Starting a reef tank with my old 30 gal fresh water

[bob112233]

afternoon all i want to start a reef tank with my old 30 glass tank. this is a starter for me so i can learn how to take care of a reef tank before i get anything bigger. my tanks as a lightglo hood with a 24" 20 watt tube and a aquaclear 200 filter. i want to get my tank started soon by purchasing my live rock i was going to get about 20 to 25 pounds,, some black gravel for the base of the tanks and the salt to mix into the water. here are my questions

should i upgrade light hood or can i just replace the bulb with a coral grow bulb?

can i use the filter i have for the first month untill i replace it with a protein scimmer in the 5th week

is there anything i should know about the first 4 weeks of my tanks these are the resources i have been using but they are for larger tanks
http://www.fishlore.com/SaltwaterAquariumSetup.htm
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=206
and when reading through them a little scary

if anyone knows of a faq or post with information on starting a small reef tank please post link but the main thing right now is what equipment will i have to buy right now to get started

thanks

 

[melosu58]

40 lbs of LR would be better. Cure the LR while you cycle youir tank. You`ll probably have to upgrade your lights to VHO at least for a reef tank. or power compacts also. You should not need your skimmer at the begining and the 5th week should be OK. Still continue to read up as the more you learn the better it gets.

 

[seaham358]

Scrap the black gravel idea.. all it will do is collect waste and need to get vacummed on a regular basis. Most reef tank now run either sand or bare bottom. These are different then FW tanks.
keep reading on the site there is a ton of good info on here.
your light will need to be upgraded if you want to keep any corals. A fish only tank cna do ok under low light.

 

[Brenden]

Definetly need a light upgrade unless you are going to keep fish only. I agree on not using the black gravel. Lots of good info here. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_cat.php?fldAuto=2/

 

[bob112233]

can i just replace the tube with a coral grow bulb or do i have to replace the whole tank hood/light

 

[tecwzrd]

No, replacing the bulb only changes the color of the bulb and not the wattage. You need more watts designed for corals ie:

For low to medium light corals you will need something like:

24" 2x36W Coralife Aqualight CF hood
Current USA 24" 130w

For high light corals you will need something like:

24” Aqualight Pro, 1x 150W HQI + 2x 65W Actinic
24" Current USA Outer Orbit HQI Light

If you have limited electrical skills you could build the lighting yourself slightly cheaper.

www.captivereefs.com
www.hellolights.com

 

[tecwzrd]

I just realized that this is a 30 gal high 24 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 24 ¾ due to you wanting 24” lights. With that in mind I would get nothing less then 130W even for basic corals. If you can afford to do MH then I would highly consider it even If it’s only the Current USA 24" 1x150W SunPod

 

[bob112233]

my tanks dimentions are 31.5 inches long 12 inches deep and 16 inches high i would like to keep the light as close to $100-150 if possible in not i think ill have to shelve my tank plans.

 

[tecwzrd]

Both the 30" Coralife Aqualight CF hood & the Current USA 30" 130w fit within that price which would be fine for low and most medium light corals on your 16" high tank.

 

[bob112233]

thanks i ordered the 30" Coralife Aqualight CF hood should take a few weeks to get to me. i also have a question about the live rock i wanted to start with 20 pounds so i didnt stress the tank to much just starting out and one of the posters said i should get 40. can i start with 20 and once the tank is going well add more or should i start with the 40 ?

 

[vsnsofadrgn]

you can go with the 20 lbs lr and get the rest base rock to save costs, check out hirocks.com......