Set up advice

[The Fish Pimp]

Here are some pics of my 75gal saltwater tank set up. Anyone have any advice on what I should get next? I go to alot of different shops and I get alot of mixed answers.

Here is my list and please correct me if I am wrong

1. Change my lighting to a Corallife 48" Delux compact set up

2. From what I was told my filter that I have will do the job but from what I've seen people have 2 or go with a hidden filter that is under the tank in the cabnets. So possibly change the filter.

3. Protein skimmer

4. Water heater wich I will be adding right away cause my water is cold.

5. More fish I was going to give my current clownfish "Taco" a hommie to kick it with. I am going back to the same fish store I got him from, and getting one that was in the same tank as he was. I was also going to throw in a yellow Tang. Any advise on other fish I should get is incouraged.

6. Sea plant life sea corals or anemanies (bad spelling) snails for cleaning ect.

Well that is about it so all advice is appreciated!

 

[tawolcott]

IME your going to regret placing the tank in front of that window, even more so if it's south facing. You might want to start reading the Algae sections now. If it's in a south facing window that baby is going heat up in the summer.

 

[esaone]

You're going to need a heater like yesterday, it's really bad that you have a fish in that tank with no heater unless your house is 85+. That filter is also not going to come close to cutting it. I have that same filter on a 20 gallon tank. You are also going to need a couple of powerheads. You need more but I'll let some of the more experienced folks talk about that.

 

[roka64]

1. You want to shoot for about 1.5-2Lbs of LR per gallon. You can buy base (dried out rock) which is pretty cheap and will become live over time. Or you could buy more cured live rock (LR), this tends to be more expensive.
2. Definitely get a heater. Personally I like Finnex, titanium heaters. I use two in both my tanks for redundancy.
3. Get the Sale Master's Test Kit, it is a good starting test kit.
4. I like the fluvial filters. I have a 304 on my 55 and the FX5 on my 125.
5. Read this on acclimation: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/2/1/Acclimation/Page1.html
6. Check out these other articles: Saltwater
7. You probably don't have much food for your clean up crew (snails and such)
8. Take a sample of your tank's water for testing at your LFS.
9. If ammonia or nitrItes are present, do some PWCs to bring them to 0.
10. I don't run a skimmer, so I am no help there.
11. Depending on what corals you want, you will need to take that into account when buying lights.
12. An anenmoe will require a mature tank of at least 9 months.
I'm sure I have missed a few things, but others will chime in and give you more advice.

 

[blindskate]

I'm all about my Hydor Koralia, you should get 2 of them since your tank is 5 times the size of mine. =) and...you should get a big big rock for your centerpiece, or maybe make a cave out of flat rocks. would look cooler in my opinion. mag floats are fun but dont let it just sit there all the time, it'll just collect algae like a wooden floor collects dust bunnies. snails are cool, but mine died because when I got them I had no algae so I guess they didnt have anything to eat..(not sure). But, i have two clowns and no anemone, in a post I posted alot of people told me they weren't sure if my clowns woul host an anemone, so not sure if it would be a waste of money for you or not. But...my two clowns are buddies. you should get a cow fish, theyre really cute and they get pretty big, not aggressive at all, atleast mine isnt.


have fun!!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I'm gonna take a giant step backwards and ask if the tank has been cycled yet? If not, then definitely don't add livestock, and in fact you might want to find the clown a foster home until you get it cycled. The Saltwater articles roka64 linked to are a good place to start if you haven't checked them out already.

 

[esaone]

I'm gonna take a giant step backwards and ask if the tank has been cycled yet? If not, then definitely don't add livestock, and in fact you might want to find the clown a foster home until you get it cycled. The Saltwater articles roka64 linked to are a good place to start if you haven't checked them out already.

Yeah unless you bought a hundred dollars worth of Bio Spira you need to take that fish back to the pet shop.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The Fish Pimp...

I see in your other thread that you transfered over the sand to this tank, so in theory, you have "live" sand. You may get lucky and not end up with a cycle.

BUT... if you don't have an ammonia and nitrite test kit, I'd get one ASAP and start testing your water. You might get lucky and not have a cycle, but I'm thinking that this might not be the case. When people transfer over sand, it usually kicks up a bunch of nasties that were buried in the sand and kick starts another mini cycle. If you end up with any ammonia levels then either do water changes to keep it as low as possible, or transfer to the fish to a "foster tank" and let the tank cycle naturally.

Oh... and welcome to Aquarium Advice!

