master kit online with shipping it would come up to 130$ but theres
Phosphate, calcium, iron, nitrite, nitrates, ammonia, high & low range ph, general hardness and carbonate hardness testers !! Is it worth it
 
Get amonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. Even at 15 a test youll only spend $60. You arent doing coral so you domt really need to test the other stuff. One power head and a hob filter will create enough flow for the fish on a 20 gallon.
 
It would cost me about 320$ cause the live rocks and sand together is 100$ how many pounds of live rock do i need for a 20g
 
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