Overwhelmed newbie - Starting FOWLR, help!

[PassengerTN]

My wife has hounding me wanting a Niger Triggerfish. Ran across a deal on a tank today so I'm going to make her easily obtainable dream fish a reality. I'm not quite sure every thing I need. This is where I get overwhelmed to the point of running away. Here is what I THINK I need. Please set me straight!

1. Tank and stand (75 gallon tank and stand obtained today)
2. Sand and live rock. How much and what kind?
3. Overflow box? Or should I drill the tank?
4. Protein skimmer
5. A sump? What size?
6. Lights. Tank came with an Oddysea quad T5HO. I assume this will be fine
7. Something to create flow in the tank. Tank came with two Grech gvp-101b powerhead/wavemaker things, 800gph a piece, will this be enough?

Is there anything that I am missing that I absolutely HAVE to have? Is there anything that I listed that I don't need? I am going to try to collect these items over the span of a few months while closing on our home. Be at least 4-6 weeks before any of it gets wet.
Thanks in advance


Jesse

 

[dylan p]

Well eventually you'll need a larger aquarium because they get 1' long. The rock, sand, and overflow are all up to you. Obviously if your comfortable drilling a tank it would look a lot nicer otherwise that's the only difference. I've never had trigger fish but they seem like they would knock stuff over so I would give him enough rock to hide in but I wouldn't stack it high enough that if it knocked the rock over it would hit the glass. I would go with a 30 gallon sump that gives you room to grow macro algae and your protein skimmer.


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[Reefing Madness]

#1-Dry Rock, there are a few hitchhikers on Live Rock that people want to stay away from, so they opt for using Dry Rock, or Dead Rock. Macro Rock is a good place to start looking for that. Either way you go you will need a minimum of 1lb per gallon. You can use Fully Cured Live Rock, and have the tank cycled in just a few days also. Other way is to use just a couple of pounds of Live Rock and the rest Macro or Dry Rock.

#2-Replacement filter media like filter floss and activated carbon (if you get a filter) Which is really not necessary.

#3-Multiple Power heads (2 or 3) 10x your water volume for just a Fish Only With Live Rock, and at least 20x your water volume for a Reef Tank. So lets say your going reef, and you have a 100g tank, you would need flow in that tank at minimum of 2000gph, or 2 1000gph power heads.

#4-Protein Skimmer, rated at 2 times your water volume. Unless your tank is under 30g, in which case you can do 10% water changes a week to rid the system of detrius. But, you'll have to watch the water parameters close, if things go haywire, you'll have to do more water changes.

#5-Saltwater Test Kits. Reef Test Kit. Test for Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH, Phosphates, Calcium, ALK and Magnesium.

#6-Saltwater fish food. Mysis Shrimp, Squid, Cyclopease, Algae Sheets, Romaine . Flake food is not really a good food to feed your marine fish.

#7-Aquarium vacuum. This one is iffy. Most don't use one, if you have enough flow in the tank you won’t need one

#8-Rubber kitchen gloves

#9-Fish net

#10-Two, clean, never used before, 5-gallon buckets

#11-Aquarium thermometer, digital being the best.

#12-Brush with plastic bristles (old tooth brush) - needed for cleaning the live rock if you don't get Fully Cured Live Rock.

#13-Power Strip, possibly GFCI outlets by the tank.

#14-Optional but definitely recommend getting a Reverse Osmosis or RO/Deionization filter for the make-up water, and a barrel for storing the water.

#15-Possibly a Quarantine Tank for your new fish. They sit in here for a few weeks to kill off parasites and bacteria, to keep it from getting in your main tank

#16-Heater rated for your size tank.

#17-Saltwater Mix. Marine Salt. Instant Ocean is the cheap Salt that beginners and Advanced use alike.

#18-Saltwater Hydrometer or even better a Refractometer, which is more accurate. There is also a Digital Meter that is way advanced if you have the cash.

#19-Aquarium filter (not absolutely necessary if running with adequate amounts of live rock, but nice to have if you need to use a mechanical filter or activated carbon, or GFO and such)

#20-Aquarium substrate such as live sand or crushed coral. Some go bare Bottom, others choose the 1-2" bottom, others, more advanced will try the Deep Sand Bed, which is over 6" deep.