PS... don't worry about the tank in front of the window too much. What's done is done. It's not the best place in the world, but at least you have blinds that you can close! Just be aware of the issues.

 

[land locked]

I feel your pain. I am just a few weeks a head of you. This site has been great for help. I only have two pieces of advise for you since I am new. Get this book, It is small quick easy read and gives alot of the advice these folks here have advised. Don't trust your LFS! Second; dont put another thing in your tank until you get lots and lots of rock in there. I did not put all of the rock in at first because of cost, they did not have big pieces like I wanted. Now I am curing it in another tank and I don't know how I am going to get it in there without crushing some of my critters. Wish I had bit the bullet and did it all up front.

 

[cmor1701d]

Stepback and think about what you want your tank to look like in a couple of years. You mentioned adding corals. What type? Don't make a decision on your new light untill you decide that. A PC fixture is not going to allow for more than some low light lps corals. A six bulb T-5 would allow for a lot more.

You'll also need a lot more rock. That should be added now. As Scott said you want 1½ - 2 pounds per gallon of base/live rock.

Get a heater TODAY, preferably 2 for redundancy.

Please skip the anemone. They have a pretty bad survival rate in captivity.

The rest is pretty much what has already been said. Get some good quality testing kits (API, SeaChem, Salifert, etc.).
Consider getting a RODI unit for top off and pwc water.
Consider using a sump/fuge or get a better filter as Scott mentioned.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome to AA. I would do as the others said and get good test kits and be testing for a cycle of some type. You`ll need much more LR and I would not add anymore fish for a while to see if your tank becomes stable. Hopefully if your temp and water parameters stabilize then you should be good for slowly adding some more livestock.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...Don't trust your LFS!

A lot of times, the LFS gets a bad rap. I'd say listen to them, but don't take their word as Gospel. Over time, you'll figure out if they're just trying to sell you stuff, or truly help you out. I've got both kinds in my area, and I buy stuff from both of them. You just have to learn who to listen to and who not to!

 

[The Fish Pimp]

Okay folks here is what I done, Purchased a Fluval FX5 Canister filter (150 bux brand new thanks ebay). Stealth water heater so now my water is nice and warm now. My tank already came with live sand so no need to cycle it, being my water levels are about normal. Got my water tested and its good so I rearranged my rocks added another clown and a yellow tang fish. As far as my local fish dude I don't have any issues with his advice, being that so many people have so many different takes on SW setups. I like the fact that I can ask alot of questions and get advice that doesn't cost me anything. And the best thing is that he is not letting me experiment meaning hey buy this fish and then weeks later it dies and he sells me another one. I do appreciate all the advice that I am getting from everyone on AA so keep it up folks. Up next more Live rocks and then better lighting!

 

[yellowtangs]

Nice tank. I would never place a tank directly in front of a window. This will cause over heating on over cooling. It will cause you issues with Algae growth. You will need about 1.5 lbs of live rock per gallon of water. Also only keep 1 to 2 small fish in the tank until a full cycle has occured. Dont rush.....I would also consider removing the glass lids if at all possible.
Good luck!

 

[CluelessInNY]

I'm new to this hobby too. Why do you NEED 2 lbs of LR for every gallon? Can I just have a few lbs? Not because of the cost, but because I like the open water for my future clowns.
Also, I have a furious algae problem....does adding snails make sense?

 

[roka64]

Clueless, we'll help you on the algea issue in your other post. To answer your questions about 2Lbs per gallon. This is a great place for you beneficial bacteria to thrive. This bacteria converts ammonia (fish waste, left over rotting food) to nitrAtes. It also provides hiding places for new additions and current critters. If you have a low bioload, you really don't need to have that much rock. You will be surprised at how much LR you can get in there and make it look nice and uncrowded.
You can also have a little less LR of the rock is super porous.

 

[cmor1701d]

If you are depending on just LR and a skimmer for your filtration then then you need 1½ - 2 pounds of LR per gallon of tank capacity to give you the required biological filtration. This is a more passive (and natural) filtration method than that offered by cannisters and wet/dry systems. One of the benefits is lowered nitrates which is very important if you want to keep corals.

 

[The Fish Pimp]

My water is clearer than ever now since adding the Fluval filter. Added my clean up crew some turbo snails and a Diamond Watchman Goby. Don't have big issues with algea as I did before and my sand is nice and clean. The little that I get the snails are getting to it and they even cleaned up what I had on my rocks. Haven't decided on the skimmer as of yet, but I will post an updated pic shortly...