Hi All. Name here is Bill. I have had freash water tanks for years but now I am wanting to switch over to saltwater. I live in a little town called Vulcan Alberta. We are located 1 hour south of Calgary, and 1 hour north of Lethbridge. Each center has places I can buy supplies from. Big Al's in Calgary, or Tropical Fish Importers in Lethbridge.
I was wondering if there are any hobbists in either area that might be available to help a newbe in the right direction.
There are so many questions and want to do it right the first time.
I have a 30 gallon tank with 2 hang on filters. The lighting is what came with the system when I bought it. I have a 500 w tank heater plus a airstick.
If there is anyone in my area, I would love to hear from you and get your advice. If you know of these two fish suppliers, any insite would also be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Bill
Hi there.
Im no where near Alberta, but I can hopefully over some assistance. Are you wanting to do a FOWLR or reef? I have one of each. I switched to SW from FW also. I have a 30g FOWLR that I just switched over from FW about
4 months ago. If you want to do FOWLR (fish only with live rock) or just FO (fish only), then you can use the light you have. If you want to do reef (with corals and/or anemones), you'll need to upgrade your light at some point. Lights can get fairly expensive, but are very important to keep corals alive. You could always start with FOWLR and switch to reef later when you can upgrade the light.
For SW, you can do hob filters, but they'll need to be rated for at least twice the size of the tank. I have 2 hob aqua clear filter on my 30. One is an AC70, and the other is AC30. The ac30 is really only there to keep BB alive for if I need to set up a quarantine tank. Canisters are also feasible, as long as you clean them well every week and change out a sponge every week or 2, depending on How many sponges you have in the canister-but never change every sponge all at once or you'll lose all your BB.
Air sticks aren't really used in SW, they can contribute to salt creep. If you really love the look of an air stick, you can use it, but you might have to clean up salt more and keep an eye on the salinity of your tank.
If our using a previously FW tank, empty it out, scrub it well with vinegar and rinse very well. If you're using filters from FW tanks, I would buy new sponges and media for them. The BB in FW is different from the BB in SW. Clean the filters with vinegar too and rinse well.
Sand is the most common substrate. Some people go barebottom. Just don't use gravel, it's too big and food/poo gets stuck in it and is very difficult to get entirely clean.
Supplies you'll need:
Salt
Sand (?)
Liquid test kits for ammo, nitrite and nitrate
New media for filters
Hydrometer will be ok to start, might wanna get a
refractometer at some point.
Rock- can do as much or as little as you like, can be all base, some base/some live, or all live. Or u can do no rock if you don't like it, but you'll need to have something in there for fish to hide when they're scared and to sleep.
2 small (250 gph) powerheads
Some source of RO or distilled water-taps ok for
FW, not good for SW
I would suggest spray painting the back before you fill, to hide the stuff hanging off the back and the cords. It's quick, cheap and easy.
Check out liveaquaria.com and look at the SW nano section. That'll show you types of fish you can keep in a 30g. You're only gonna be able to do 4-6 fish, depending on their size. If they're all very small, like Firefish size, it could be 5-6, if they're bigger, like clown sized, it'll be more like 4.
Hope that helps some. Just post your questions here and we'll try to help answer them.