Skimmers & Pumps

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle | Cycling Methods | Ammonia & Nitrates

aquarium heater in Aquarium and Fish Supplies | eBay

power heads | eBay

NEW 0 10 Salinity Refractometer Salt Water Aquarium | eBay

Dry Live Rock for Sale | Aragonite Sand | Aquarium Supply - Marco Rocks

Bulk Dry Live Rock & Live Sand - Bulk Reef Supply

Live Rock: Live Saltwater Aquarium Rock

Fish & Aquarium Supplies: Marine Substrates, Sand, Crushed Coral, Live Sand

Aquarium Lighting Information Guide | Reef Planted | PAR PUR/PAS

Macro Algae: Your Source For Quality Marine Plants and Macroalgae | Gulf Coast Ecosystems

what your coral needs | Successful Reef Keeping

t-5 lighting | eBay

cree led aquarium | eBay

Aquarium Salt Mix: Salt for Saltwater and Freshwater Fish Aquariums

Aquarium Water Testing: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Reef Master Liquid Test Kit

Reef Aquarium Care: Kent Marine Liquid Calcium Supplement

Saltwater Aquarium Buffer: Kent Marine Superbuffer-dKH pH Buffer and Alkalinity Builder

Aquarium Chemistry: A Homemade Two-Part Calcium And Alkalinity Additive System — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

what your coral needs | Successful Reef Keeping

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[PassengerTN]

Wow, thanks RM! Just woke up so I can't exactly see straight yet, once I have some coffee in me I'll give that a full read over and use it as a check list


Jesse

 

[ImACoolguy]

Nice to see this going into action


Caleb

 

[Saekalive]

Can't wait to see you come to the salty side Jesse

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[PassengerTN]

A few more questions. You say the skimmer needs to be rated at 2x the water volume. Does that mean the skimmer should flow 150gph (75g tank) or rated for a 150 gallon system?

As far as mechanical filtration, I understand HOB and canister filters become nitrate factories unless meticulously maintained. I would like to go ahead and do a sump system. HOB overflow boxes tend to scare me a bit. I would hate for 40+ gallons from a sump end up on the floor. Does this happen often? Or should I go ahead and drill the tank? Is there another type of filtration that is acceptable outside of the traditional sump?


Jesse

 

[cgthebeast]

Drilling a tank is safer as it can not loose the siphon, but also don't fill the dump completely so the water won't overflow it if something happens like a pump failure.

An your right about the skimmer, you want one larger then your display but not one that will over skim. In my case I found a good deal on a 75g skimmer but I plan to upgrade to a 100 or more around next year.

A wet/dry filter can work, just not as effective imho as a fuge in removing nutraintes.

 

[fish wrangler]

A few more questions. You say the skimmer needs to be rated at 2x the water volume. Does that mean the skimmer should flow 150gph (75g tank) or rated for a 150 gallon system?

As far as mechanical filtration, I understand HOB and canister filters become nitrate factories unless meticulously maintained. I would like to go ahead and do a sump system. HOB overflow boxes tend to scare me a bit. I would hate for 40+ gallons from a sump end up on the floor. Does this happen often? Or should I go ahead and drill the tank? Is there another type of filtration that is acceptable outside of the traditional sump?


Jesse

The HOB overflows shouldn't scare you. I have one on my tank, and have shut the pump off to see what would happen in case of a power outage, and every time I turn the pump back on the syphon starts right up. If you want to drill it go ahead, but make sure you can drill your tank.

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[PassengerTN]

Which overflow do you have?

Jesse

 

[fish wrangler]

I have an eshopps sump, and it came with the overflow. Just had to buy the pump for it.
Looking back now I wish I would have gone with an external pump to have more room in the sump but hindsight is 20/20. After adding the skimmer things are a little cramped in my sump, so I had to put my heater in the tank.

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[Sniperhank]

The CPR overflow is a great choice. Put an aqua lifter pump on it and it won't loose siphon.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I ran an Aqualifter on mine, and it went bad the same time I lost power....Needless to say, i ended up with a flood.
Better off add an airline to the U-Tube and running it to a powerhead or the return pump, thats a lil bit better to run, better going to the return pump, this way if the return pump doesn't fire up, there will be no siphoning water from the tank going on.

 

[PassengerTN]

The air line to powerhead bit you mention, is the airline hooked to venturi port?

Jesse

 

[Reefing Madness]

Can be yes, I diy a hole for mine to fit into.

 

[PassengerTN]

Interesting. Never thought of that before..

Jesse