New Newbie

[rodinwilmington]

Hello all, I really love the site and have gotten a lot of info off of here already. I'm starting a tank for the same reason that alot of other dads have used, my son is a Finding Nemo freak, he's turning 2 on December 28th and I'm gonna surprise him with a little Nemo of his own, well I hope I'll be able to do that. One difference that separates me from most others who have gotten into this hobby for the Nemo reason, I assume, is that I'm gonna take this hobby serious and I understand the time, effort, and dedication that is necessary to be sucessfull. I'm beginning with a 45 gallon tank that fits the space I have perfectly and I just built the stand and canopy for it today, I'll post a pic soon so all may see my craftsmanship, or lack thereof. That's as far as I've gotten so far and I'm looking to do a FOWLR set up and I'll be looking for lighting, filter, PHs and all the other good stuff so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I think I have a good understanding of the cycling and I'm planning on using mostly dry sand with a bag of live sand mixed in and dry rock as a base with some pieces of LR to get things started. I'm really excited about this endeavor and I'm gonna get started on Saturday, I'm a firefighter so I get to do alot of research at the firehouse so I'll be doing all of that tomorrow and will be ready to hit the ground running on Saturday. In advance I thank all of you for the help you will provide me either directly by answering questions or indirectly answeres you've already posted for others.

Rod

[fishmonkey]

alright, so do you have a canopy without the lighting? if you do, and its just an empty shell waiting for lighting, get a retrofit kit because they are made for that kind of thing. if you dont want corals, you dont need the really good high quality like Metal Halide and stuff, so probably just some VHO or just regular fluorescents.

the powerhead that you want to use are going to be the Koralia powerheads. they are GREAT powerheads, and they arent terribly expensive either.

about the sand: dont even worry about the bag of live sand, just use dry sand because what was at som point alive is most likely dead in the bag, and so you are paying momre for no reason. just use dry sand. the Live Rock that you add will seed the sand and you will be fine.

you are also going to need an RODI unit (which filters the water in your tap before you add it to your tank), and a protein skimmer (which takes organic paticles out of the tanks water)

if you have any more questions, dont hesitate to ask!

[JPKeenan]

I'm not a salty but will chime in on my two cents... Everything I have heard folks here say about buying live sand don't even bother.

If you have any friends who have saltwater tanks see if you can get some "tank squeezens" from them. That will help speed up your cycle a bit.

[rodinwilmington]

Thanks for the input guys, I've posted a new post on the Saltwater & Reef Getting Started post with what I've gotten done so far, please check it out and let me know what you think.

[brisudsta]

I’m not sure about how possible some of the things you mention would be, but there is one setting that may interest you, if you haven’t seen it already

[rodinwilmington]

Not quite sure what ur talking about