Starting new salt water acquarium (45 gallon)

[Firaymark]

Hoping to get some good advise on starting a salt water acquarium. I currently own a 45 gallon tank with all the accessories to get started. Please provide advise on setup of tank. What should I look for in testing my water? What sort of fish should I buy? Any advise would help. Thank you.

 

[Khij159753]

Well we need some background. By all the accessories do you mean equipment? Or live rock and sand ect?

As for fish. Do you want a fish only tank or a reef? Predator or community?

 

[Firaymark]

Well we need some background. By all the accessories do you mean equipment? Or live rock and sand ect?

As for fish. Do you want a fish only tank or a reef? Predator or community?

Yes, I have all the equipment to get started. I like to have live sand, live rocks, and community fish.
What is better to do live rocks or reef?
What water test should I be checking for my water?
I plan to use reverse osmosis water when I setup tank.

 

[audifusion]

basically just write a list of the following,


Lighting, what kind of system is it? ( metal halide, t5 , led) and rated output of lights and kelvin value (temperature of the light)

Pump- what kind of return pump, power rating/ output in gph( gallons pr hour)

skimmer details if you have one.

what do you want to have?

Fish only?
Fowlr( fish only with live rock)
Reef system

 

[audifusion]

the types of fish you can have depends on the aquarium size and whether or not you want a reef . With a tank that size, a community reef would be cool.

 

[Convict2161]

Welcome to the forum. You'll get more views if you start a build thread over at the saltwater section.

Good luck!

 

[Firaymark]

The tank size is 45 gallon. I plan to have live rock, live sand and fish. I dont plan to do reef. I am new to this and looking forward to building my rpotein skimmer over the holidays. I plan to drill two holes at the bottom of the tank to lead into the protein skimmer. Does anyone have any idea or links to helping me build my own protein skimmer? I have seen ones where the water leads into another small size tank and from there the water is returned back to the tank. Is there any instruction of how to build something like this?
I hope to get the tanks setup over the holidays and have it conditions for 6-8 weeks before I add any fish.

 

[Dmann]

What you are talking about is a sump. The overflows go to the sump, filters the water with bio balls or whatever other kind of biological filtration and then returned to the main tank by return pump. I'm not sure you can DIY a protein skimmer. Although I could be wrong, but don't think so. Also. If you try drilling holes in the bottom of your tank and its tempered glass, you are going to have a huge mess on your hands as well as ruin your tank. If your tank is not pee drilled for over flows then you might want to consider getting a hang on back overflow. Or gl*******s.com has kits to drill the back side.

I have a 180g tank and run a CPR overflow to my sump. I have no problems with that.
If your looking to build your own sump. You can look on YouTube. Search - build your own wet dry filter-

Hope I helped

 

[melosu58]

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

 

[Firaymark]

Well I just got back from the local acquarium store. They will be installing a large sump system in my cabinet. It has to be custom made to fit inside the wood cabinet. I should have it by this weekend. Once it's up and running I plan to add the live sand and live rocks and let the tank condition for 6 weeks or until the nitrate and ammonium levels are at zero. I also plan to use reverse osmosis water.
In regards to lighting, what sort of light should I use? I currently have a fluorescent 15 watt bulb. Should I buy a better lighting system? I plan to only have live rock, live sand and fish.

I am very excited to start my first salt water tank (45g). Any pointers will help. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Welcome to AA