Salt or Fresh Water?

[huma-huma]

Anytime and keep in mind, if you look into play sand and or pool sand and its too fine grain for you, you can buy a bag and mix it with something of a larger grain to save a few bucks that's what I did

 

[Galligak]

Actually I found some sand that's only $2.50 for 50 lbs so I'll probably use that, and also my mom loves the idea! I was beyond shocked when I found out that she thought it sounded good and wanted to know more! All I have to do is keep up with my current tanks until I get enough money and even then she'll help fund me great 4th of July!

 

[slitherbomb]

Pool filter sand?

 

[Galligak]

No, sadly, play sand that looks to be pretty good and I've read some reviews on it online and heard that it's decent stuff that holds up for a long time

 

[Galligak]

I don't know if you're close to pa but I have a 55 ill sell you for dirt cheap in terms of the tank, if you go with the 55, try to do a refugium/sump or a overrated hob filter, and atleast 1 decent sized powerhead. A lot of people will tell you that you don't need it but your live rock will act as a natural filter, depending on the flow of water across it, it'll either be good or weak. Putting a powerhead in to circulate water will increase the effectiveness of your live rock so for bare minimum equipment I'd say tank,sand,rock/live rock, decent light fixture, stand, bucket of salt, hydrometer, master test kit. Maybe 2 or3 generic buckets (clean),hob filter, and powerhead.

How much is a decent size powerhead? There's one at Walmart that's like 10 that does 170 whatever the unit is. Would that work?

 

[huma-huma]

170 gph is a little low I believe but should work out good in your tank, may wanna pick up 2. That way if one goes down you'll have a backup

 

[scottayy]

How much is a decent size powerhead? There's one at Walmart that's like 10 that does 170 whatever the unit is. Would that work?

I have this powerhead. It's the only powerhead walmart carries. I had it in my 55 for a while to agitate the surface of the water. It has some pretty darn good flow and is virtually silent.

In a 55 you will want more flow though. I'm about to pick up two koralias rated for about 500gph each. (this is in addition to my 300gph return tubes from the sump).

You may be tempted to pick up some maxijet's too, because they are convenient and cheap.. but.. (this is just my experience) they are so noisy you won't want to run them. Sounds like an electric shaver.

 

[huma-huma]

Dang!! Two ph rated at 500 gph each? Hope you're not planning on running both in your 55.....thatll be like a tornado in that tank, I have 2 ph rated at somewhere between 350-375 gph, my emperor 400 and my 4 jet nozzle overflows running in my 125 and its got crazy flow....couldn't imagine a 55 with 2 500gph rated ph's

 

[Sarcothelia]

Salt (thought I am biased). I honestly don't think it is that hard. My first reef tank under PC bulbs (24g jbj nano) is going great 4 months in and corals and coralline are spreading rapidly. If you're willing to dish out several hundred dollars I'd go with salt...It's just so much more fascinating than fresh.

Then again I live next to a ground spring fed creek that is more interesting than any fw tank I've ever seen.

So long as you dilligently change the water with high quality salt, top off evaporation with reverse osmosis water, start off with high quality rock and sand, and have optimal flow and filtration (skimmer unnecessary in smaller tanks) SW is the way to go.
_____

Scottay, I have a maxijet and have no problems with the sound. They are bulky which is my only complaint, but as far as circulation goes they are 3 times stronger than koralia for the price.

 

[scottayy]

Dang!! Two ph rated at 500 gph each? Hope you're not planning on running both in your 55.....thatll be like a tornado in that tank, I have 2 ph rated at somewhere between 350-375 gph, my emperor 400 and my 4 jet nozzle overflows running in my 125 and its got crazy flow....couldn't imagine a 55 with 2 500gph rated ph's

Really? I posted a water circulation thread and people seemed to have really high circulation.. see here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f60/water-flow-for-55-gallon-158369.html

 

[scottayy]

Scottay, I have a maxijet and have no problems with the sound. They are bulky which is my only complaint, but as far as circulation goes they are 3 times stronger than koralia for the price.

I really like the looks of mine and the performance. I just can't deal with the sound!! It went away but came back. I would think it was just this one but I bought two of them and they sound the same.

I thought it might need broken in but it still sounds terrible. I thought it might be loose or assembled wrong so I took them apart several times and put them together right, closely following the instructions diagram.

I googled, and others have similar problems while others claim they are super quiet. Seems to be hit or miss and I got the miss. I emailed customer support like a week ago and no answer. So for now they are salt mixers.

 

[Sarcothelia]

I guess the bigger ones are loud. Is it a maxijet pro? I have that and it is dead quiet. I have the smallest maxi pro for about 15 bucks and it has 6 times the power of my 425 koralia which cost 35.

Literally have to point it 60 degrees up to avoid turning over the sand every 5 minutes in my 24 (small tank yes but I didn't imagine that the smallest maxi pro they had would be so strong for 15)

 

[scottayy]

It is this: Marineland Maxi-Jet 400 Pro (110/500 gph)

MaxiJet 400 pro

I agree they do have very good current.

 

[Galligak]

Okay thanks for the replies! I'll look into all the powerheads that you all were talking about and see if I can find sone around here( I don't realty want to buy online except possibly eBay).

 

[carey]

I swear by the koralia powerheads. A bit more cash by a few dollars but they have magnetic mounts.

I was running 2 750 gph in my 55g along with the fluval canister return.
In my 125g reef I'm running 2 koralia 1400gph units with a return flow of about 1000gph.
In my cube I just run a koralia 425 and the return pump.
In my 125g FW tank I even have a maxijet for some circulation.

As far as sand, I bought pool filter sand from my local home depot for $5 per 50lbs. I found the play snd to be too fine and sharp edged as I plan on having sand sifting fish.

Hope that helps, I'm a little late for this thread. LOL

 

[joy13]

The thing about the sand you can run into a problem with silica which leaches into the water and causes algae. Don't cut corners on something that will turn into a nightmare weeks down the line making you spend more money to do it right.

Cut corners on the rock get base rock and seed it with a few lbs of live rock.

In the long run it is cheaper to get an RO unit than buy RO water.

 

[Galligak]

I swear by the koralia powerheads. A bit more cash by a few dollars but they have magnetic mounts.

I was running 2 750 gph in my 55g along with the fluval canister return.
In my 125g reef I'm running 2 koralia 1400gph units with a return flow of about 1000gph.
In my cube I just run a koralia 425 and the return pump.
In my 125g FW tank I even have a maxijet for some circulation.

As far as sand, I bought pool filter sand from my local home depot for $5 per 50lbs. I found the play snd to be too fine and sharp edged as I plan on having sand sifting fish.

Hope that helps, I'm a little late for this thread. LOL

Since everyone keeps talking about koralia powerheads I will definitely look into them and probably will end up buying them. Also I'll look around for some pool filter sand and not get play sand, thanks for the information!

 

[huma-huma]

Two 1400 gph ph's in your 125 carey?? Danggg that just seems like a massive amount of circulation. My 2 ph's I have in the 125 I wanna say are rated between 350-375 but that's a ballpark figure, there's no id tag on them to tell me, just simply a 1010 on the top...who knows. Perhaps I need to look into bigger ph's as well

 

[carey]

Well they say it's a higher water turnover rate for saltwater don't they? I haven't seen any fish have any issue with the flow, the tang just swims around with no problem. The clowns used to have trouble though, sometimes they would go wave riding up towards the top. lol

 

[Galligak]

I'm getting the tank!! It's for certain today. We're picking it up around 3! Sooo excited