New to Aquariums

[steeb]

Greetings, I got a hold of a 60 gallon hex tank. From what I've read the majority are against hex, but I am limited on space. I plan on moving into a house in the very near future and would love to build a in wall display.

I am torn between salt water and freshwater, but ultimately I feel salt is where my heart is.

The tank has a wooden stand with no hood/lid.
I am looking at a Eheim 2213 canister filter, some said it wont work with salt, but others do.

I'll have to build some kind of hood/lid and I have a few ideas but i'm totally lost when it comes to the lighting. I'd love to do some type of a LED system with automatic timer and color rotation.

All the videos I see for aquariums people have all kinds of systems, which seems over whelming for a beginner. I'm wondering what I would need for a basic setup with least maintenance. Obviously i'll learn as I go that's why I am wondering if I should start out with fresh water and eventually move to salt, but then I may have to buy everything twice. Ah so many options.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard. We are glad you found us here at AA.

 

[Brookster123]

Bro! Equations... Fw=$$x1-2hr/day= Sw=$$$$$$x??hr/day= Do the math my man

 

[steeb]

Bro! Equations... Fw=$$x1-2hr/day= Sw=$$$$$$x??hr/day= Do the math my man

So are you suggesting to do fw instead of sw?

If I went FW id want some live rock / coral, maybe a plant.

Sea horses and a few fish.. maybe hermit crab snails etc.

If I can successfully get this one going and running for a year or two my plan is for quite a large tank once I move.

 

[molliwopp]

If youre new to aquariums i would get to grips with what comes with it in terms of maintenace, cost and time spent.

Jumping into saltwater is something i generally disagree with but then who am i.

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[steeb]

If youre new to aquariums i would get to grips with what comes with it in terms of maintenace, cost and time spent.

Jumping into saltwater is something i generally disagree with but then who am i.

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I agree with your input, but people I have mentioned the idea of fw to are telling me ill get bored of it all ill have to buy things twice.

 

[molliwopp]

I am in agreement with this to an extent and thats why i only keep cichlids because not much else has and keeps my interest. Keep something interesting like cichlids, their like waterbourn mice with huge intelligence and individual character.

Most of the things you buy can be switched and used for SW. Only now after afew years of keeping and my understanding of water chemistry would i delve into the other side of SW. If things go wrong with your SW tank expect to be paying big bucks. Maintaining a salt water enviroment is costly to.



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[somethingsfishy]

I'd say follow your heart. Most people begin fresh and go salt. I did. However my knowledge of fresh doesn't help me at all with salt. So I found a good forum to answer questions and googled everything else.

With that said, salt will cost a lot more to setup and maintain even if you take the inexpensive route.

 

[molliwopp]

Just look at some of these. Beautiful, no?

Sucessful fish keeping is all about the understanding of water chemistry and without any knowledge whatsoever its going to make things twice as difficult for SW.

Fresh water is different all over the world and inbalances are more forgiving where saltwater, anything out of wack has the ability to turn your tank upside down.

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[bribo12]

If you are gonna do salt I would not start with seahorses. They are quite demanding and really can't be housed with other fish. A nice fowlr would be a good starting place to do salt. Then once you get the hang of that upgrade the lights and get into easy corals.
Freshwater isn't boring. I love my fresh and salt tanks equally. Both can look amazing as well. You will have more options fish wise in freshwater than saltwater with a hex tank as well.

 

[steeb]

If you are gonna do salt I would not start with seahorses. They are quite demanding and really can't be housed with other fish. A nice fowlr would be a good starting place to do salt. Then once you get the hang of that upgrade the lights and get into easy corals.
Freshwater isn't boring. I love my fresh and salt tanks equally. Both can look amazing as well. You will have more options fish wise in freshwater than saltwater with a hex tank as well.

This is good input. I am limited on three major things - Space, Money and Experience. From what I see people have all kinds of setups with CO2, sumps, wet dry, spill over, skimmers etc. That wouldn't fit under this little stand so thats a reason to go with fw.

Will the eheim work for both sw and fw or would I need a different type of pump? Is there any other equipment required for keeping sw?

I realize water chemistry is everything, like oxygen and getting the perfect balance can be tough. As with all other endeavors if it was easy everyone would be doing it..

 

[bribo12]

It will work for salt but you will need to keep it very clean orbit will become a nitrate trap. For salt you will also need powerheads and a skimmer will make life easier.

 

[molliwopp]

This is good input. I am limited on three major things - Space, Money and Experience. From what I see people have all kinds of setups with CO2, sumps, wet dry, spill over, skimmers etc. That wouldn't fit under this little stand so thats a reason to go with fw.

Will the eheim work for both sw and fw or would I need a different type of pump? Is there any other equipment required for keeping sw?

I realize water chemistry is everything, like oxygen and getting the perfect balance can be tough. As with all other endeavors if it was easy everyone would be doing it..

It goes Deeper than just oxygen, seriously,notice i used a capital d.

What eheim filter do you have? All filter and powerheads can be used for both.

If youre worried about cost SW isnt for you. Realisticly a 60g tank is going to be in 4digits when you include equipment and fish and that doesnt include ongoing cost for ro water and minerals needed for remineralising the water. More importantly if you dont spend enough or get the equipment needed you and your tanks enviroment are at a serious disadvantage and is impossible without the basics. Maybe do alittle reaearch and get an idea of it and what it take to keep/set up a tank. Research cycling a tank and also the water chemistry involved with any aquarium.

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[Pimp My Fish]

I would definitely go fresh if your a beginner, not only is it less costly, but it is also easier to maintain. My 20 gallon fresh cost no more than 100 dollars to build while my 10 gallon salt cost more around 400+ to build. I'd say go fresh for now and once you get the hang of it try salt.You will probably save more money by just converting rather than starting with a salt and potentially crashing it.

 

[steeb]

I'm thinking of the EHEIM 2213 66gal filter. The aquarium is a 60gal hex so its tall. I'm going to go fw with fwlor. Probably ciclids. Will this filter be sufficient? Also can anyone recommend any LED lights to fit under the hood? I'd like it to rotate colors and such. Due to the tanks height the lights would have to be bright enough for the live rock or plants too.

 

[molliwopp]

Noway is the 2213 going to be enough unfortunatly it struggled with my 29g that i had. Realisticly yoyre looking at 2217 or a fluval 406 or another filter with those type of ghp ratings.

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[steeb]

Alright I'll get that beast then ty

 

[molliwopp]

Good on you. Youre in the right place with eheim classics though, They rock. Best filters ive owned.

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[fishyfriends3]

Eheim all the time every time. Beautiful fish btw molliwopp.

 

[steeb]

Noway is the 2213 going to be enough unfortunatly it struggled with my 29g that i had. Realisticly yoyre looking at 2217 or a fluval 406 or another filter with those type of ghp ratings.

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My tank is 60Gallons, i'm trying to figure out the filter size so I looked at EHEIMS site.. The data sheet shows the 2213 is for tanks up to 66gallons and will filter 116 gallons an hour.. Is this over rated ? How can they make claims and your 29g struggled against something thats recommended for more than double the size?
Model 2213 2215 2217
Aquarium Size 66 U.S. gal. 93 U.S. gal. 159 U.S. gal.
Pump Output 116 U.S. gal./h 164 U.S. gal./h 1264 U.S. gal./h